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Tucson MLS Statistics for January 2008

February 27, 2008

The February 2008 clock is ticking down. We have had some fun over at the Tucson AZ Real Estate blog counting up the closed transactions for the month of January and the trickle in approach to getting data in the system for reporting purposes. The threat of a fine up to $15,000 seems to impacted a few, but not enough.

The report for January shows 594 closed transactions for January and all news publications have used this figure. But has of right now in February 27, 2008 the Tucson MLS is showing 617 closed transactions. This is 3.87% of the closed transactions which were missed in the reporting for January 2008. It might sound like a small precentage but when we are calling Arizona home-price slide picks up it’s pace and Tucson is down 0.01% which is one tenth of one percent. It makes 3.87% look like a gapping hole in the reporting the size of that famous canyon to the north of Tucson.

Tucson MLS Statistics December 07 - January 08 Summary

As they say on Market Watch, “Let’s Do the Numbers”

Average Sale Price is up in January by $6,254. Almost making up the difference between the loss between Nov. and Dec. of 07. This average changes easily when you have this few sales and a couple of million dollar + transactions can quickly make the difference up or down from month to month. Still it is nice to see it staying around the $266,000 mark.

Total Units Sold down considerably, but still above 600 when you count actual vs. reported. See first paragraph above.

Median Sale Price down again from $210,000 to $203,000 in January. It means some home sale prices are coming down, it also means homes in the lower price bracket made of more transactions for the month.

Pending Contracts shot up by 280 over December with 1079 reported for January 2008.

Total Pending Contracts 1079
Total Contingent 728 (probably in their inspection period)
Total Capa 53 (Buyer has to sell their home first)
Total Pending 298 (No contingencies, through inspection but not yet closed)

Active Listings jumped up by 480 over December with 9,168 actives. Remember December was down because of the holidays and people having company and not wanting to be showing their home at the time. Also there were a number of listings expiring in December and sellers took a little break. Now they are back in/on the market.

New Listings took a huge jump as expected with 3,744 new listings which accounts for more than 40% of the active listings in the month of January.

Now for the Year over Year Figures YEAH!

Tucson MLS Statistics Jan 07 - Jan 08 Summary

The year over year figures are misleading in a couple of ways again by the apples to oranges way of reporting till May of 2008 when it is supposed to be apples to apples time.

Active Listings are reported as down. THEY ARE NOT DOWN THEY ARE UP BY ALMOST 650 over last January. The report says 9,742 for Jan last year but take out the non Tucson Areas and that number is actually 9095 compared to 9168 this January.

New Listings: I quote from the report “Decreased 7% from 3,499 in January 2007 to 3,744 in January 2008.” They are reporting an increase of 245 more listing a 7% decrease. Wait, it gets better. . . If you look at January and February 2007 reports they show 3,649 new listings then is suddenly changes to 3,499 where did the 150 go? Yep, it still gets better. When you compare Tucson areas for January 2007 there were 3,540 new listings, that’s more than the 3,499 they are showing for all areas in the MLS. Are there any math majors out there?

There are 511 closed transaction in the Tucson MLS system for February as of today at 5 PM.

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One Response to “Tucson MLS Statistics for January 2008”

1. Ben DeBell (4 comments.) Says:
   February 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am

   Very interesting and useful post. Thank you so much for sharing.

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