DECEMBER SALES SHOW UPTURN ?   BY JEFF STEWART, CCIM

In my January newsletter, I wrote to clients that the steep slide in home sales for the month of November would likely continue in December . . . unless it didn’t.  Well, the slide did not continue as the chart shown here shows.  Can that be?  Virtually any agent in town will attest to the fact that December sales were as weak as November or worse. So to what can one attribute this sharp, largely unseen, increase in sales?  The answer was clear to me almost immediately.

In this case, the numbers are both accurate and inaccurate depending upon the time period.  December sales were decidedly flat.  A quick search of the MLS reveals that a disproportional amount of the December sales were builder homes. Not all builders are the best at changing their listing information in the MLS in a timely manner.  It would appear that a good number of the December sales were actually closed earlier, but only reported at year end.  Therefore, the annual sales numbers are correct, but the monthly numbers are probably a little inaccurate . . . especially December.

Statistics never lie . . . it is just that sometimes we do not ask the right questions.

Jeff Stewart, CCIM

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Stanberry & Associates

jstewart@stanberry.com