Mobile Real Estate MLS Statistics and Trends - October 2007

The table below contains statistics extracted from the Mobile Area Association of Realtors MLS Data reflecting sales data as of September 2007. The spreadsheet will not fit in the window. You can use the scroll bar on the bottom of the spreadsheet to see the data on the right of the screen. Click on the tabs to see the different types of analysis - Units Sold, Median Sales Price, Units Available, Days on Market, and Absorption Rate which reports the number of months supply of homes available.



In summary, September showed a drop of 22% in number of units sold in Mobile County. This trend was also apparent at the time last year. In looking at median sales price, the sales price of a home in Mobile County has taken a drastic turn down in past two months. The statistics show a drop of $18,000. The statistics still show an increase of $3000 when compared to December of 2005. The statistics show that there was a drop in median sales price last September and then it went up again in October. Next month's report will be monitored to see if median sales price increases like it did last October. The Mobile area inventory level has doubled since December of 2005. The inventory level at that time were depleted as a result of the migration of people moving here after Hurricane Katrina and the demand on the local real estate market that the storm created. The Days on Market of 59 days is a great number when compared to other parts of the country. The number has been pretty steady in Mobile County for the last 2 years. Absorption Rate is calculated by taking the number of homes available and divide it by the number of homes sold. The absorption rate result for September is the highest that is has been in over 2 years. Based on the number of 8.35 months number, Mobile can be considered a buyer's market because most professionals consider the threshold to be 7 months.

The next few months will be interesting. We feel that the sales numbers in the next few months will be down because traditionally that is what we have seen in the Mobile real estate market. The tightening of the mortgage approval process should logically reduce the number of potential buyers as well. There are a number of new industries coming to Mobile. There is also many existing companies that are expanding their existing operations. The employment picture in Mobile is very bright. I do not see the effect of the of the business expansion on Mobile until after the first of the year.

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