Contributed by
Lynn Kimball
Meadows Mountain Realty
Highlands Real Estate Market Report for 2013
Usually it gets pretty quiet for real estate when the weather gets cold, but thanks in no small part to the Old Edwards Inn and Spa, weekends during November and December were packed with shoppers and those looking for a respite from the hustle and bustle of big cities. Thus, we continued to remain busy and productive through the end of the year.
As Realtors, we are often asked about the changes in the real estate market from year to year. I am passing on the statistics since 2008, thanks to Judy Michaud, Owner/Broker of Meadows Mountain Realty. These were taken from the Highlands-Cashiers MLS as of the end of December for Highlands Township single family residential sales:
Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013___
Number of sales 95 103 77 102 121 155
Days on market 294 1166 619 528 513 430
Median price $490,500 $550,000 $550,000 $440,000 $425,000 $399,000
Average price $676,757 $688,179 $679,078 $572,129 $565,586 $572,481
List to sale ratio 89.08% 87.29% 86.52% 86.68% 87.27% 88.21%
Foreclosures/ 0 11 8 27 29 20
Short sales
As you can see, although the number of sales are continuing to increase year over year along with the list to sale ratio, prices have not rebounded and actually the median prices have declined. We expect that this trend will continue until our inventory of unsold homes begins to decrease.
Following is the breakdown by price range for 2013 residential closed sales compared to 2012.
Highlands
$300K and under 52 39
$301K-$500K 48 30
$501K-$750K 21 30
$751K-$1M 13 4
$1M-$2M 16 18
$2M and over 5 0
Totals 155 121
In addition to the sales above, currently there are 13 homes which are either under contract or pending.
Looking back at our banner year of 2007, there were 165 sales with an average selling price of $815,580 and a median price of $550,000, with a 91.78% list to sale ratio and an average of 240 days on market. We have a long way to go with pricing to come even close to those numbers. I believe we have a couple more years of soft prices.
There were 32 land sales last year, with an average selling price of $221,391, average days on market of 572 and a list to sale ratio of 78.99%. There is one sale pending and 221 unsold homesites/acreage on the market.
There were 17 condominium sales last year at an average sales price of $309,559, average days on market of 614 and a list to sale ratio of 90.18%, There are 4 pending sales and 67 unsold condo listings on the market.
There were 20 foreclosure/short sales with 11 (6 homes and 5 home sites) on the market. Distressed properties are definitely on the decline as well.
Here are the numbers of current unsold residential listings by price range compared to the end of 2012:
Current Unsold Homes Unsold Homes end of 2012
$300K and under 69 65
$301K-$500K 120 121
$501K-$750K 74 64
$751K-$1M 66 64
$1M-$2M 67 72
$2M and over 26 30
Totals 422 415
The most important factor in selling a property today is to price it “right” in the market over the short term (6 months to a year), which means pricing competitively with other like unsold properties. The most important factor in buying a property today is to look over the long term before prices increase and interest rates rise even higher.
Lynn Kimball has 40 years of real estate experience, with 29 years serving the Highlands area. Whether you are interested in searching properties or comprehensive information about our area, you are invited to visit her user friendly website at www.signatureproperties-nc.com. Meadows Mountain Realty has two locations, at 41 Church Street in the Old Edwards Inn complex or visit Lynn at 2334 Cashiers Road across from Highlands Falls Country Club. Lynn Kimball can be reached at 828-421-8193 or by email at Lynn@MeadowsMtnRealty.com.
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