We Love Northwood Hills!
Let me start by reminding you that I am an eternal optimist! I was pleasantly surprised to see for the first time in four years, Northwood Hills had an increase in home sales in 2009! In 2006 we had eighty homes sales, approximately seventy in 2007, and forty-one in 2008. The total number of sales in 2009 in Northwood Hills was forty-nine. Additionally, the Days on the Market fell from 141 in 2008, to 131 in 2009. Conversely, the average sales price was $437,472, as compared to $533,753 in 2008, with the average dollars per foot falling accordingly, from $143.60 to $123.31.
What can we make of all these numbers? I think I speak for most real estate professionals when I tell you 2009 was filled with drudgery. No aspect of our industry was easy. Lenders continued to tighten requirements, buyers acted like it was a buyers’ market, sellers wanted sellers’ market prices and to make matters worse, there were appraisal problems.
The one bright spot was the tax credit for first time home buyers, and you didn’t even have to be a first-time buyer, provided you hadn’t purchased in the last three years. Given these dynamics, it is easy to understand why the current picture looks like it does in Northwood Hills. The lower end homes were more likely to be perceived as values, the tax credit stimulated that market and the homes in our neighborhood at the lower end of the range were more likely to sell. Of the forty-nine sales last year, sixty-three per cent were valued below $425,000, or likely to be financed with conforming money, either FHA or Conventional loans, or cash.
In the second half of the year, we saw the mid-range to upper end homes start to sell. Eighteen of our homes sold between $443,500 and $1,400,000. Also, we had just six distress sales, down from eleven just two years ago.
All in all, Northwood Hills is poised for a good 2010. Our neighborhood has thirty-two homes on the market, two actives with contingencies, meaning, they homes are under contract, but something else needs to be satisfied, before they will be listed as pending, and two pending sales. The active listings range in value from $210,000 to $1,499,000, with no heavy concentration in any one value range.
With this in mind, I propose the following toast: “Here’s to the Spring market! May the buyers be plentiful!” For more information on activity in Northwood Hills, contact Judy Switzer, Broker Associate, at 214-801-7273 (cell).
