Picket Fence Sales Statistics for 2011
2011 was an unusual year -- a very wet spring and severe flooding delayed the market, pushing sales into the summer months. The usual July - August summer lull never happened this year, and the typical uptick expected in September was affected by Tropical Storm Irene.
In the greater Champlain Valley, which includes Chittenden, Addison, Franklin, & Grand Isle counties, the average time on the market was 73 days in 2011.
In Northern Vermont, which includes Washington, Lamoille, Northeast Kingdom (Caledonia, Orleans, Essex), and Orange counties, the average time on the market was 67 days.
Southern VT and NH, encompassing Windsor, Windham, Bennington & Rutland counties in VT, and the greater Upper Valley in NH (Grafton, Sullivan, Cheshire & Merrimack counties), it was 86 days last year.
Of course there is substantial variability in the reported figures with the shortest duration of time on the market being 1 day and the longest 350 days. And bear in mind that these are self-report figures...there are many who have sold, moved on and we haven't been able to collect the data.
We mentioned above that Picket Fence homesellers are doing "relatively" well. Relative to what? Realtor-listed properties are one comparison. The average time on the market in Vermont in 2011 was 184 days with realtors vs. 73.65 days with Picket Fence Preview. (source: nneren.com). Of course, none of the people who sold through realtors in 2011 saved money whereas the 320 Picket Fence sellers saved an average of $16,212 per seller (assuming a 6% commission). Not bad, to sell much faster and save money, too!
Price Range
Often
times we are asked "How are things selling in my price range?" The
figure above shows the average number of days on the market for various
prices ranges across all the areas that Picket Fence serves. Again, a
quick look at the chart shows that Picket Fence homesellers are doing
quite well across all price ranges with a predicatable rise in time on
the market for the highest priced properties compared to the other
price ranges.
(Please keep in mind that these data can only be calculated on properties that sell...logically, those still on the market can't be counted until they receive a deposit.)
40% of all advertisers Sold in 2011 (no matter how long they advertised) which was similar to 2010 (46%).
70% of all advertisers that advertised 3 months or more Sold (patience is truly a virtue...that pays off too.) (2010 was 73%).
Not everyone lets us know that they've taken a deposit, so our numbers are always conservative. 332 sellers let us know that they either sold, took a deposit or went under contract in 2011. Essentially all of these sellers proceed to closing and if anyone's deal did fall through we backed them out of the calculations.
An increasing percentage of Picket Fence sellers are opting to take long-term rentals. In 2011, an additional 49 properties were taken off the market because the sellers obtained renters rather than selling. If you factor these rentals into the success rate, then 74% that advertised 3 months or more Sold or Rented.
