I looked at the MLS sales volume and median sales prices year over year today, and sales volume is up about 38% for SFRs and condo/TICs, from 1354 in 2009 to 1875 in 2010. Median price is also up across just about all price tiers I looked at, which were 650 – 800K, 800K to 1M, 1M to 2M, 2 to 3M, and 3M or higher. 3M or higher was the only one that showed a lower median, and it was down about 70K. But there have been 35, 2010 sales to 19, 2009 sales for that tier.

Thank you.

From Zillow’s Blog:

Zillow makes money by selling ads on the site. But, to be a successful media company, we need to make sure our customers are realizing success with their ads. To help our customers do this, it is important to look at what the best-performing ads look like, and the lowest performing, because ad content is crucial to performance. Actually, these findings can apply broadly to any advertising campaign, not just those on Zillow.

The #1 takeaway:

LISTING ADS PERFORM A LOT BETTER (in terms of “click-throughs”) THAN AGENT HEAD SHOT ADS.

Observations from the Top 50 ads on Zillow:

-100% were ads for listings
-45 of 50 ads were an exterior home shot, 3 were interior, 2 were aerials
-42 of the ads mentioned a specific area (neighborhood, city or address)
-8 central messages revolved around Short Sale, Foreclosure or price reduction
-2 were Open House ads
-0 photos were renderings (illustrations), all were actual photos
-0 ads promoted a specific person, business or brand
-22 of the ads had a specific price visible
-7 had a phone number visible
-50 had photos that were taken on a sunny day

Observations from the Bottom 20 ads on Zillow:

18 of the ads promoted an agent/broker/brand
1 did not have a photo (and no clicks)
1 had some type of call-to-action on the ad

There you have it. The mugshot does nothing, the public wants details about the real estate, not how you look or whether you’re a “Top Producer”. We vote to remove agent mugshots from all marketing in the future on all media. You with us?

-Why are Realtors so arrogant and such assholes [theFrontSteps]

…and this quote to go along with it:

Until June 2008, condo and home prices were in lock-step in terms of price appreciation and decline. Thereafter, homes fell first and further. In March 2009, the delta between condos and home prices was a whopping 13%. Since then, however, home prices have recovered smartly: as of June, homes are about 4.5% further off their all-time highs than condos.

What does this all mean? First of all, I wouldn’t take too much consolation just yet in the upward spike in both condo and home prices since the beginning of the year. If you take a look at the chart, this happens every Jan/Feb when people start buying out of the winter doldrums. I wouldn’t predict a bottom until we see what happens this winter.
Still, the current delta of only $100,000 between median condo and median home prices seems rather small. If people are just begging to know what the historical average is, let me know and I’ll find out.

Thank you! And we’d bet there are a few that would love a little historical average.

-Misha’s Blog and place for more data crunching

Condo Stats:

2-4 Unit Stats:

Data provided by Terradatum. For additional information about market statistics and/or additional information about Terradatum’s products and services, please call Terradatum at 1-888-212-4793 Ext. 2 or send e-mail to info@terradatum.com.

This is median prices, and SINGLE FAMILY HOMES ONLY.

If this isn’t ammo for the haters, we don’t know what is. Thanks Misha for keeping the data coming!

Click For Larger Image

“NUMBER OF UNITS is the equivalent of number of sales/transactions. For condominiums, each unit is treated as a sale. For 2- to 4-unit buildings, the “building” is treated as a sale.

NUMBER SOLD is the number of properties in the market segment that closed escrow during the month.

NUMBER FOR SALE is the number of active properties on the market for one day or more during the month.

MEDIAN PRICE (SOLD) reflects the “middle” price point of a group of properties that have successfully closed escrow on a monthly basis, i.e. half sold for more and half sold for less than the median price. Tracking the movement of median prices over time provides a good indicator of the direction market forces are moving.

If the percentage change is positive between the two periods then there is upward pressure on prices in that market segment. If the percentage change is negative between the two periods then there is downward pressure on prices in that market segment.

AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET (DOM) reflects how long it has been taking (on average) to draw an offer on a reasonably priced property exposed to the market. The AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET is defined as: The average number of days it took all of the properties that went under contract during the period to accept a first position offer.

MONTH’S SUPPLY OF INVENTORY (MSI) is a measure of how long it would take, in months, to sell the existing inventory at the current sales rate for the specific neighborhood and property type. The MONTH’S

SUPPLY OF INVENTORY is defined as: The number of active properties on the market for one day or more during the month, less the number of properties that have been withdrawn or expired, divided by the number of properties that have gone under contract during the month.

* * * * *

Data provided by Terradatum. For additional information about market statistics and/or additional information about Terradatum’s products and services, please call Terradatum at 1-888-212-4793 Ext. 2 or send e-mail to info@terradatum.com.”

Click to Enlarge Image

NUMBER OF UNITS is the equivalent of number of sales/transactions. For condominiums, each unit is treated as a sale. For 2- to 4-unit buildings, the “building” is treated as a sale.

NUMBER SOLD is the number of properties in the market segment that closed escrow during the month.

NUMBER FOR SALE is the number of active properties on the market for one day or more during the month.

MEDIAN PRICE (SOLD) reflects the “middle” price point of a group of properties that have successfully closed escrow on a monthly basis, i.e. half sold for more and half sold for less than the median price. Tracking the movement of median prices over time provides a good indicator of the direction market forces are moving.

If the percentage change is positive between the two periods then there is upward pressure on prices in that market segment. If the percentage change is negative between the two periods then there is downward pressure on prices in that market segment.

AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET (DOM) reflects how long it has been taking (on average) to draw an offer on a reasonably priced property exposed to the market. The AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET is defined as: The average number of days it took all of the properties that went under contract during the period to accept a first position offer.

MONTH’S SUPPLY OF INVENTORY (MSI) is a measure of how long it would take, in months, to sell the existing inventory at the current sales rate for the specific neighborhood and property type. The MONTH’S SUPPLY OF INVENTORY is defined as: The number of active properties on the market for one day or more during the month, less the number of properties that have been withdrawn or expired, divided by the number of properties that have gone under contract during the month.

* * * * *

Data provided by Terradatum. For additional information about market statistics and/or additional information about Terradatum’s products and services, please call Terradatum at 1-888-212-4793 Ext. 2 or send e-mail to info@terradatum.com.