Oklahoma City-area home sales ‘dismal’

In October, Oklahoma City home sales fell a little compared with September and a lot compared with October 2009.

BY RICHARD MIZE

The local housing inventory ticked up in October, even with fewer houses on the market.

The month ended with 9,043 houses for sale, a 7.2-month supply, according to The Oklahoman’s calculations using statistics from the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.

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Oklahoma City-area home sales ‘dismal’

The figures consider only houses marketed and sold through the Realtors’ Multiple Listing Service, and not new houses sold directly by builders.

The estimate of inventory was determined based on the average number of sales per month for the past year, 1,244.5.

If October’s sales pace were maintained, it would take longer, 8.8 months, for the market to absorb those 9,043 houses if no more were listed for sale.

Home sales last month fell 5.2 percent compared with September, and plummeted 35 percent compared with October 2009, the Realtors reported. The cumulative values of houses sold in October, $167.2 million, represented a 25.3 percent drop from October 2009.

The sales figures “were a bit dismal,” said Dave Moeller, president of the Realtors association and owner of Redbud Realty Associates in Edmond.

On the other hand, Moeller said, the average and median prices increased year over year.

The average price of $163,091 in October was a 14.9 percent increase from October 2009; the median price, considered a better gauge of the market because one-half of sales were higher and one-half were lower, was $137,500 last month, a 9.5 percent increase from October 2009.

Home sales here reflected the national trend. Last month, sales of single-family houses, townhomes, condominiums and co-op units declined 2.2 percent compared with September and fell 25.9 percent compared with October 2009, to an annual estimated rate of 4.43 million sales, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Blame any unexpected blips on another unexpected eddy in a national market that has been churning one way, then another, for a few years.

“The housing market is experiencing an uneven recovery, and a temporary foreclosure stoppage in some states is likely to have held back a number of completed sales,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said in a news release.

“Still, sales activity is clearly off the bottom and is attempting to settle into normal sustainable levels.”

For their part, Oklahoma City-area builders kept the homebuilding fires burning, continuing to rekindle the local market for new homes after a historically down year last year.

Builders in Oklahoma City, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore and Norman obtained 3,015 single-family building permits through October, 7 percent more than the first 10 months of 2009.

Increased construction in Oklahoma City and Edmond led the surge. Oklahoma City issued 2,079 permits, an increase of 7 percent, and Edmond issued 257 permits, a jump of 39 percent.

Permits were off for the year 2.2 percent in Midwest City, 3.3 percent in Moore and 3.1 percent in Norman.

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