So How is the Real Estate Market in the Pascack Valley?

By far the most popular question I get asked as a real estate agent is, ‘How is the market?’ Based on the fear mongering news, you would think everyone is unemployed, banks aren’t giving anyone mortgages, every house listing is a short sale or foreclosure, and house values are plummeting off a cliff. I even saw a headline last week that said ‘Housing Market Worse Than Great Depression’. Now on the other side of the coin, I am not one of those who always looks at things with rose colored glasses. I try to be as realistic as possible with my advice. Real estate is local, so lets take a look at some real estate statistics from the Pascack Valley.

As you can see, the amount of single family homes in the Pascack Valley has decreased over the past 12 months. The under contracts are trending up in 2011. Thats most likely accountable to the spring market, when many buyers are out looking. The graph only goes to May 11th, so many of those under contracts will become solds and that graph will trend up also.
Seems like sellers are pricing their homes more to sell and buyers are out there buying, because the days on the market are trending down sharply. The average sales price has definitely dipped, but appears to have stabilized in 2011.

We obviously don’t have a full year of statistics for 2011 yet, but as you can see in the reports, the average list price is down from $611,527 in 2010 to $546,491 (down 8.9%) for single family homes in the Pascack Valley. Average sale price in 2010 was $562,550 and its down to $500,334 (down almost 8.9%-which is almost exactly as much as the list prices has reduced).

So we are still seeing a decline in prices. Sellers seem more realistic with their list prices and buyers are taking advantage of reduced prices. Coupled with low interest rates (4.49% at the time of this article), it is a great time for buyers to get a good deal.

If you need a buyer’s agent to buy a home in the Pascack Valley, contact me here!