I still kind of chuckle to myself when I think of the chart I first saw in June which showed a precipitous drop in contracts written in May. For the first four months of 2010, we were still being buoyed by the Homebuyer’s Tax Credit. But in order to qualify, you had to be under contract by April 30th. So in May, we had less than half the number of houses go under contract than we had had the month before. It looked scary on paper.
However, the remainder of the year showed the perfect response to that kind of drop.
Every month thereafter (except for November an December), under contracts were nice and steady, varying just a bit. The reason November and December dropped more than usual is that it snowed Thanksgiving Day weekend, which NEVER happens, and so people tend to hunker down at home instead of look at new places to live.
All in all, 2010 was a very good year for the Tri-Cities. Our average sale amount was higher than in the past, and our total sales were in the very respectable 3,000 range.
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