This month I thought I would lay out some comparative data and give my readers the opportunity to evaluate the differences on their own. To make the comparison fair, I only included single family homes and eliminated condos which skew the numbers lower for the West Side. The attached chart displays West Side vs. Roundhill in a like time frame comparison from Jan. 1-Nov.16 for the years 2010 and 2011.
What jumps out immediately is that on average the homes selling in Roundhill are significantly larger than on the West side. In this calendar year about 19% larger and as is typical for our area, larger homes sell at a higher average and median price but at a lower price when dollars per square foot are compared. This year the West Side is selling at $394 per square foot versus $351 in Roundhill. That?s about about an 11% price advantage in favor of the West Side.
When you compare average price, the nod goes to Roundhill. It is selling this year at an average price of $1,241,000 compared to $1,152,627 for the West Side for about a 7% difference. Roundhill also wins on median price of $1,095,000 compared to the West Side?s $1,006,000 for about an 8% difference. Given the innate differences between the homes sold in the two neighborhoods, a rational person could make an argument for either one being the better of the two.
A startling fact that jumps off the page is that the size of homes selling in each of these neighborhoods is dropping by 9% and 11% respectively from a year ago. This may be the most significant finding in the chart. Buyers are choosing smaller homes in both neighborhoods compared to 2010. This begs the question about the demographic shift taking place in our country and our Alamo market place. Are downsizing ?Baby Boomers? driving our market toward smaller home purchases? They have driven every thing else since they hit their 20s more that 40 years ago. The first year of the massive Baby Boom retirement is 2011 and it will extend another 13 years. Another thought is about the rising prices for energy and water. Are people finding it too expensive to maintain larger homes in this ?New Economy? and opting for smaller foot prints and lower tax bases, or are loans simply not available to support larger home purchases?
Unit sales figures appear to support this smaller is better notion. West Side unit sales are up by 16% this year and Roundhill unit sales are down by 26%. This difference does not appear to be driven by lack of inventory. There is available inventory in both locations. Fourteen homes are currently for sale in Roundhill and 24 homes are available on the West Side. Time on market has also lengthened in both locations with Roundhill homes taking 38% longer to sell this year than during the same time frame last year. Roundhill is now running about even with the West Side of Alamo in time to sell...about 80 days for each location.
Three of the seven pending sales (43%) in West Side Alamo are subject to lender approval meaning they are either short sales or Bank Owned properties. Two of three pending sales (63%) in Roundhill are also distressed. I don?t think any one would have dreamed that Alamo would be so heavily impacted by this economic down turn. On the bright side we do get closer to the end of this mess with each passing day and perhaps 2012 will be the year this aberration of distressed sales comes to an end. We will see.
Nancy and I want to wish you a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.
If you are thinking about selling your home and would like an honest opinion of its market value, please give me a call 925-989-6086, or send me an email joecombs@thecombsteam.com Nancy and I will be happy to help.
Source: http://thecombsteam.blogspot.com/2012/10/alamo-real-estate-west-side-vs-roundhill.html
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