December Residential Sale Statistics

The Tucson Association of Realtors has released the Residential Sales Statistics for November. Average sale price increased 3.8% from October to $182,539, and increased 15.2% from a year ago. There were 994 sales, a 2.1% decline from a year ago. We are in the seasonal sales slump, and should see more motivated buyers in January.  Number of active listings declined 14.7% since November 2011 to 4,430, but has been increasing since reaching a low of 3,474 in June.

While only 8% of the active listings as of today are short sales, they accounted for 15% of the sales in November. Foreclosures account for 12% of the listings on the market today, but 25% of the sales in November were foreclosures.

Of the 583 listings that sold for under $150,000 in November, 20% were short sales and 35% were foreclosures. Today, only 5% of the active listings are short sales, and 8% are foreclosures. Foreclosures generally sell for considerably under market value, but short sales tend to sell close to market value, so the predominance of distressed sales is sort of baffling.

I don't know about everyone else, but December is looking like the best month I have had since 2005.