Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - Statistics and More Statistics

Yesterday, I promised some more statistics on the market in Prince George's County.

A year ago September, we had a measley 1700 properties on the market. September 2006 - just shy of 3700. This means you, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, have way more competition than you did last year and the year before. To make matters worse, the number of houses that are actually getting contracts has been dropping steadily since last March.

So, in September 2005, we had around 1700 listings and 1200 ratified contracts.

In September 2006, we had almost 3700 listings and only 900 ratified contracts. That's a staggering 118% increase in the number of houses for sale and a 14% drop in ratified contracts. And it is in this atmosphere that sellers are asking higher and higher prices.

That math just doesn't work. So no wonder it's taking longer to sell a house!

Tomorrow - What's A Seller To Do?

(C) 2006 Susan Pruden.