Harleysville-Lansdale Real Estate and More: Montgomery County PA Home Prices and Home Sales - September 2009

Montgomery County PA Home Prices and Home Sales through September 2009. The streak of declining prices continues, but shows encouraging signs of slowing.  Montgomery County homes prices have fallen for 22 consecutive months as of the end of September.  The average price of a home fell to $300,715 this past September versus an average of $306,100 in September, 2008; just a 1.8% decrease.  If you’re looking for positive signs in the real estate market, you have to see this as a potential sign of a bottoming in home prices.

On another positive and related note, the number of home sales rose sharply in September.  The number of residential home sales in Montgomery County increased to 702 units this past September from 637 units last September; better than a 10% increase.

Many factors can play into the results for a given month.  For example, the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit is currently set expire at the end of November.  This looming deadline has certainly had (and will have) an impact on the number of sales in the months leading up to that deadline.  If Congress extends and/or expands this tax credit (which they are currently debating), we would probably see a continuation of more positive numbers in the housing markets.  If the tax credit simply expires, we could see some reversal of the recent positive indications.  The general state of the economy also has an enormous impact on the real estate markets (and vice versa).  While we’ve seen some signs of improvement in the overall economy, it seems quite fragile and any deterioration there would weigh negatively on our real estate market.  So, we forge ahead and look for a trend to become clearer as the months go by.  I’ll continue to monitor the real estate market in Montgomery County and post these market reports on a monthly basis.

If you’re a home buyer, there are a few things for sure.  From your point of reference, home prices have slid back pretty nicely from an all time high average of approximately $368,000 in 2007.  If you combine the current price discount with the very attractive interest rates available right now (near 5.0% for 30-year fixed and near 4.0% for 5-year ARM’s), you have some pretty compelling reasons to consider a purchase.  You also have to realize that nobody will truly be able to tell when the market has hit a bottom until they can take a look several months back and say, “Oh, that was it.”

Contact Scott Loper, Associate Broker, Realtor®, RE/MAX Realty Group at 215-513-1333 to buy or sell a home in Lansdale, Harleysville, Hatfield, Souderton, Skippack, Collegeville, North Wales and the surrounding areas of Montgomery County Pennsylvania. To Search for Homes For Sale in Montgomery County Click Here.

Copyright © 2009, The Scott Loper Team, All rights reserved. Montgomery County PA Home Prices and Home Sale - September 2009.