Chance Gates' Blog

Summary
– “As anticipated, we saw an increase in the volume of closed sales during the month of June, many by buyers who were
attempting to get in under the June 30 deadline to close deals in order to qualify for the tax credit. It wasn’t until the midnight
hour that Congress extended the deadline to those buyers who, through no fault of their own, were unable to meet the
deadline. As a result of that extension, buyers who qualified for the tax credit and were under contract by April 30th, now have
until September 30, 2010 to close the transaction,” said Ken Amundson, 2010 president of Reno/Sparks Association of
REALTORS “Although we are remaining
cautiously optimistic about the number of transactions in the pipeline and some price stabilization, we need to continue to
closely watch the year-over-year numbers and see continuing trends in leveling median sales prices before we can truly say
we have reached the bottom.”

Median Sales Price
– June 2010 median price was down 3% to $170,000 compared to $175,308 in May 2010.
– The median sales price continues to “trade in a narrow range” to borrow a term from the stock market.
– Median price is defined as the mid-point, half of the sales for the time frame are below and half are above.

Number of Units Sold
– June ended the month with 581 sold transactions up 29.7% from the prior month.
– This is a new high since the market peaked in the summer of 2005.
– Sales were up 8.4% over the same period last year.
– This can be primarily attributed to the volume of buyers who came into the market to take advantage of the tax credit and met
the initial deadline of June 30 set by Congress. That deadline was subsequently extended to September 30, 2010.

Average Days on Market
– The average days on market increased by 6.3% from the prior month to 146 days.

Sold-to-asking-price Ratio
– June reported sales received an average of 98.1% of the seller’s asking price.

Conclusions
– June median is holding year over year. The median price has remained stable for the past thirteen months.
– Unit sales level remains strong with some softening in the numbers expected as buyers adjust to a non-incentivized home
buying world.
– The fact that Congress granted an extension for those transactions that were in contract by April 30, but that were unable to
close by June 30th , should help sustain the number of closed transactions through the new deadline of September 30.

Data obtain from the Reno/Sparks Association of Realtors for Area 100, Greater Reno/Sparks

As a Reno/Sparks real estate professional, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog.  You can email me @  chance at ballard-company.com or http://www.myspace.com/chancegates