Despite media reports that the real estate market is in the doldrums, active full-time real estate agents are finding that not to be the truth. At least here in Cape May County, New Jersey.
With interest rates hovering around five percent and ample property inventory at rock bottom prices, savvy buyers see opportunity.
Here’s the real estate activity in the Wildwoods – that includes Wildwood, North Wildwood, West Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, and Diamond Beach – as of May 11, 2009:
Single family homes – 268 currently for sale, 19 currently under contract, 88 sold in the past year.
Multi-family homes – 117 for sale, 4 under contract, 34 sold.
Condominiums/townhomes – 1065 for sale, 79 under contract, 433 sold.
The number that jumps right out is 433 condos sold in the past year. That’s impressive. And keep in mind that this figure is only for Multiple Listing Service sales serviced by a realtor – not private sales, sheriff sales and bank sales handled without a realtor.
Throw in the single family and multi-family sales and it’s 555 properties that were sold. Another 102 will close soon. That’s hardly a “dead market” as some doom and gloomers would have you believe.
The average condo sold for $318,670, with the median for days on the market (DOM) at 154 days (or about 5 months). The total sales were $137 million.
Multi-family properties averaged $294,695 with a median DOM of 131 days (or 4 months+). Total sales were $10 million.
Single family homes averaged $432,011 with median DOM of 178 days (6 months). Total sales were $38 million.
These numbers are just for the Wildwoods. I’ve avoided throwing in the countywide figures because the Cape Mays, Stone Harbor, Avalon and Ocean City are so much higher priced that they unfairly make the sales figures unbelievably high. So here goes:
Single family – $442 million in sales in past year averaging $528,008.
Multi-family – $22 million in sales averaging $420,040.
Condo/townhomes – $306 million in sales averaging $418,917.
Put together (and I’ve not included commercial or land sales in our discussion) that’s $770 million in sales this past year through realtors.
As you can see, plenty of folks are putting their money into real estate. They understand the value found in today’s market. Don’t you?