Area News

At this month’s Women’s Council of Realtors meeting the guest speaker was Stacey Anfindsen. Stacey is a local appraiser who has found a niche crunching MLS and CSS numbers, publishing his summaries as an online newsletter calledThe T.A.R.R. (Triangle Area Residential Real Estate) Report. At the WCR meeting, he told the roomful of Realtors that he had looked hard for good news to give us. Here’s what he came up with: “Home sales are not at zero, and they will never be at zero.” It’s true. Some buyers are out there and some homes will sell. That said, competition is tough. Consider this: Resale listings 2Q 07 totaled 7,589. Resale listings 2Q 2010, 11,784 — that’s half again as many! That’s huge. At the same time, look what’s happened to showings: 271,404 in 2Q 2007 vs. 184,970 in 2Q 2010. That’s a 68% drop. So, half again as many listings are out there, with only two-thirds as many buyers to buy them — no wonder listings are sitting unsold. Supply and demand always rule. Always.