One of the commonly watched indicators of overall market conditions is “Days on Market” until contract. While there are always properties that will sell very quickly and others that will languish for years looking for a buyer, the time frames for the overall market place are typically expressed as a narrow range between 60 and 120 days. However, for the first 3 quarters of 2010 in Hillsborough County (Tampa), 2 separate markets have developed and remained clear and distinct. Since January of 2010, approximately 33% of the closings went to contract within 30 days. That would be much quicker than normal. At the same time, approximately 25% of the available properties took more than 120 days to find a buyer. Clearly slower than normal.
If you add the closings that went to contract between 31-60 days to the under 30 day group, you will find that more than 50% of the 15,000 local closings so far this year have the seller finding a buyer in pretty short order. While the simple math says to add all the closings together and come up with a single number as an average, that would ignore the obvious fact that there are currently 2 entirely separate markets functioning at the same time.The importance of this info to any particular seller or buyer is in recognizing which market you or your property are most affected by. The difference in negotiating leverage and general expectations is significant. Ask your Florida Executive Realty agent for more info on how this knowledge can be useful to you.
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