Have We Hit Bottom in Monmouth NJ Real Estate?
The news media and recent reports from the National Association of Realtors may lead us to believe that we are coming out of the buyer’s market and seeing an increase in market activity. The stats in Monmouth County are not bearing that out.
Remember real estate is local, really local. Even though the overall numbers in Monmouth County may show one thing there will always be pocket of local real estate activity that may not show the same as the larger area.
Having said that, I will show hear some stats from my local MLS, the Monmouth Ocean MLS for all of Monmouth County. For statistics for a smaller area, contact me through my website at NorthernMonmouthHomes.com and will will provide you stats for more specific areas.
Here is a graph showing the number of homes sales per month for the last year. As you can see it doesn’t look that much different than last year. The real estate market is cylical and the spring summer cycle is generally an up cycle. So it is premature to think that because we are having increasing homes it automatically means we have hit bottom.
Notice that in July ‘08 the homes sales for that month were 449 and in July ‘09 there were 471. Not much of an improvement.
Let’s look at the inventory of homes on the market. Again the inventory rises and falls in seasonal cycles.
Number of homes available in Monmouth County in July ‘08 was 4603 and in July ‘09 it is 4637.
We all hope the bottom is near, but unfortunately the signs are not there yet. To make things worse there are likely more foreclosures that will hit the market in the coming months increasing inventory and effecting prices negatively.
All is not glum, however, house are still selling. In Monmouth County, as we saw in the first graph, hundreds of houses a month are selling. If you have a house to sell you need a real estate agent who knows how to get your house sold in any market. Don’t take chances by just picking any agent you come across, choose carefully.
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