Home sales on the rise

Slightly fewer homes in Columbia were sold in 2011, but so far this year home sales are bouncing back.

The total number of home sales for 2011 was 1,514, which was 78 fewer than in 2010, says Lee Terry, CEO of Columbia Board of Realtors. Terry cited three main reasons for the decline. First, a colder-than-average winter during the first quarter of 2011 caused lower numbers of homes sold in February and March, as compared to the same time period in 2010.

Another reason, Terry says, was the smaller number of first-time homebuyers due either to a lack of confidence in the economy or to a lack of demand because of the previous year’s federal tax credits. Terry says yet another reason for lower sales might have been because many clients were waiting to purchase a home after Columbia Public Schools had reached a final decision concerning the reorganization of the boundaries for secondary and high schools.

Even though fewer homes were sold in 2011, statistics show that the average selling price and median price increased. Terry says those figures were effectively raised because fewer homes under $150,000 were sold during that period. In 2010 the median price of single-family homes sold in Boone County was $152,000. That number jumped to $157,000 in 2011, and as of January 2012 the figure has increased to $159,900.

Home sales turning upward

“While buyers did seem to be on the fence last year, we see our pending sales in December 2011 and January 2012 increasing at a nice rate,” Terry says.

Low mortgage rates

Jessica Kempf, a broker for Crane and Crane Real Estate and president-elect of Columbia Board of Realtors, was also positive about present home sales. She says a turn-around in the local economy and historically low mortgage interest rates are reasons why home sales have improved.

The numbers back up Kempf’s claim. In January and February 2012 there were 151 single-family homes sold in Boone County. A year ago, in January and February, there were 146 homes sold. Pending home sales also have shown improvement: 280 in January and February compared to 172 in January and February 2011.

Maria Henson and her husband, Jeremy, bought their first home this year. Henson agreed with Kempf that the low interest rates were a factor that influenced her and her husband’s decision to buy a home. Timing was also good for the Henson family. They began looking for homes the week after Christmas and signed a contract for their home with an extended closing date of Feb. 29. After the addition of a new baby to their home, the Henson’s knew it was time to invest in property and the improving market in Columbia made that happen.

The National Association of Home Builders/ First American Improving Markets Index reported in January that many housing markets in the U.S. — Columbia among them— have shown measurable improvements. “We just have a better market here in general due to better unemployment rates,” Kempf says. “We have a more stable economy; and we didn’t have the price decline that a lot of other places saw. So I think just having our price increases already in the last two years has shown a lot.”