Real Estate Market Trends on Cape Cod

Excerpts from an article written by Annie Blatz, President, Cape Cod & Islands Association of REALTORS:

"One of our biggest challenges in 2007 was how to overcome the negative media attention to the real estate business. Every newspaper and television talk show seemed focused on how bad things were in our business. And the nation's economy has typically been largely influenced by the real estate market.

Yes, perhaps we are not still riding the huge wave of increasing prices and numbers of transactions at the unprecedented rates that we experienced 2002-2005. ...Now take these county-wide statistics into consideration:

In 2007 we had 2.8% fewer transactions in Barnstable County than in 2006. In fact, the number of transactions on the Cape has decreased slightly each year since 2004. The greatest number of transactions actually goes all the way back to 1999.

However, if we look at dollar volume, we are only 1.4% off the pace of 2006. Dollar volume in 2004 was also the highest year, so you could say that we have experienced a leveling off of the rising number of sales that we experienced through the last decade.

Now let's look at average sales price. Ten years ago, our average sales price in Barnstable County was $156,000, and in 2007 it is $513,000 - up 1.4% from 2006. Quite breathtaking to look at those figures and realize that our average sales price has increased EVERY YEAR!

So why all the hubbub about the dire real estate market? Is this not a good time to buy? Cape Cod & Islands Real Estate is a desirable commodity. With high numbers of properties to choose from and favorable interest rates, it seems like a great time to buy! And the percentage of second home buyers continues to increase every year, according to National Association of REALTORS statistics."

Note from Sally Tucker: Statistics don't lie. As I recently communicated to one of my buyer-clients: "You'll probably hate me months from now if I don't continue to encourage you to buy on Cape Cod now." I read somewhere recently that the only way to know when a slagging market has reached bottom is when it's already well on its way back up again...