I spoke with a client of mine who mentioned that prices have declined drastically from the same time last year based on an article he had read on the decline of the actual single family units sold. With respect to the 32% decrease in sold units year over year from Aug 09 to Aug 10, I think a little more information would be helpful for clarification.  In a recent post I spoke of the decline from Aug 09 year over year to Aug 10 from 1275 units down to 866 for the number of successful single family transactions.

Keep in mind this is simply that, the number of “units sold”, the actual average price of a Single family home in Aug 09 was $453,520 and for Aug 2010 Average SF price was $445,797 actually showing a very slight increase of 2% year over year. It is a very incremental increase, however it displays that although the number of sales is down, average SF price has remained stable. Keep in mind this is ONLY for August based on a year over year comparison.

This simply illustrates that a number of different factors need to be considered when analyzing the market to determine if now is a good time to buy/sell, or even just to ensure your getting the right information for your research. Newspapers tend to cite specific statistical data which can make it hard to decipher what has been occurring in the broader scope of the market.

Information herein deemed reliable but not guaranteed