Sept 2009 Home Sales – South Walton, FL

Median Sold Price is Down, While Sales Are Up!!!

by murray balkcom, GRI, Realtor
murraybalkcom@yahoo.com
Coldwell Banker United, Realtors

There are several factors which help analyze the local real estate market. Median price is probably the best indicator of pricing trends. Also, we tend to look at quantity of sales, as well as total dollar volume. Let’s not forget inventory vs sales. On top of that, we can compare this month’s sales to last month’s sales, or last year, same month sales. Don’t get cornered into looking at any of these factors as your sole guide to know where we are in the market.
In Sept 2009, in the entire area of South Walton, for single family detached homes we saw the following.

Quantity of sales increased 24% over August.
Total dollar sales volume remained relatively unchanged.
Median sold price decreased 13% from August.Median Sold Price – Homes in South Walton

Comparing to previous years, Sept 2009 looked rather strong, with quantity of sales looking more like September 2005 (which was near the market peak). However, median sold price and total dollar volume are no where close to those numbers of 2009. Why? Supply has much to do with it. Currently, our supply of properties available are near three times the amount of listings we had in 2004-early 2005. With supply high, sellers are having to compete with each other in order to make a sale. We saw 68 sales in Sept, which is good, but when you put that number beside the 1629 listings for homes, you get a better perspective and can see why median price has fallen.
37% of the home sales in Sept were cash sales.

The sales data in my report is primarily compiled from Emerald Coast Association of Realtors and thought to be reliable, but not guaranteed.