Once again, we saw some pretty decent activity in College Park last week. With rates continuing hold at historic lows (4.32%, on average, for a 30 year conventional loan), qualified buyers are taking advantage of the lower prices. In fact, our sales for the year are up by 30% compared to the same time period last year. Unfortunately that doesn't mean prices are going up, just that more buyers are jumping into the market.

With all of the short sales out there, you would think that whole process would be getting easier, as the banks have been dealing with this mess for quite awhile now. It's actually getting worse. I've been so frustrated lately with my own short sale contracts. The banks I'm dealing with just can't seem to get it together. I thought I would do some research and, sure enough, it's taking 23% longer to get short sale deals to the closing table compared to this time last year. Go figure. The sad thing is buyers are starting to get fed up with the entire process and are trying to steer clear of those listings. The short sales that closed within the past 90 days took 107 days, on AVERAGE, to get from contract to close.

Last week in 32804 there were:
13 new listings
24 price reductions
7 pending sales

The pending sales were listed as follows:
1 - Under $100,000
5 - $100,000 - $199,999
1 - $200,000 - $299,999
Five of the seven pending sales were either short sales of bank owned properties.

ACTIVE LISTINGS: 244
PENDING SALES: 70
CLOSED SALES: 9/27/2010 - 10/3/2010


VACANT LAND
ACTIVE: 22
PENDING: 2
SOLD (1/1/2010 - 8/29/2010): 3
Gerda Street: $162,000
620 Stetson: $155,000
717 Langston Court: $61,750

The above numbers for College Park Update come from single family homes, condos and land listed in the MLS in the 32804 zip code.