State of the Market Address – Real Estate in Cherokee County Update

Posted by I Love Murphy on

It’s been some time since I’ve done a market update on the Cherokee County (Murphy and Andrews) real estate market because the market has been staying so incredibly stable. Now with January past us, I can report on the typical seasonal cycle of the market.

Historically, the market is relatively calm during January, February, and March. We’ll see an it trend back up to normal around the middle of April. With all that said, here’s some hard numbers that are great to go with! Remember – these numbers can be difficult to translate to your particular situation, so the advice of a professional is recommended (namely The POLTROCK TEAM!) to interpret them.

 

Numbers for the Past Month

  • Total Homes to close: 14
  • Total Land to close: 28
  • Average Home Price: $194,029
  • Average List to Sell Ratio: 91.95%
  • Average Days on Market: 226
  • Most Active Price Point: $150,000 – $200,000 (representing half the transactions)
  • Average Land Price: $39,532
  • Average Land Days on Market: 170
  • Homes currently Pending: 94
  • Land currently Pending: 203

 

Our market seasonally dips down during this time of year, so don’t expect a lot of showing activity during the cold months! Stay home, stay warm, and keep your place clean! Fact is, even though you might not be getting a lot of showings on your house, the buyers out there shopping this time of year are typically more qualified and more motivated to buy. Why? Maybe because they don’t want to stay out in the cold!

Those of you who are looking to buy homes and land, now is the perfect time! If you can make it our way, you don’t have a lot of “competition” this time of year. In other words – you probably won’t have to worry about someone slipping in and buying your dream home! Not only that, sellers are commonly more negotiable during this time of year because the activity on their property slows down.

 

John and Jessica Poltrock – Homes and Land in the Mountains of North Carolina – Real Estate by the POLTROCK TEAM at Murphy, NC – (877) 837-3002 – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com

Cherokee County Total Sales Chart

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Here’s a great chart I thought I would share with you. This chart is courtesy of the Cherokee County Mapping Department Staff. They’re a great team located in the same building as the NC Extension Office here in Murphy.

The great thing about these numbers is that it reflects purely sold property in all of Cherokee County with monetary consideration. In other words, Joe giving his son George a piece of land or even inheriting it doesn’t reflect here. There are three lines – improved land parcels (generally houses or homes, even some commercial buildings), unimproved parcels (vacant land and lot tracts), and the total. The great thing about this chart is it reflects properties transfered over our local Realtor Board – the Mountain Lakes Board of Realtors – and over person to person transactions.

Its easy to see the market has remained flat and stable over the past several months. The stability has been a blessing – buyers are finding more choices than they’ve had in the past and sellers can rely on market that is not “all over the place.”

If you would like a high-res version of this chart in PDF or JPG, please email me at JohnP@remax.net and I will be happy to send it to you. It may also be requested by making a comment on this blog.

John Michael Poltrock – REMAX Real Estate – REMAX Mountain Properties – JohnP@remax.net – www.MyMurphy.com – (877) 837-3002

State of the Market Address for Cherokee County and Murphy North Carolina

Posted by I Love Murphy on
The real estate market is still one of the most talked about things in our country today. Every time you hear the sky is falling, but many of the nay sayers and media moguls don’t mention hard numbers to tell you what the market is doing. That’s what we’re here for! We want you to be an informed consumer, whether you’re buying or selling.

Here’s some hard numbers. The below chart represents four month trailing data for the Cherokee County Housing Market. It does not represent land. Trailing data is great because it averages out the most recent transactions to give you the most stable data. If you’re not sure what some of the abbreviations are below, see the key at the bottom of this article.

Current Market Data Powered by the Poltrock Team at REMAX of Murphy North Carolina

Price Range Transactions/mo. DOM Short DOM Average DOM Long L/S Ratio
Market 31.5 19 195 958 94.44%
150-200k 9.5 19 175 406 95.15%
200-250k 3.5 33 230 700 97.22%
250-300k 4.25 46 197 448 92.07%
300-350k 2 57 199 364 94.1%
350-400k .75 53 138 191 93.75%
400+ 1.75 33 114 186 92.49%

Now here’s something quite interesting. Here’s the data for the past month only:

Transactions/mo. DOM Short DOM Average DOM Long L/S Ratio
Market 43 37 232 958 93.17%

The variance in the 4 month trailing versus the 1 month numbers indicate we’re seeing more property move for the last month. That’s obvious. What is interesting is the DOM is much higher indicating we’re going to see that continue to get longer. Also, the List to sell ratio is over a full point lower. That generally shows me that more buyers are “fishing” for good deals (why transactions are up) and in some cases are getting it (which is why the L/S ratio is lower).

Either way, numbers are power! Want to know how this applies to your property or one that you are considering buying? Call us or email and we would be happy to provide you a free consultation to translate all this information to your situation. Happy buying and selling!

John Michael Poltrock – REMAX Mountain Properties – Real Estate in Murphy North Carolina, NC – www.MyMurphy.com -JohnP@remax.net – (877) 837-3002 – Copyright 2007

July State of the Market Address

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Very few agents track the market and find out what it is truly doing. As a result, investors, buyers, and sellers of real estate here in Murphy, North Carolina don’t know what the market is doing. Here are numbers to give you a great overview of what is happening on homes/houses that have sold.

This data is done with a four month trailing average to give you the most accurate monthly data rather than show simple sudden influxes, etc.

Closings per Month Average List Price Average Sold Price List to Sell Ratio Average Days on Market
Whole Market  26 $213,459 $202,414 95.01% 168
150k-200k 12 $182,600 $175,000 96% 150
200k-250k 5 $224,480 $216,000 96% 145
250-300k 4 $286,000   $269,000 94% 126
300-350k 2 $369,450 $337,500 91% 181

What does all this mean? You can relate it specifically to your home or land that you own when you look to sell it. This data can be difficult to translate to your specific property. If you are looking to sell, a site visit by one of us would be most appropriate. We would be happy to consult with you on this. Please contact us be email or phone.

John Poltrock – RE/MAX Mountain Properties – Murphy, NC – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnP@remax.net – (877) 837-3002

*Note* This data was compiled on July 26th, 2007 and used the 4 month trailing data from that day.

The State of the Market Address – June 2007

Posted by I Love Murphy on

As the second installment of the State of the Market, we venture
into what has happened in the month of June for the market here in
Murphy. North Carolina has been overall very fortunate in its ability
to retain a stable market in relation to many other states – especially
Florida. The majority of our second home buyers come from the Florida
area, and we have seen an indirect effect on our market. Many of the
younger investors from Florida who made significant amounts of money in
real estate have been tapering off. We’ve seen the “normal” buyers who
have historically bought vacation and full time residences in both
Murphy and Andrews coming back and regaining their strength as our
primary buyers.

In a brief summation, there were 144 total
transactions that were not a result of hand-me-downs, quitclaims, or
other non-cash transactions. Of those 144 transactions, land
represented 87 total and homes were 57. Land was down by six
transactions while homes were up by 10 transactions from May.  28
homes and 36 land tracts were transferred by the Mountain Lakes Board
of Realtors. From May, we have seen a 2.9% increase in total transfers.
From the beginning of the year, we’re at a 9.1% increase.

2007
is turning out to be an excellent real estate year. Historically, our
numbers are up significantly even though some consumer confidence seems
to be flaky. What I find
to be one of the most interesting factors is that the largest real
estate investors are buying while the market is staying “down.” They’re
going against the grain and are going to find the greatest increases in
their investment when buyers begin to come back in full force.

Although
Murphy is small drop in the bucket in America’s real estate market,
it’s great to see the media is over exaggerating the results of the
market. I’m sure many other agents and investors are experiencing and
finding these same results. For those of us who enjoy and love what we
do, this market will prove to be an excellent change of pace and a challenge that we are sure to enjoy.

 John Poltrock – REMAX Mountain Properties in Murphy NC – www.MyMurphy.com – JohnPoltrock@gmail.com – 1-866-687-7496

The State of the Market Address – May 2007

Posted by I Love Murphy on

The President is required to give a State of the Union Address, and it’s interesting to think that even something as local as a real estate market deserves such an "address."

Murphy, North Carolina has long been a second home market and will continue to be so. With amazing natural beauty, more than 93,000 acres of US Forest Service, mountain views, and much more, it’s allure runs nationwide. There’s property owners from here all the way to California.

Cherokee County saw 140 transactions in May, all of which came with some monetary consideration. This figure does not include inheritances, give-a-ways, or any of the such. Of that 140, 47 were houses and 94 were land. That’s a great figure averaging out to 1.51 houses and 3 land sales per day. 32 of the homes and 28 pieces of land were handled through the Mountain Lakes Board of Realtors.

Great! Now what does all that mean? Just like the Dow Jones, our transactions vary from month to month. We see a positive uptrend of 9.4% from the month of April.

As the first installment of the "State of the Market," we hope to continue this service and give you valueable data of our market. As financial planning majors, trends mean a lot to us and we’d like to bring them straight to you!