Gainesville housing market stable but showing signs of growth
When it comes to Gainesville's housing market, the results are little changed — overall home sales and prices have barely changed from a year ago — but bubbling below the surface are signs the market is improving.
Gainesville Realtors closed on 199 existing single-family homes in June, down 1.5 percent from 202 in June 2011, while the median sales price, or the midpoint, dropped 0.6 percent from $168,000 to $167,000 over that time, according to data from the Gainesville Multiple Listings Service.
Other trends paint a rosier picture of things to come: Pending sales under contract that haven't closed were up 27 percent; the number of days a home stayed on the market dropped from 144 to 132 days; the ratio of sales price to asking price was up 3.6 percent; and the inventory of homes on the market was down 22.5 percent.
Craig Wilburn, president of the Gainesville-Alachua County Association of Realtors, said he looks at buyer activity as reflected in pending sales and inventory to portend a turnaround. Eventually, as demand increases and supply decreases, the market will reach a point at which prices stabilize, he said.
That already has happened for homes priced below $150,000, he said.
"If you've got a good product, a good neighborhood, priced under $150,000, it's selling fast with multiple offers," Wilburn said. "I've personally had situations recently where we were trying to negotiate a price on a listing, the seller wouldn't take it, and two days later they sold it for more money to somebody else."
The rest of the market is not as hot, however.
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