Tide-You-Over Stats

The last time I wrote about market stats was in July, covering stats through June.  I’m waiting for the sales for September to shake out and then I’ll do a 3rd quarter blog post, covering the info from all three months.

In the meantime, I noticed something in August, and did a little research…

In August of 2011, new homes comprised 34% of the sales.  That’s a HUGE chunk of the market to be new construction.

I got into real estate in 2004, and I always look at 2006 and 2007 as the building hey-day.  But apparently, I’m wrong!

Look at this – August #’s for each year –

2005 – 86.2 re-sale/13.8 new

2006 – 70.2 re-sale/29.8 new

2007 – 74.1 re-sale/25.9 new

2008 – 72.3 re-sale/27.7 new

2009 – 75.3 re-sale/24.7 new

2010 -67.4 re-sale/32.6 new

2011 – 66 re-sale/34% new

Look at last year and this year!  And that’s without federal stimulus money, too!  WOW!

So, what does this mean?  It means that if you want house, now is the time to get in on it, and this is why –

As more available land is taken up with housing, land becomes scarce.  When land becomes scarce, prices rise.  When you combine the current building boom with the current interest rates, housing is still terrifically affordable.  But if you wait until land becomes more scarce, even the greatest rates in the world (assuming they stay low, which we can’t really do) will not help you if the land is priced at too exorbitant a price.  This will make ALL existing housing more expensive, and make new ones all the more so, due to the scarcity factor.

Don’t buy if you can’t afford it, obviously.  But if you’re on the fence, now is the time to do it.