January 29, 2010 Real Estate Market Report
I. Market Report - All Residential.
A. Week-to-Week Under Contract. For the week ending January 29, 2010, 39 residential listings were placed under contract by Columbia area agents. Of these, 28 have Columbia mailing addresses. This compares to 22/14 respectively for the prior week, which is an increase of 77% overall.
B. Month-over-Month Closed Sales 2010 vs. 2009. In January 2010, we closed 80 residential sales. That compares to 65 in January of 2009 for an increase of 23%.
C. Year-over-Year Closed Sales Last 12 Months. From Feb 1, 2009 to Jan 31, 2010, we closed 2,126 residential sales. That compares to 2,076 for the same period a year ago, which is an increase of 2.4%.
D. Absorption Rate. In the past 12 months 2,126 homes have sold and closed. Dividing by 12 months, you get 177.2 homes per month for that period. There are currently 1,272 homes on the market. If we divide 1,272 by 177.2, that's an absorption rate of 7.2 months, meaning that is the length of time it would take the market to absorb those homes at the current rate. Last month, if you recall, we had a 6.8. This month, the absorption rate is 6% longer than last month.
II. Citizen Participation in Local Government as it Affects Home Values.
In our busy lives, we become accustomed to electing officials and then pretty much leaving them alone to make all the decisions. We seldom make phone calls, send letters or even canned e.mails to our national, state, or local representatives. Many of us no longer subscribe to a newspaper, or even watch the 10:00 news on TV. Our only participation in the decision process is to complain at the water cooler about what has happened after it is too late to do anything about it.
At the City and County levels, however, we have the unique opportunity to band together with like-minded individuals or call upon pre-existing organizations, or to go as individuals on a weeknight and look these unpaid citizen volunteers in the eye and, for 3 minutes, provide our unique perspective on an issue which affects us.
The reluctance to do so has resulted in rule by the minority, where the passionate fringe is able to convince our City Council that they are the majority. After all, their contingent came out on a cold night while the majority of regular folk are either working a double shift or home giving the kids baths and putting them to bed. Consciously or unconsciously, the message received is, "Since they are not here, they must not care."
In the past year, bicyclists prevailed in getting an ordinance passed which specifically makes it a crime to "harass" a bicyclist, even though there is no corresponding crime associated with harassing a person in a wheelchair, on foot, on a motorcycle or in a car--only if you are riding a bicycle (even if you are breaking traffic laws while you are doing it).
Now comes the "Chicken Ordinance." Many of those who did know about this considered it so ludicrous as not to warrant serious attention (remember Mayor Hindman's idea of having grass growing on the roof of the new city building? Because of attention in the media and good sense, it was laughed out of consideration). However, even with Jerry Wade, Jason Thornhill, and Laura Nauser voting against it, the Council passed an ordinance allowing chickens in backyards inside the city limits. Only one homeowner and the Columbia Board of REALTORs spoke in opposition. The rest of the council remained unconvinced that chickens in your neighbors back yard could actually keep you from selling your house, or cause it to sell for much less than market value. Even if buyers do not notice the noise, smell, lack of grass or the chickens themselves, sellers will now be required to specifically disclose their presence in writing on a revised Seller's Property Disclosure Form, which has already grown to 6 pages just to try to keep us all out of court.
I tried unsuccessfully to utilize my 30 years as a Certified Residential Specialist to present the delicate nature of a sale and how conditions which do not bother the current owner will cause a prospective purchaser (who is about to invest his or her life savings into the largest purchase of their lifetime) to move on because of any condition which is perceived to be out of the ordinary and may cause them to have trouble when the time comes for them to re-sell it. Our last client said no less than 3 times: "This is exciting--but it is scary!" This not only causes financial hardship when a seller cannot accept a promotion, the family is divided because one spouse moves on while the other remains behind to sell the house, or in some cases they have to bring cash to the closing just to be able to sell for a loss. Somehow, the prospect of fresh eggs won out over the very real pain which some families have been experiencing in this worst Recession since the Great Depression.
This is the same Council which voted down cameras in high-crime areas that our own Police Department requested because it somehow infringes upon the rights to privacy of the muggers, thieves and rapists. If you believe, as I do that political correctness is causing the City Council to get more and more out of touch with the ordinary citizens who are trying to keep their jobs, pay their taxes and obey the laws, there is an election coming up. As a minimum, please express your opinion in your vote. Secondly, please keep an eye on the local news and don't assume that just because an idea makes no common sense, that the Council won't pass it just because there was no one there to speak up.
