The Stats are in for January, and once again, we’ve got good news to report here in Central Oklahoma.  Hopefully this will help you decide for yourself what the market’s really doing, rather than buying into the false perception that’s so easy to follow these days.

Check this out:

As you can see, we saw about a 7% drop in the number of homes sold compared to this time last year.  For the negative nellies out there, that’s the stat you’ll want to hold on to, because every other category looks good:

• Average sales price is up 8%.  That’s good news for every home owner!
• Median price stayed level, showing that there’s been a slight shift to lower-priced homes, and fewer higher-priced homes sold.
• The average interest rate obtained was down considerably.  Lower interest rates typically equate to more buyers taking the leap, which is a good sign for the coming months.
• The percentage of sales price vs list price increased.  If we were seeing a drop in the market, you’d see a substantial decrease here.
• Days on the market increased so slightly it’s hardly even worth mentioning.

Really, the only number that concerns me at all is the absorption rate figure.  Inventory levels are a bit higher than I’d like to see, but with the buyer traffic we’re seeing right now, this number should drop next month.

By the way, I attribute the 7% drop to a couple of things.

• The weather we experienced this January played a big part, keeping would-be buyers off the roads.
• The negative media-fed perception is keeping a lot of buyers on the fence until they feel safe again.

Overall, these numbers are just another feather in the cap of central Oklahoma real estate.  While a few markets around the country are seeing decreasing values and slow markets, we’re still enoying an 8% annual appreciation rate.  Are you still sitting on the sidelines??

While you're here, don't miss these posts:

1. OKC/Edmond Real Estate Market Summary for February 2008 Well, it took our local association almost a month, but they’ve finally published the stats for home sales in February, and once again we’ve got good news to...
2. OKC/Edmond Real Estate Statistics for May 2008 Due to busy-ness, it’s been a while since I posted up the monthly statistics covering the OKC metro area, and this morning I met a...
3. OKC Real Estate – Analyzed I’ve got some hardcore analysis coming in a few days, but if you haven’t seen the latest real estate sales statistics for the OKC Metro,...