Is The Real Estate Market Really Improving?

There are many indicators that are tell tale signs of whether the market is improving, days on the market, average sales price, sales to list price ratio and housing inventory levels. Housing inventory levels I believe are a key indicator. So how do you know whether the housing inventory is normal in your geographic area? The National Association of Realtors (NAR) indicates that normal inventory levels are 3.6% of the total markets occupied housing units. In the Palmer Wasilla area of Alaska there are 21,015 single family occupied housing units. Using NAR’s indicator of 3.6% a normal inventory level in our area would be 756 homes for sale. As of October 29, 2008 there are 2078 homes on the market for sale. That means we have a ways to go yet before our market is back to normal. But as I have indicated before, there are some price ranges within our market that have normal inventories already. So don’t let the overall number mislead you. If your home is valued at less than $245,000 there is good news. Almost all of the price ranges below $245,000 show a very normal housing market. If you have questions about your home, contact me at Kristan@KristanCole.com