"Housing lift proves fleeting" Westport Fairfield vs National performance from Steve Reilly

 “Housing lift proves fleeting”

 

This was the headline in a Wall Street Journal article on Friday October 21, 2011. The article reported that according to the National Association of Realtors, sales of previously owned homes decreased 3% in September, 2011 vs. August 2011 and increased 11.3% since September 2010. And, nationally there is 8.5 months of inventory

The following shows how this compares to Westport and Fairfield, Connecticut:

Sales of previously owned homes September, 2011 vs. August, 2011

National           -3 %

Westport          -34.8 %

Fairfield            -16.8 %

Sales of previously owned homes September, 2011 vs. September, 2010

National           +11.3 %

Westport          -11.8 %

Fairfield            +4.1 %

Median Selling Price of previously owned homes September, 2011 vs. September, 2010

National           -3.5%

Westport          -32.0 %

Fairfield            +42.9 %

Months of inventory available for sale September, 2011

National           8 1/2

Westport          11

Fairfield            11

Although the media reports performance by monthly comparison, this is not a good way to track performance. There are too many variables that distort the numbers within a month. The Fairfield County Market normally out performs the national market so this performance is unusual. Maybe due to the “Wall Street Effect”.

Source of information WSJ and CMLS.

Steve Reilly

Higgins Group

Best Practice Real Estate

203-246-7372

www.swreilly.com