Overall residential unit sales in October were down more than 18%, caused by a plunge in single family home sales with a drop of over 26% compared to last year. Condo sales also fell but at a milder 4.9%. However listings grew by only 1.32%. There was an increase of just under 5% for single family listings accompanied by a decline of 2.4% in condo listings compared to October 2009.
The median price for single family homes rose to $156,000, a 6.63% increase over last year. The condo median price fell from $113,000 in October 2009 to $104,000 this year—just under 8% dip. Looking more closely, the median price for bank related sales was down 6.8% from October 2009 while the median price for non-distressed homes sold was up by 14%. Pending contracts rose from October 2009 by nearly 4% for single family and about 3.5% for condos.
Distressed properties are still the elephant in the room for the Pinellas market. 56.2% of all the contracts written in October were bank owned or short sales. 36.4% of the homes sold in October were bank owned or short sales. Of the homes available for sale in October, almost 40% are bank related and 43.7% of all new listings in October are bank owned or short sales. Nearly 44% of the October new listings were bank related—so it is clear that this challenging market will be with us for a while yet.
For all the October Market Statistics, check out our website!
