I hosted a seminar recently in Fords’ Colony that covered the most recent sales trends in Ford’s Colony. Home sales and home prices are always interesting and very useful information. Taken with a grain a salt, checking recent sales and comparing properties is as close as you can get to a “quarterly statement” on what could be your largest investment : your home. It is funny as I always hear people saying that they think that they are being “nosy” when they are curious as to what their neighbor’s home sold for, when in truth, you really should know the values around you. While you may not being selling your home right now, knowing the value of your home is just as important as knowing the value of your stocks/bonds or money market funds. The values of all certainly fluctuate but it is always good to know where you stand.
In our little corner of the world we have several items to contend with: the general state of the economy and housing, the end of the government tax credits and, finally, more specific to Ford’s Colony is the announcement on April 3, 2010 that the country club had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. I always emphasize that the country club and the home owners association of Ford’s Colony are two VERY DIFFERENT and UNIQUE entities. The HOA in Ford’s Colony is alive and well and functioning as a very strong and healthy congruent group.
I took sales in Ford’s Colony for the prior 12 months (June 2009- June 2010) and studied what had sold, how much had sold and compared those sales prices to the assessed values.( I always tell folks that assessed value and market value are two different animals, however, it is useful to see how those two figures compare.) SO for purposes of not getting too long on evaluating numbers, I will divide my findings into a couple of blog posts. There are few folks that enjoy looking at numbers we all just want the bottom line!
Grits and Grasshoppers:
So the first question how were sales during the past 12 months and what was the impact on sales from the April 3 country club bankruptcy filing?
The months supply of inventory in FC went from 28.8 months of inventory to 24.8 months of inventory in 2010. So- while not a fun number to see 2010 IS better than 2009. Here is the most interesting statistic from the Months Supply of Inventory: during the month of April 2010, the months supply of inventory declined to 11.4 and then in May 2010 it declined to 10.5. In April there were 12 homes that went under contract and in May there were also 12 homes that went under contract. June saw a huge drop to 5 homes under contract. Those are VERY important numbers as the country club announcement of the bankruptcy protection plan was made on April 3! The numbers immediately following that announcement were the best of the entire 12 month time period. We do have to consider the tax credit stimulus during those months also which, in the short-term anyway, certainly gave a jolt of energy to sales. The tax credit ended April 30,2010. Home buyers had to be under contract by the end of April to qualify. We saw a lot of buyers rushing at the end of the month to be under contract which resulted in a ‘trickle around’ effect in May as those month-end April sellers then became our May buyers.
Bottom line? Sales seem to be more affected by the TAX credit ending versus any perceived issues with the country club. This is good news in and of itself.
NEXT BLOG: ASSESSED VALUE TO SALES VALUES in Ford’s Colony
For more information here are the charts for you:
The graph is difficult to read: it does show the trend of sales over the 12 month time period. Inventory declined (albeit slightly) year over year. NEXT BLOG:ASSESSED VALUES TO SALES VALUES in Ford’s Colony
For more information on Ford’s Colony and other neighborhoods in Williamsburg, VA., please visit my website at www.PremierWilliamsburgRealEstate.com
