Metro home sales still seeing slump
Topsy-turvy market
Metro home sales still seeing slump

By Richard Mize

Published: March 31, 2007

Home sales move more like a Slinky than a toy train, with some price ranges selling fast while others lag, whether the market is hot, in a slump or seemingly topsy-turvy.

The Oklahoma City area is still in a housing slump, with builders having put away some of their blocks. Home builders in Oklahoma City, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore and Norman obtained 624 single-family permits through February, almost exactly two-thirds the number in the first two months of 2006.

Home sales last month showed a slight improvement over February last year. Realtors handled the sale of 1,314 homes, 1.4 percent more than in February, 2006, according to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.

However, the metro area ended February with a 5.8-month supply of homes in all price ranges, compared with a 4.8-month supply at the end of 2006, according to calculations by The Oklahoman using inventory and sales figures from the Realtors.

The slowdown in construction here means builders are responding to the sales slump, which is nothing as severe as some cities, where slow sales are causing homes to actually lose value.

In Oklahoma, home prices appreciated 1.1 percent over the fourth quarter of last year — dead even with the nation as a whole — and 4.56 percent over 2006, somewhat less than the nation, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.

Oklahoma City home prices appreciated 0.79 percent in the fourth quarter and 4.23 percent over the year.

Homes sold here last month sat on the market an average of 88 days, 10 days longer than in February 2006, the Realtors reported.

Of the 1,314 homes sold in February, 345, more than a fourth, took more than 120 days to sell.

On the other end of the spectrum, 359 homes, another fourth, sold in 30 days or less.

The Realtors do not break down speed of sale by price range. But most homes sold where one might expect: right in the middle, $100,000 to $159,999.

Realtors sold 195 homes valued between $120,000 and $139,000. The second most active price range was $100,000 to $119,999, with 156 sold; third was $140,000 to $159,999, with 125 sold.

On the extremes, 22 homes valued at $19,999 or less sold, and five homes sold for more than $1 million.

"That was one of the significant things I noticed about the ... numbers — that is, the large amounts of homes available as well as good sales in the $100,000-to-$159,999 range,” said Victoria Caldwell, president of the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.

Such low prices continue to astound people in other parts of the country — and those moving to Oklahoma from elsewhere — despite an increase of more than $15,000 in the average price reflected in February's numbers. The average was $145,066 last month, compared with $130,051 in February 2006.

"People seem to think nothing of spending half a million dollars in Florida or Northern California for a townhome with 1,200-plus square feet. They are using a greater portion of their monthly income on housing,” said Caldwell, a partner in Dominion Group, which owns RE/MAX First in Edmond and RE/MAX Associates in Oklahoma City. "In Oklahoma City one can truly buy a starter home, with a yard and everything, for $100,000 to $160,000.”

Oklahoma City's housing market is not out of whack with income like some big cities where housing has become unaffordable for everyday people, Caldwell said.

"The median income earner in the Oklahoma City metro area can qualify for the median house price. This is a classic measure of affordability,” she said. "The other significant number in this price range is that there is a 130-day supply of homes on the market in this price range right now.”

That's just more than a four-month supply of mid-priced homes.