Sales of Daytona Beach Homes – Down Against Last Month – Up Over January Last Year

Daytona Beach homes and condos sold at a 33.2% slower pace than last month, but were up 29.9% over last January. What’s next? These numbers are preliminary, but will not change significantly over the next few days.  The fall in sales is not unexpected. Here’s why:

• January sales have been the lowest sales months for both 2008 and 2009
• The 1st quarter has been the lowest sales quarter historically in the area
• December sales of 416 properties through the Daytona Beach MLS were the highest in over three years

Our inquires and website traffic were down during the fourth quarter, even though our sales were strong. In January, our website traffic was up 61.1% over December, back to the numbers we see during the summer high selling season. We are showing a lot of properties and my listings are being shown.

Seeing this level of website traffic and inquiries shows a lot of interest in the Daytona Beach real estate market. Our web traffic is about 50% higher than it was for last January. We believe sales will improve in February and are looking for a strong first quarter. Beyond that, we need to see what happens with the economy and whether the home buyers tax credit is extended.

Here’s a quick breakdown of January sales by price range.

Daytona Beach Homes Sales by Price January 2010

The distribution of sales by price is consistent with what we have seen over the past two years. Homes and condos sold under $200,000 made up 75.5% of January sales and under $300,000 made up 88.1%. The under $200,000 market is consistently strong and over $300,000 sales have been weak. This will change, but not until there is more certainty of price stability.

We will publish a full breakdown of home and condos sales for January later this week; after all the numbers are in the system.