Several months ago, I wrote a blog about the Southwood Subdivision in Tallahassee. Back then, I reported that home prices were dropping and heading towards the “pre boom” levels that we saw in 2005. I thought it might be interesting to see a quick update on what is happening in Southwood three months later.

The first thing that I saw when I pulled information from the Tallahassee Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was that Beazer homes was the seller in 33% of the Southwood home sales in the past 12 months. When I took into account all the new construction sales, new homes sales in Southwood represented roughly 1 in every 2 homesales. That does not bode well for a subdivision that has nearly 16 months of supply of homes on the market already.

Current	3 Months Ago

The graph on the left was created from Tallahassee MLS information about an hour before I posted this. The graph on the right was made about three months prior. Here are a few observations that I find disconcerting for people who have a home for sale in Southwood in Tallahassee:

• Sold price per square foot has dropped at an annualized rate of 15% since March (brown shaded area in each graph)
• Homes for Sale in Southwood have seen their average asking price drop at an annualized rate of 10% since March
• Homes that have “Failed to Sell” have seen an average asking price drop of at an annualized rate of 8% since March
• More homes are on the market (up 21% in just three months–> annualized rate of 85%!)
• Fewer homes are selling (down an annualized rate of 11%)
• Sold price per square foot is dropping, yet new homes are a larger percentage of the market

That final point is one the bears close scrutiny. If Beazer is delivering homes at a lower price per square foot than previous builders, won’t that mean that resale home values are dropping as well? I will keep a close eye on Southwood and report back again in the future.

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Joe Manausa is a real estate investor and the Broker and Co-Owner of Century 21 First Realty. He can be reached via e-mail through the Tallahassee Real Estate Website or catch his latest writings on the Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog , or by calling (850) 386-2001.