Last week I did my November monthly reports for Coralville and North Liberty. Today it’s Iowa City’s turn.  49 homes sold in Iowa City in November 2011 compared to 37 homes sold in November 2010. That’s a 32% increase compared to last year. That’s pretty good for the “quiet time” of the year.

The absorption rate has dropped to 5.0 months, that’s an average of 152 days on market. (6 months absorption rate is a balanced market). We probably shouldn’t take too much notice of that though. It’s possible that sellers have taken their homes off the market for the holidays and when they’re relisted in the new year the absorption rate will go up again. That said, home sales have been up in Iowa City every month for the last five months.  Past performance is often a good indicator to gauge future events so let’s stay optimistic and wait and see what 2012 brings us.

What’s the takeaway this month? The trend in the housing market in Iowa City is still positive, although buyers are looking for deals and putting a lot of pressure on prices.  I know that’s not intuitively obvious when you look at the table. It’s when you look at the list to sold price that you see that. The selling price of more than half the homes sold in November was less than 95% of the list price. Just in case that doesn’t make too much sense to you. An example would be if a house was listed at $100,000 and sold for $95,000 it would mean it sold at 95% of list price. A home listed at $200,000 that sells for $190,000 also sells at 95% of list price. Of the homes that sold above 95% of list price, only 2 sold at full price. I think that illustrates quite well how much pressure is being put on prices.

Okay, so every market is good for someone and this one continues to be good for buyers. Interest rates are at historic lows, (so much so that if you bought a home in the last couple of years you may want to contact your lender and ask about refinancing). New buyers will find that the low interest rate means they can afford more house.

For sellers it doesn’t look quite as rosy. The good news is that homes are selling. The trick is to price competitively and make sure your home “pops” for buyers. Also, remember if you’re upgrading to a bigger home or downgrading to a smaller one you too can look forward to getting a great new home at a good price and with a low interest rate!

If you’d like some help figuring out your options please give me a call. I’m here to help!

Iowa City Real Estate Market Report October 2011

Home Sales in Iowa City January through September 2011

Data for the November market report collected from the Iowa City MLS December 12, 2011

Time to bring some consistency into my market reports again after a hectic summer selling homes, followed by a hectic fall for me as I got all the pieces in place to start my own company. Generally my market updates start with Iowa City, the poster child of the area. This month I figure North Liberty deserves some extra attention, since that’s the area that gets the least attention when I’m busy. (There are logistical reasons for that due to how I’m able to pull data from the Iowa City MLS, but I won’t bore you with the details).

When I pulled the number of homes sold for this month in North Liberty I was surprised to see that there was no increase in home sales compared to last year. In fact the numbers are absolutely even – 19 homes sold in November 2011 and November 2010. Iowa City and Coralville both saw increases in November, hence my surprise. I’m sure this is just a glitch. I had a closing scheduled for November 30 that happened on December 1. Maybe there were a run of those. We’ll see at the end of the month!

Just to make things interesting this month and since I missed publishing a report last month I’m including October home sales in this market update. The number of homes sold was up in North Liberty in October with 26 homes sold in October 2011 compared to 21 sold in October 2010. That’s a pretty decent 19% increase in home sales compared to last year.

All in all home sales in the area continue to be strong. It’s good that homes are selling in North Liberty. It will be even better when the prices start to rise. At the moment the buyers are still in the drivers seat putting lots of pressure on prices.  It will be interesting to see whether that changes come spring.

Housing trends in North Liberty 2nd & 3rd Quarter 2011

Source for data: Iowa City MLS December 5, 2011