Gordon & Christine Dey(850) 232-3948www.GordonAndChristine.com

Inventory remains at record levels and the percent of homes available for sale to homes sold was low with only 6.02% selling. There were 6,230 active listings with 859 new listings coming on the market in October while there were only 375 sales in October. It appears much of the market is still well overpriced as indicated by the record number of listings that FAILED TO SELL. They averaged $294,524 compared to homes that sold with an average sales price of $172,122. The median sales price was $147,000. With only 6.02% of the available inventory selling in October, sellers accepted on average $9,480 lower than their list price to get their homes sold and many agreed to pay much of the buyer’s closing costs which could be an additional $4,000 to $10,000 or more. This number is actually worse than it reflects as the last price reduction vs. the Seller’s initial list price was sometimes 30% higher and is not reflected in the LP/SP ratios. It appears Sellers putting their properties on the market in October understand it is going to take an aggressive pricing strategy along with aggressive marketing advantage to get their homes sold not just listed. These new sellers on the market have listed their homes on average, $67,042 lower than the average Active List price. Sellers that Sold in October averaged $122,402 lower than the average homes that Failed to Sell. Sellers need to have full service marketing exposure and the best price in their neighborhood to get their home sold as only 6.02% are selling. Listing high to test the market and dropping the price after a couple of months is not a good strategy in this declining value market as you will be chasing declining values each month. For buyers the market could never be better. A huge selection of fine homes to choose from, interest rates still at great levels and many motivated sellers making their properties available at lower prices and offering favorable terms. Sellers are having to compete with a new trend which in my opinion has contributed to our record number of foreclosures, the extremely high number of vacant homes for sale. In September 2,259 or 36% of the listed homes for sale that were previously occupied are now vacant. 167 of the Vacant Homes or 48% of the TOTAL Homes Sold in September were vacant homes showing buyers are looking for DEALS. Vacant home sellers are lowering their prices drastically and this is going to increase the declining market values. Currently Florida ranks 3rd in the nation for foreclosures. These vacant homes could quickly turn into more foreclosures and push values down further in the coming 3 to 6 months making the seller’s situation even worse than it is today. Many sellers have tried to rent but that market is saturated too causing rental rates to drop below their mortgage payments. For more details please review the following charts below.

Lastly the Banking crisis is likely to hurt sales further. Experts are now saying the real estate market may not recover until 2010 to 2012.

Exit Realty Advantage has Sold 36% more of it’s Listings Taken this year than Pensacola Association of Realtors Average (PAR)

Exit Realty Advantage Agents have saved their Sellers over $2,291 this year based on their Average List Price to Sales Price compared to the PAR Average.

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