Eastman home sales for the year 2010 wasn’t all that bad. In fact home sales beat last years total by the end of July!! Condo and land sales are another story. So here is a break down of what has happened.
HOMES—
January 1st-December 31st, 2010 there were 47 homes sold in Eastman
January 1st-December 31st, 2009 there were 32 homes sold in Eastman
CONDOS—
January 1st-December 31st, 2010 there were 6 condos sold in Eastman
January 1st-December 31st, 2009 there were 11 condos sold in Eastman
LAND—
January 1st-December 31st, 2010 there were 2 unimproved lots sold
January 1st-December 31st, 2009 there were 5 unimproved lots sold
As you can see the home sale market was a rather good year. We even beat 2008 when there was 39 homes sold. I anticipate another strong year in 2011 as the rise in interest rates seems to be helping buyers make up their minds faster. This sounds counter intuitive but the cost of money over the life of a loan is far greater then if you were to save another 1-3% in the purchase price of a home. I do believe that home prices have gone down quite a bit but have not reached their bottom. The inventory levels of homes for sale is just to great! The competition between home sellers ultimately leads to lower prices.
As for condos…. Most condos in Eastman are second homes. I believe that only 30% of Eastman condos are primary. So the bulk of the sales market is to the vacation buyer. Here is the problem, where is the vacation home buyer? The vacation home buyer has been sitting on the side lines for years now. As the stock market and job security strengthen vacation buyers will be back!!
Land… I get more calls on land then homes or condos, mostly, out of area callers. The hardest thing to do is to get someone to hop in their car and drive one, two or three hours to look at a piece of land. If buyers are in the area then that’s a different story.