Lead Balloons: Sales Plunge 37%

It's winter in August:

July turned out to be the third worst sales month (even including winter months) in the last five years.  Only January and February of this calendar year were worse.  Lets take a look at our sales growth graph:

Keep in mind that this is a monthly chart that compares same month sales year-over-year.  Anything above zero represents sales growth above the same time the previous year and anything below zero represents market contraction for the same period.  Our Y-o-Y sales are down 37% from July 2009.  Yikes!

What we are witnessing is an erosion of confidence in the housing market.  With unemployment remaining high, increased taxes on the horizon, and political angst near a boiling point, buyers have decided to wait things out for some sunshine.

For sellers, this means that market times will increase for quality properties and prices may soften somewhat as the most motivated sellers cut prices to liquidate their homes.  For buyers, this means that the world is your oyster...for the moment.

I anticipate that the pattern we are in will continue through the end of the year with us returning to a normal seasonal pattern with the beginning of the calendar year.  Then we should see some life come back into the marketplace.