A blizzard of numbers

January 24th, 2008 at 06:16pm Alex Gary

The Rockford Area Association of Realtors released its annual mountain of statistics on real estate in the Rock River Valley.

There are oodles of numbers to look at and it gives me some easy things to put on here. The one that jumped out at me the most was how few homes sold — percentage wise.

In 2007, out of the 10,140 houses and condominiums put on the market just 39.6 sold and 2.8 percent were pending sales when the clock struck midnight on New Years. The combined total of 42.5 percent homes and condos either selling or having pending sales was almost 10 percentage points worse than the previous low over the past 10 years.

In 1998, real estate agents sold 47 percent and had 5 percent pending sales on the 7,610 residential properties put on the market. In 2003 the market was at its most efficient with 57 percent of 8,540 residential properties selling by the end of the year and another 7 percent were pending sales.
Of course, another striking number to look at is how many more homes and condos are going up for sale. In 2007, 33 percent more properties went on the market than back in 1998. The population of the area as a whole only has increased about 10 percent in that same time. That’s not enough buyers. A bubble was ready to burst and it happened in 2007.

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