As you should know by now, I report market conditions monthly for the Greater Richmond area to Realty Times. Here are my comments for January:

            Sorry for my delay in posting my Market Conditions report for January ’08. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post (if you don’t subscribe to my blog, www.blog.bricksmith.com, there is frequent additional market information on the Greater Richmond VA Real Estate Market), I have been busy but not productive. Busy? How can you be busy, Brick? Everyone knows the Real Estate Market is in the crapper. When are you going to wake up and acknowledge the true conditions out there?
 
Well, sorry to disappoint everyone, but there is a glimmer of hope out there. Yes, closed sales for January ’08 were down over 34 % from January a year ago. Not such a stellar start for 2008, but “pending properties” were twice their previous month’s number and the highest number since August of 2007. (“Pendings” are properties placed under contract to close/settle in the near future.) There is no question the market is bottom driven with over 70 % of the activity occurring under the $300,000 price point. Actually, 90 % of the activity is under $ 500,000. Across the board, the average sales price for January declined although the dollar per square foot cost numbers remained unchanged. The same can be said for my Sale Price/List Price Ratio, which showed the Greater Richmond Area trading with only an average 2 % discount off the list price. My hoped decrease in inventory levels vanished in January, as active listings increased 4.7 % from the previous month returning the total number of active properties for sale over the 12,000 threshold again. Last year, the active inventory high level was slightly more than 12,600, so the inventory number will need to be closely monitored as we go forward in the year.
 
            As mentioned earlier, I have been busy. I have plenty of buyers that I am working with; and I am simply amazed at the choices available to them. Everywhere and at every price point, there is an excellent choice of product and it’s in abundance. Currently, a buyer has the option of “shopping” his offer, which means when an offer is made on his “preferred” property; the listing agent is strongly reminded that any of the competing properties also work for this buyer. It then becomes a matter of finding out who is the most motivated seller.
 
My broken record and past post from the last few months will once again be repeated: “For buyers, either entering the market for the first time or who have their existing home under contract, welcome to a true BUYERS’ MARKET. The selection of properties is simply UNBELIEVABLE. “MUST SELL” situations are everywhere and some of the best deals in years will be had while these inventory levels are elevated. So call me, let’s go find one of those incredible bargains while we can.”
I also report statistics (i.e., average sales price, sales price to list price ratio, median sales price, days on market, average size, and average dollar per square foot costs) for various submarkets (i.e., Chesterfield, Glen Allen, Mechanicsville, and Midlothian.) If you have an interest in these stats, you may find them here.  You will need to scroll down beyond the generic introduction. (Please note that I have been blogging many of these statistics as I compile them each month, so you may want to check previous posts for that information.)
I am now experimenting with YouTube to deliver some of my repeated messages to my clients, here is Video Log of this report.