More 2006 Year End Data

The next installment in our look back at the local real estate market with final 2006 figures will be our look at how the market performed each month compared to the same month in the prior year.  Click on the image at the left for a large look at the Median Single Family Home sales presented in this manner. The media is fond of quoting the changes in the median prices using this comparison method.  Looking at January 2006, which showed a little residual upward momentum, and forecasting what January 2007 will most likely look like, one can only hope that the newsies do not choose these figures (or even a quarter that includes January) for one of their beloved banner headlines touting the end of the world as we  know it.  The good news is that even if they do, it will take them the better part of one to two months to get the story out,  and by this time, our customers will have already received the newest information. Looking back may make great headlines and sensational news stories, but for those of us  that are involved in real estate day to day, and need to make timely and effective decisions on pricing, we need to have ACCURATE and TIMELY  information on what the market is doing, and that is just what our exclusive reports provide.  

Some appraisers are saying that with the recent slowdown in the number of sales, and the attendant dearth of valid comparable properties, they are going back a bit farther that they would normally to find good com parables and factoring the market conditions into their opinions of value.  As you can see by clicking on the image to the right, sales are tracking at about 1/2 of the volume of our market in "normal" times, which we can see when we look at 2002 and 2003 numbers here. 

But the real value to our tracking is our ability to break down the statistics for individual MLS areas, (remember, Venice has 34 total areas, which we show in the above graphics).  The Venice market has something for everyone, from exclusive waterfront property to manufactured homes from the 1950's and vacant land.  Even relying on the overall Venice market performance can be misleading when one is narrowing their search to a specific area.  The sample graphic shown here compares the overall Venice market with the areas of South Venice Beach, (V92,V93 and V94) which comprise the area west of Tamiami Trail to the Gulf of Mexico, from Shamrock Drive in the north, to South Venice Blvd in the south, an area that many buyers find attractive.  As you can see, South Venice 'out-appreciated' the overall market in 2 of the last 3 years, and has now given a bit of that back in '06.  The good news for those of us who so love explaining to our customers what the media is trying to say is that the media will not make this distinction in MLS areas, the bad news is that many sellers do not want to acknowledge it when we attempt to educate them to the realities of the market.  I am afraid that there are too many hungry, and I mean that literally, not motivation wise, Realtors that will continue to take overpriced listings.  We have declined to take some listings over the past year where we were the agents of choice, but the sellers were not willing to list at the price we suggested.  The sad part is that I know of several who are now on the market for significantly less that even we originally suggested, and they are finally getting some attention from buyers.  Even sadder (for all of us)  is that had they listened to us originally, they would almost certainly (in two cases definitely)  been sold and moving on with their lives.  They are making decisions that end up costing them much, much more in carrying costs than the 'loss' they perceived they would take if they went with us . 

Go Gators!

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