2008 Residential Home Sales Report, Greater Albuquerque Area

An official report from the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors (GAAR) supports my findings in my earlier unofficial report on Active Rain. Single family detached homes are at their lowest since 2001 and townhomes and condos are at their highest. Here is the press release.

Albuquerque, NM, January 28, 2009 -- The Southwest Multiple Listing Service, Inc. (SWMLS), a subsidiary of the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® (GAAR) reports that home sales units decreased by 25.07 percent from 10,961 units sold in 2007 to 8,144 units sold in 2008. If compared to annual sales to previous years, sales levels for 2008 are similar to the levels in 2001.

For 2008, three areas in the Greater Albuquerque market area showed an increase in units sold compared to 2007 sales. Average sales prices for Single Family (R1) homes show a decrease of 4.3 percent, from $243,089 in 2007 to $232,626 in 2008. The median sales price for Single Family homes decreased by 3.5 percent from $198,500 in 2007 to $191,500 in 2008. The average sales price in 2008 for Condo/Townhomes (R2) was $162,783, compared to $161,290 in 2007, a .9 percent increase. The median sale price for Condo/Townhomes rose by 3.4 percent from $149,000 in 2007 to $154,000 in 2008. For the Greater Albuquerque market area, ten MLS areas showed a positive increase in average sales prices when compared to the previous year.

Don Padilla, chairman of the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS®, says “2008stats demonstrate steady activity in our local market, and the small decrease in median and average sales price reflects that our market activity is not dominated by a lot of foreclosure sales.”

The 21,297 listings added during 2008, decreased by 21.1 percent from the 26,979 added in 2007. This significant decrease can be attributed to the already high amount of existing listing inventory. The area’s listing inventory of single family and condo/townhomes in 2008 was at its highest level ever for the market area. This is one indication of 2008 as a “buyer’s market,”

When comparing total dollar volume of Residential Home Sales in 2008 to 2007, a decrease of $698,052,191 is shown. In 2007 the total dollar volume was $2,398,316,501versus $1,700,264,310 in 2008. Another indicator of the local market conditions is the days on market (DOM) it takes to sell a home. The DOM for Single Family homes in 2008 began in January at 71 and fluctuated close to that level throughout the year to end at 76 in December. Although this number is higher than in previous years, it is not cause for alarm. (Emphasis mine.) Looking further at the DOM breakdown in 2008, it’s safe to say most of the homes sales in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and the East Mountains took place within the first 30 days of being listed. Press Release of the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors.

I chose to highlight that there is no cause for alarm because many indications reinforce the fact that there is indeed none, not least of which is the news item published concurrently by salary.com that Albuquerque is in the top five cities for building wealth.