Puzzle 3

Puzzles

Expanding on the East side average price post entitled ‘Looks Like’ further, we breakout East Side Apartments to have a look at this segment.

East Side Apartments

Apartments Units Listed

In the past year only three months have superseded the 215 units listed in May 2010. They were September 2009 at 247, March 2010 at 276 and April 2010 at 306. Doing basic math, the average number of units listed per month rounds out to 204 for the 13 month period. If you view an average an acceptable perspective then the extra 11 units that were listed in May 2010 doesn’t seem overt. However……

Apartments Units Sold

Units Sold have dropped but how bad is it. The lowest month in the past year was January 2010 at 90 and the highest was July 2009 at 179. Using the same calculation as above the average number of continually dropped from July 09′s 71 trickling down to 29 in December 09. They began a slow climb to 40 units in May. The average number of sold units in the May 2009 to May 2010 period was 136 per month.

Apartments Active Listings

Active Listings with little variation, continued to pile from May 09 to May 10. Units Listed accelerated in the April/May 2010 period adding a greater inflow rate. This event occurred while Sold Units slid in the past month. The combination skewed out of balance leaving May top heavy with inventory.

Apartments Average Price

Overall east side apartments have experienced a steady climb from May 2009′s $313,054 rising to May 2010′s $362,050
With the exception of some flutters along the way, average prices prices have been a force.

Worry’s

High levels of inventory haunt this market. Should slow sales persist and drop below 100 units, east side apartments will perform poorly during the balance of this year. On a positive note – over all this market has performed well to date. The question is how long will it take before the puzzle piece no longer fits?