January 2008 Multiple Listing Service (MLS) results for single family home sales in The Woodlands, Texas reveal The Woodlands is continuing to set itself apart from the housing struggles we are seeing across our great nation. With 2 record breaking years of sales behind us, Woodlands' residents should be optimistic that their community will continue to prosper and maintain its long standing track record of properties holding their values despite any national housing slumps experienced by other areas in the US .

MLS results revealed 144 single family properties came under contract during the first 31 days of the new year, coming in just behind January 2007 stats of 152 homes exchanging hands for an average sales price of $342,028. Because not all of the pending sales for this January have closed, I am unable to give you an accurate average sales price for those listings, but can tell you the average listing price for all pending sales during the month registered at $377,349. If you are like many and are wondering why pending sales dropped 5% for the month compared to just a year ago, you must consider this. 2007 ended as the 2nd best year on record for Houston area property sales coming in just behind 2006 record breaking results! That's a pretty tough act to follow wouldn't you say? In addition to that, only 80% of the pending sales for Jan. 2008 were priced under $500,000, compared to 86% of January 2007 sales closing under $500,000. This is significant because this price range falls into the category hit hardest by the mortgage industry meltdown, therefore any decrease in overall sales was to be expected. But as you see, the impact appeared to be minimal thus far. The breakdown of January 2008's pending sales look like this: 73 pending sales were under $250,000, 44 between $250,000 and $499,999, 14 between $500,000 and $749,999, 4 between $750,000 and $999,999, and 9 selling for over a million of which 3 were $2+ million! One last noteworthy accomplishment seen in January '08 is the average marketing time a seller needed before receiving an acceptable offer was only 61 days compared to January 2007's average of 73 days. This 16% decrease is yet another statistic signaling that Woodlands' properties are selling and those that are in good condition & that are priced appropriately are selling fast!

If your area is experiencing a sluggish market leading to falling prices, three main factors can be attributed to this. One being the extremely negative national news media we are reading, seeing, and hearing about on a daily basis, as it causes sellers to reconsider selling and in turn, causes buyers to be cautious in their purchasing decisions fearing they will be making a bad investment. So, if people are waiting to sell and less people are ready to buy, prices can't go anywhere! Furthermore, the mortgage industry's recent tightening of their lender guidelines has forced many previously approved buyers to resort to renting because they are no longer approved for mortgage financing. Thus further shrinkening the pool of buyers out there. And yet another reason worth noting is the increase in available homes for sale. With builders' inventory stacking causing many to frantically offer huge buyer incentives & outrageous commission bonuses to agents, coupled with unrealistic sellers testing the resale market, the increased competition is requiring those sellers who are motivated, to negotiate more from their asking price in order to reach an agreement. Unfortunately, this is being witnessed here in The Woodlands as well, as in 2007 the average seller only negotiated 2% from their listing price to get their home sold, whereas in Jan. '08 sold listing information revealed that sellers were forced to negotiate slightly more, at an average of 3%.

My advice: For local sellers, be prepared to be more competitive during at least the first half of 2008 and loose the idea of testing the market, especially if you are buying a replacement home in a higher price range. Not only is the property you are selling eventually going to get stale on the market, resulting in price reductions which will lead to lower offers, but the cost of your replacement home will likely escalate in price at a much higher pace than the additional amount you are holding out for on the sale of your existing home. For you buyers, now is the time to buy! Sellers are forced to be competitive, interest rates are still relatively low, and foreclosure postings will likely peak soon, so get in while it's still good!

If you are interested in learning more about The Woodlands, please feel free to visit http://www.thewoodlands.com/ for an online tour. For an updated list of available homes for sale in The Woodlands, Houston, and surrounding areas, visit http://www.dowdyteam.com/

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