The county has good real estate news. The sales volume in August rose 25.8 percent over the volume of August 2011. The total value of those sales rose 21.5 percent.
“It’s been consistent month to month through the year,” Barnstable County Register of Deeds John Meade said. “It’s good to see activity.”
Looking further into the numbers, though, the median sales value rose only 4.7 percent.
“It’s an interesting market,” Meade said. “We have an older population and there’s a natural turnover because of that. The other half of our sales are in the second home market. That’s what picking up.”
So, sales values in Osterville continue to climb, but the value of condo sales in Hyannis remains stuck.
“Year to date, values are up 4 percent, but we’re still hanging around that $290,000 median range,” Meade said. “The median increase has been hovering around 4 percent for a couple of years. I don’t worry about the values too much. Good activity will bring them all up.”
The factor likely keeping values steady is the steady number of foreclosures - 47 in August of 2011, 45 in August of 2012. Before 2008, the county averaged 20 foreclosures a year.
“With values flatter, we still have people upside-down in their mortgages,” Meade said. “The faster we get those un-performing mortgages out of the market, from a macro point of view, the faster the market will come back.”
So, has the real estate market hit the bottom? Maybe.
“Two years ago, people couldn’t sell, so it was difficult to get a true value,” Meade said. “Now, I do think we have pent-up demand.”
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Good News For Homeowners
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