January is never a peak real estate season in South Bend, and the 182 residential sales / $17,188,951 in sales volume for the month is lower than the numbers we saw in all of 2007.  My personal experience has been of increased activity since the last few months, but the numbers aren’t yet bearing that out for the area as a whole.

Here are the statistics. As always, the figures for the condos and townhouses should be considered a rough guide only. There is great overlap and confusion between the two categories (My working definitions: condos = pieces of a building divided into more than two units / townhouses =  freestanding houses or duplexes with a maintenance plan).  To further cloud the issue, some complexes have more units available than are listed in the mls (North Douglas) and others that are listed in the mls are not certain to be built (those in the JMS building). If you need help understanding the market, buying or selling, I’d welcome your calls. Nick / 574-309-3758 / nick@realst8.com

Houses Listed as of 2/1: 2,234
Houses Sold 1/1 – 1/31: 174
Low price sale: $2,200
High price sale: $627,500
average price sale (mean): $91,201
average price sale (median): $73,000
About 8% of listed houses sold this month.

Townhouses/Condos Listed as of 2/1: 113
Townhouses/Condos Sold 1/1 – 1/31: 4
Low price sale: $95,000
High price sale: $325,260
average price sale (mean): $188,990
average price sale (median): $167,850
About 4% of listed townhomes/condos sold this month.

Villas Listed as of 2/1: 67
Villas Sold 1/1 – 1/31: 3
Low price sale: $116,000
High price sale: $224,000
average price sale (mean): $155,667
average price sale (median): $127,000
About 4% of listed villas sold this month.

4 Responses

  1. This decline is most probably due to the tightened lending standards and mirrors what is happening across the country. Activity may be up, but ability to buy is down, hence actual closings are down. The market has swung toward renting for those at the margin in buy versus rent camp with the current declining market and tighter lending standards.

  2. Are those numbers correct?!?!

    That would be around a 25.2% drop in number of homes sold compared to January 2007 and a dollar sales drop of 37.5%? That is on top of the 2006 to 2007 double digit drops!

    This does not bode well for the economy…

  3. I knew that Woodbridge Villa project wasn’t going well. According to the newspaper:
    http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/News01/441684269&template=247art

    There was misspending of money. Not sure how they can trace the money from A to B exactly since a wedding, kitchen remodel, and hiking trip doesn’t sound like some mastermind crime here. Seems more like a civil matter than a criminal one……trumped up charges is what I thought when I read it. Regardless, it explains some of the delays unless of course the bad housing market required him to make draws to get by???? Chicken and the egg thing. My bet is the bad housing market (and not the best projects too) were the cause. Disgruntles investors probably just guaranteed no payback by making it a “criminal” matter. Mismanagement isn’t a crime…..investors should always know what they are investing in.

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