Over the past two weeks our listings saw 2.4 showings each (1.2/week). Last week was expectedly slower than this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday and the number of showings we saw was similar to the trend of the overall market according to Centralized Showings. We are officially inside the window of time between Thanksgiving and the New Year where the real estate market is typically slow as buyer priorities shift temporarily. For sellers, now is the time to expect slow traffic and just try to enjoy the season.
I’m still confident that activity in Charlotte is going to pickup in January. Our office has remained busy although contracts and sales are slow. Buyers are taking more time to make decisions, but they are still out there.
This morning I checked the current pending sales figures. The data reveals that pending home sales are down 33% over this time last year. However, the good news is that that percentage is the same as last month as opposed to a growing trend as in prior months. Since the subprime market news in August the change in pending home sales in Mecklenburg County has increased every month until now. We won’t be publishing Decembers stats for another two weeks, but for now I’m pleased to see that its not getting worse. Perhaps we have seen the bottom? Only time will tell.