Of special note is the downward movement of the number of months to absorb existing inventory. While there is a strong seasonal trend of fewer homes listed in the winter, the decreasing inventory seems to indicate that some sellers are finding other ways to deal with their inability to sell their property. Some are in long term rental arrangements and possibly others are just staying put and will try to weather the storm. And an unfortunate few are in some mode of foreclosure or will be soon if things don’t improve for them. This could be a question of their employment not providing as much income as in past years, plus the strong urge to save money just in case things change. You can find many a retail business that has seen sales decrease, as people are more careful with their money and expenditures. Saving money is the new thing, which was the old thing we forgot all about when we expected our homes would always grow in value. What would our grandparents say?
The concept of foreclosure is known to many New Mexican homeowners, but in such small numbers that we hardly rate a mention in any national story. An esteemed lending colleague recently sent out his newsletter mentioning the huge numbers of foreclosures in other states (California and Florida had well in excess of 400,000 each last year) and was thankful that New Mexico had only slightly over 7000 last year. That is well below 2% of the foreclosures in the states mentioned. Another reason to be thankful we live in New Mexico!
This monthly offering is much shorter than usual (some are happy about that) due to some constraints on my schedule. Normally, you would get a thousand words and a chart. Some loyal readers tell me they only look at the numbers anyway. And there are some bright spots in those rows and columns of numbers. In addition to the reduced inventory, the single month of January 2010 saw a 58% increase month over month compared to January 2009. We have already thanked the first time home buyers tax credit law and can certainly do so again. Does that account for the increase? That is difficult to say. I am not aware of a database that would answer that question with any certainty.
FEBRUARY 2010 NEWSLETTER
Attached is the new look Absorption Rate spreadsheet with data thru the end of January 2010. Of special note is the downward movement of the number of months to absorb existing inventory. While there is a strong seasonal trend of fewer homes listed in the winter, the decreasing inventory seems to indicate that some sellers are finding other ways to deal with their inability to sell their property. Some are in long term rental arrangements and possibly others are just staying put and will try to weather the storm. And an unfortunate few are in some mode of foreclosure or will be soon if things don’t improve for them. This could be a question of their employment not providing as much income as in past years, plus the strong urge to save money just in case things change. You can find many a retail business that has seen sales decrease, as people are more careful with their money and expenditures. Saving money is the new thing, which was the old thing we forgot all about when we expected our homes would always grow in value. What would our grandparents say?
The concept of foreclosure is known to many New Mexican homeowners, but in such small numbers that we hardly rate a mention in any national story. An esteemed lending colleague recently sent out his newsletter mentioning the huge numbers of foreclosures in other states (California and Florida had well in excess of 400,000 each last year) and was thankful that New Mexico had only slightly over 7000 last year. That is well below 2% of the foreclosures in the states mentioned. Another reason to be thankful we live in New Mexico!
This monthly offering is much shorter than usual (some are happy about that) due to some constraints on my schedule. Normally, you would get a thousand words and a chart. Some loyal readers tell me they only look at the numbers anyway. And there are some bright spots in those rows and columns of numbers. In addition to the reduced inventory, the single month of January 2010 saw a 58% increase month over month compared to January 2009. We have already thanked the first time home buyers tax credit law and can certainly do so again. Does that account for the increase? That is difficult to say. I am not aware of a database that would answer that question with any certainty.
Alan Ball, Southwestern Title Co.