Charts and graphs are useful for observing trends. This article is the first in an on-going series intended to keep subscribers abreast of trends in the Cherokee County residential real estate market.  This article provides an overview of the single family residence sales activity.

The first two charts below tell the story of the Cherokee County home selling market for the last six years (which is as far back as they are tracked by the source of these figures, the First Multiple Listing Service). As you can see, sales leveled off in 2005 and started sliding in 2007, while the number of "new" listings continues to increase.

Unfortunately, the number of "new" listings may be somewhat misleading, because the statistic not only includes homes going on the market, but it also includes previous listings that have expired and are going back onto the market as a "new" listing. Similarly, many listings are withdrawn and subsequently relisted. FMLS does not supply annualized data on expired and withdrawn listings. 

The gap between active and sold listings is measured by the "Market Absorption Rate," which is simply the number of homes sold divided by the number of listings added to the FMLS during that period, expressed as a percentage. The following chart shows the market absorption rate for the last six years.  The significance of this statistic is the indication it provides of the market inventory.  An annual absorption rate of 50% means that the homes on the market at the end of a year would on the average take 6 months to sell, if there were no more listings during that period , which of course doesn’t happen.  So the value of the "Market Absorption Rate" is in in its indication of a trend, and at the beginning of 2008, the trend is not encouraging for sellers.

It may be helpful to zoom in on activity activity for last year for a closer picture of how the Cherokee County market is trending.  The following charts indicate the selling and new listing activity from January 2007 to January 2008.

These charts suggest that a lot of homes came off the market as listings expired during last few months of last year.  February will be more of a bellwether, since last year the Market Absorption Rate jumped in February.

Please be aware that the market activity can be broken down sectionally with Cherokee County as well as by neighborhood.  If you are planning to sell your home this year, then I will be glad to track the market activity for your neighborhood as well as for homes in the area comparable to yours. Please visit my website, www.YourCherokeeCountyHome.com, and click on "Your Home’s Value" for a customized report.

If you are thinking of buying a home in Cherokee County be the first to know when homes that match your criteria come on the market by registering for the "Dream Home Finder" service on my website, www.YourCherokeeCountyHome.com.

The next article in the series will provide similar information on condos. . Subscribe to this blog to keep up-to-date on Cherokee County Real Estate. If you have any questions, feel free to post them on this site, or contact me by phone (770.546.LENI) or via e-mail.

jules@julesleni.com

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