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Thursday, September 02, 2010

Norco Real Estate: Back to the 80's

I've been giving you with monthly reports this year about Northampton County's troubled real estate market. County and municipal government rely heavily on real estate to fund services. So when the local property sales slump, so does local government. In fact, so does most of the local economy.

Northampton County's real estate market is depressed, having declined forty-six per cent between 2005 and 2009. Things are bad this year, too. February was the worst month on record for actual deed transfers since 1983, when nobody was using computers or cell phones. Last July's deed transfers hit a thirty year low, the worst since 1981, when we were first blessed by all the cultural delights of MTV.

August's real estate deed transfers continues this trend Back to the 80's. It's the worst month on record since 1982.

According to Northampton County's real estate records, there were 549 deeds transferred in August. That's only a 2.7% drop over the same period in 2009, but it's 34.6% below the average August over the past ten years. Also, 54 of the 549 deeds recorded, or a whopping 10%, are the result of mortgage foreclosures. It appears that Obama's federal foreclosure prevention program is a resounding failure in Northampton County.

Here's the raw data over the last ten years: August 2010 - 549 deeds; August 2009 - 564 Deeds; August 2008 - 583 Deeds; August 2007 - 800 Deeds; August 2006 - 999 Deeds; August 2005 - 1,102 Deeds; August 2004 - 1,026 Deeds; August 2003 - 930 Deeds; August 2002 - 899 Deeds; August 2001 - 899 Deeds.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2010 at 12:15 AM

    Great job as usual. Here's an excerpt of an interesting story over at Zero Hedge, hinting that MLS prices on many homes may be overstated to the tune of 40%:

    "Realtors are not reporting the true sold prices on homes. Here are 2 examples. If a home is listed on the MLS and then sells at a auction like Hudson & Marshal or RealtyBid, you can see the sold price online or if you attend the live auctions, see the house sell at open outcry auction. The next day the houses are reported sold on the MLS but always at full price.

    The example below sold for $115,000 at Realtybid but is listed as sold for $159,500 on the MLS.

    Also, homes are listed on the MLS and sold on the HUD site. You can see the sold area on HUD and the Bid Stats. The house listed below sold on the Hud site for $90,061 but again was listed as sold for full price on the MLS $113,400.

    These are only 2 examples, I have seen over 100 and assume it is occurring everywhere. I understand that foreclosures are not included in the sales stats from the Realtor Assoc. but the stats they use are taken from the sold prices listed on the MLS. They are all false."

    Was walking around my neighborhood on Sunday and saw a home "For Sale By Owner". A 4 bedroom 2.5 bath, approx. 2900 SF, built approx. 25 yrs. ago in a medium density subdivision. The price was north of $435k. (sigh)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bernie O'HareSeptember 2, 2010 at 12:18 AM

    OMG! I have to check out Zero hedge. I always though prices reported by realtors were inflated.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2010 at 12:37 PM

    What about Lehigh County?

    ReplyDelete

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