The normalizing market is evident as we look at the fourth quarter residential real estate sales for Burlington County. The following graph shows how 2005 compared to the 2 years prior.
The seasonal decline is as expected, however December 2005 reached the lowest number in home sales we have seen since 2002.
The fourth quarter sales data for 2005 had a very similar trend. To get the whole picture I added in the new listings for Oct – Dec. and compared 2001 through 2005. You can see the inventory in Burlington County had consistantly increased from year to year during the 4th quarter. However, the number of homes sold in 2005 declined by 12% to 1619 compared to the sales in the 4th quarter of 2004 which totaled 1841.
These figures only include the residential properties listed and sold through real estate agents and would change slightly if the figures for private sales etc., were added into the equation. Regardless, the shift from a seller’s market to a more balanced market is evident in the fourth quarter as seen in the growth of inventory and the decrease in sales.
One Comment
Hi Roxanne,
Nice analysis. I did a similar analysis on our local market here in Colorado. The picture was significantly different out here, but then again, we didn’t see much bubble like behavior in our market.
My next step is to break out the months of the quarter as well, however monthly data is traditionally much more volatile.
You can see my work at http://www.silverfernrealty.com and then click on “research blog.”
Best,
O
One Trackback
[...] « 2005 4th Quarter Residential Real Estate Activity in Burlington County [...]