Again, my apologies for not posting these numbers in March, but when you think "all" of your personal and business data may be lost you can get distracted. Yesterday, The National Association of Realtors said pending U.S. home sales fell in February to the lowest reading since the index began in 2001. Since all Real Estate like politics is local, let’s look at how the Metro Richmond area (i.e., City of Richmond and the suburban counties of Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico and Powhatan) have fared so far this year. Below are the area sales for single family homes by price range and units through February 2008 with a comparison to the same period of 2007.

February YTD 2008 2007
Price Range  # of Sales % of Ttl Sales # of Sales % of Ttl Sales
0 – 99,999 49 4.77% 90 5.45%
100,000 – 199,999 324 31.52% 547 33.11%
200,000 – 299,999 340 33.07% 533 32.26%
300,000 – 399,999 162 15.76% 244 14.77%
400,000 – 499,999 59 5.74% 108 6.54%
500,000 – 599,999 42 4.09% 56 3.39%
600,000 – 699,999 19 1.85% 26 1.57%
700,000 – 799,999 8 0.78% 18 1.09%
800,000 – 899,999 11 1.07% 8 0.48%
900,000 – 999,999 0 0.00% 10 0.61%
1 Million plus 14 1.36% 12 0.73%
Total Sales/Pct. 1028 100.00% 1652 100.00%

How’s that 37.8 DROP in unit sales grab you? Pretty sobering, isn’t it. With less unit sales, our inventory levels continue to rise. Less unit sales, less absorption, longer days on market. Good news is the percentage of sales by price range remains consistent as does our dollar per square foot costs. I’ll post March’s comparison later today, but for now the golf course calls.