Archive: News

The so-called economic bubble protecting Tompkins County from the worst of the national economic downturn may not be as protective as hoped.  According to Ithaca Board of REALTORS® statistics released for January real estate sales are down by 54% from the previous month.  Last year home sales were down by 15% from January 2007.

In January of 2007 65 homes were sold for a total of $13,812,757.  The average selling price was $212,504.  But in 2009 on 30 homes were closed in January with a total value of $4,845,518.  The average selling price has also gone down significantly to $161,517, 24% of last year's.

Overall statistics including all types of real estate were better, but still bleak.  42 closed sales represented a 43% drop from last year, and the dollar volume was down 54% this year, to $6,353,418 from last year's $15,384,885.  Land sales were up 1%, but commercial-industrial sales were down a whopping 88%.  Multi-family building sales were up 1085% from $75,000 last year to$888,500 for January 2009.

While prices are bad news for sellers,  the good news is that offers were being made quicker last January.  In 2008 houses were on the market for an average of 88 days, while this January that number went down to 42.  However the number of days from a house going on the market to the actual closing rose by by over two months, from 142 to 213.

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