By GREG MOBERLY TODAY’S NEWS-HERALD
Residential home sales in July continued on an upward trend compared to last year and vacant land sales picked up nearly 60 percent as well, according to Lake Havasu Association of Realtors numbers.
The recently released figures show home sales up to 169 compared to 139 for last July and vacant land sales up to 27 compared to 17. The home sales numbers include single-family homes, condominiums, town homes and manufactured homes.
“Vacant land sales help the economy overall,” said Mary Roberts, president of the Lake Havasu Association of Realtors. The purchases that are being done now are so builders have some inventory for homes built on speculation (spec. homes), she added.
The equipment, materials and labor used to build the homes are important to bolster the economy, Roberts said.
Median sale prices for vacant land remain the same as 2012 at $45,000.
Most everything else is holding and slightly increasing in comparison to 2012, Roberts said.
The number of sold homes that were foreclosures has sharply decreased in the past couple years, Roberts said.
Nearly 50 percent of the homes sold last summer were foreclosed homes, Roberts said.
Currently, there are 480 single family homes listed for sale. Roberts said. Of those, 11 (2.3 percent) are foreclosures and 16 (3.3 percent) are short sales.
Sales numbers represented in dollar amounts also represent a more positive pattern.
The total volume of home sales in dollar amount has increased more than 50 percent to $34.2 million from $22.6 million in July of last year. The median sales price both for July and actually the year to date has increased more than 13 percent with the year to date at $165,000.
Summer is typically not the busy season in the Lake Havasu City real estate market, Robert said, with most June to July home and vacant land numbers down comparatively.
Article Courtesy of Today’s New Herald
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