The following was recently published by the Lancaster County Association of Realtors in the September 2008 edition of "House Calls".  This article is reprinted with the permission of LCAR.  I felt that you as clients may find the information of interest.

According to a report released today by the Lancaster County Association of Realtors® (LCAR), 437 homes sold in July, a 25.2 percent decrease from the 584 homes that sold in July of 2007. The five-year average of homes sold in July is 546. For the first seven months of 2008, there have been 2,770 sales, a 20.5 percent decrease from the 3,485 sales during the same period of 2007.

The $192,075 average sale price for July is a 6.5 percent decrease from the July 2007 price tag of $205,533. July 2007 is LCAR’s highest single month average sale price on record. In July of 2007, 27 homes sold at $400,000 and above; in July of 2008, there was nearly a 50 percent decrease in this price range to 14 homes. The five-year average sale price for the month of July is $188,028. In July of 1998, the average sale price of a home in Lancaster County was $122,538, a 56.7 percent increase.

The median sale price for July of 2008 is $179,900 versus $184,900 for July of 2007 (half of the properties sold during this period sold above that number, and half sold below). For the first seven months of 2008, the median sale price is $174,900 compared to $175,000 during the same time period in 2007.

New residential listings for July decreased 11.4 percent from 808 in 2007 to 716 in 2008. The average number of new listings for the month of July over the last five years is 747.

“Even though sales this year are lower than last year, there are still some bright spots in the market,” said LCAR president, Jeff Funk. “Compared to national statistics, we are doing very well in Lancaster County year-to-date with an average sale price decrease of under 3 percent. Another factor that points to a healthy market is that 64 percent of the homes that sold in July of this year did so in 60 days or less.”

Note: All 2008 statistics in this issue are from FlexMLS as of August 28, 2008.

Jeremy Ganse - Realtor, ePRO

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Kingsway Realty, Inc. - Lancaster PA
jeremy.ganse@kingswayrealty.com
www.jeremyganse.com / www.kingswayrealty.com
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