I’ve had this graph for a while and was planning to do something fancy with it with video but I’ve been too busy with clients. My schedule is super charged the next week so I’m just going to do it the old fashioned way.
Price (green line)
The median home price fell to $210,000 in March from $213,400 February. This during a time of year when prices often strengthen so draw your own conclusion.
It is certainly looking like the median home price may make most if not the entire correction by the end of 2008.
Sales (blue line)
March sales were blah which foreshadows blah sales for all of 2008. It looks, however, like April will be relatively strong which is a silver lining.
Listings (red line)
The lower median home price has not yet affected sales as buyers’ expectations are that prices will decline further.
On the other hand, the lower median home price is starting to have an effect on the inventory of homes for sale as potential home sellers are a lot less enthusiastic about selling their homes when the median home price is $210,000 rather than when the median home price is $250,000.
The number of listings available for sale fell 0.5% from mid-March to mid-April. Last year listings increased 7% over the same month.
And so the supply correction begins.
Conclusion
The lower median home price is not increasing the number of homes sold yet but it is decreasing the number of homes for sale.
“MLS Listings” are measured at one point in time, usually the 15th day of the current month. “Median Price” of homes sold and the total number of home “MLS Sales” are for the entire preceding month.