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Real Estate Services by Jon Griffith

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Seeing Balance in Your Life

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There seems to be a natural balance to the universe that cannot be averted.  Although we spend many days of our lives wondering why we don’t have balance, the truth of the matter is, we do have balance, but we also have motion.  A see saw with two 50 lb children on either end is balanced, but it may not be level.  In fact, it may be moving up and down and up and down.  Given time they will slow to a stop and all motion will cease.  When one person on one end of the see saw pushes, what they’re doing is upsetting the balance by removing some of their weight just long enough for the other person’s potential energy to kick in and start moving downward.  As soon as the person on the down-side can no longer reach the ground and their full weight is restored to the see saw, then they are once again balanced, albeit in motion.

Our lives are constantly in motion, and one thing that I’ve noticed is that when we manipulate the scale of balance in our lives, whether emotionally, financially, or spiritually, the natural opposing forces will eventually cancel out our attempts and we’ll be returned to balance.

In the case of money, I experienced this first hand, today, as a result of a “push” on the see saw of my finances which happened last August.  I had forgotten about this single event, and the scale that was manipulated has finally come back to balance.  You see, I had borrowed money from myself, and had forgotten about it.

There is a consequence to every action we have which points to the fulcrum of the scale of balance in our lives.  If you borrow money from yourself, you will have to pay it back.  If you go up a staircase, you will have to come down.  You get the picture…I hope.

August Market Wrap Up

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August 2008, a mere 3 years since the height of our most recent over-inflated boom, has come to a close.

In August, we saw 5833 properties sell at an average sales price of $254,920. The average asking price on properties that sold in August was $245,818 and it took an average of 113 days for those to sell. Homes currently on the market have been so for approximately 94 days on average.

In the Rental market, we currently see a total of 8,905 properties available for lease. In August, 2030 properties were leased at an average rental asking price of roughly $1300/month.

We currently have 51,807 active listings on the MLS with 42,479 of those being Single Family Detached.  Last Monday, this number was at 43,705, representing a 2.8% decrease in the number of homes on the market.

The average sales price for the week ending 8/31/08 was up 14.79% to $280,430 and the number of homes sold in this same period almost doubled to 2110.  Keep in mind that statistics and business that we see recorded today is a result of market conditions and activity in the past.  That is what makes forecasting so difficult.  We never know what the future results of our current actions will be.

It’s taking about 109 days to sell a home across the MLS.  The average asking price fell slightly from the previous week to $408,001.

Market Statistics as of August 24th, 2008

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As of now, we have a total of 43,705 single family detached homes on the market.  Our total number of residential listings is at 52,542.  A total of 1053 properties sold between August 18th and August 24th 2008, which was down from the 1200 that sold the previous week.

The average asking price for this week was $409,037 while the average sales price was $238,943 which was a slight increase over the previous week.  It’s time for the market to correct.  Prices over the next 12 months are expected to increase gradually, but not at the rate that we would normally expect of our real estate economy.

We’re currently

at an average of 112 days on market with roughly 9 1/5 months supply of inventory overall.

Market Update as of August 18th

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As of the beginning of the week we had a total of 54,674 homes for sale, including all residential property types. By the end of the day on Sunday, our levels had dropped 1.6% to 53,767. The average asking price at the beginning of the week was $408,161 which increased less than one percent. Average days on market decreased by 5.1%.

1256 properties were sold over the past week which was 18.6% more than was sold the previous week. Word is getting out. It’s time to buy.

For properties that sold last week, the average asking price actually increased 2.83% over the previous from $241,098 to $247,941. The actual average SOLD price of the 1256 properties that sold last week was $237,968, 1.4% less than the previous week at $241,268. Those properties on average were on the market 116 days.