Staging tips

I came across an infographic with some of the best suggestions for staging your home for sale whether you're using a professional stager or not.  The original article is here.

New Listing Watch -- fewer new listings and fewer price reductions

Listings continue to follow the annual path of fewer listings as we approach the holidays.  Total new listings in the last two week period was 168 compared to 177 during the same period a year ago.  If the trend of previous years repeats, we will see a continued decline in new listings until after the first of the year.  Both single family homes and condos are affected.  During the most recent two week period there were 72 new single family home listings compared to 75 last year.  For condos there were 96 new listings compared to 102 last year.

Here's a different view that shows we're following the same track as the last two years.  (This trend goes back more than two years but trying to show that on a line graph just gets too busy):

Not surprisingly, the number of new listings going into contract in the same two week period has dropped:

The number of price reductions is down compared to the same period a year ago.  For single family homes there were 12 price reductions during the latest two week period compared to 19 for the same period a year ago.  For condos there were 37 compared to 46 a year ago.

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Listing Watch - it's downhill from here

This time of year we begin seeing fewer and fewer new listings until we hit the bottom just after New Years.  Total new listings for the past two weeks is just about the same as the same period last year:  282 vs 287.  That's down significantly compared to the prior two weeks:  282 vs 320.

And you can see from the above graphic where we're headed.

What's a little different this year vs last year at this time is the number of price reductions which is down.  For single family homes there were 18 price reductions during the last two weeks compared to 26 a year ago.  For condos there were  35 price reductions compared to 56 in the prior period.  Compared to a year ago the difference is 18 single family homes price reductions vs 26 a year ago.  For condos there were 35 compared to 62 a year ago.

A higher percentage of new single family homes listings went into contract in the same two week period compared to the prior period (17% vs 13%) but for condos fewer new listings went into contract than in the previous period (11% vs 28%).