I noticed that the lakehome inventory went up a little bit from July 24th.  On July 24th we had 405 lakehomes in the MLS system for a high count for the year (or so I thought).   That number changed on 8-14-09  to 407 in the MLS with 248 being in Douglas County.  Last year on August 13th we had a high count of 402 in the MLS system.  It appears that our lakehome inventory has not subsided.  This makes some sense with the lessening of the sales activity in the lakehome sector for the year.   Pricing has realistically came down, yet some sellers have decided to not change their price, hence the buildup of inventory.  If you look back in 2005, we had a high inventory of 233 in the mls.  Some of this increase is due in part to the fact that our trade area has grown and that is a behemoth task to track. But nonetheless, it is still the best data that we have and a compilation of what a real estate agent has to sell each and every day…that what is in our local mls system.   If I was to dream for a moment…and inventory was cut in half and only the people that really wanted to sell listed their property, literally overnight we would have a great market in Alexandria, MN.  Our demand is fairly consistent, with it’s little dip of course, but it’s the excessive doubling of  inventory that has caused this bubble in the pipeline.   Once sellers and agents listed any and all of the prospective sellers property, in some cases, at any price; we created our own deflation.   Again, this market will change, it will be different in the future. 

It appears that July at least held it’s own anyway for 2009.  Like I said in an earlier blog (check out June 25th blog) that I believe that the market is “troughing” out, the numbers for July 2009 are like this:  July 2009-10 closed sales-$3,235,800 in volume-$323,580 average sale. ********** July 2008-11 closed sales-$3,856,750 in volume-$350,613 average sale.       Sales and Volume down about 8-9% from the previous year.  That’s not too bad considering all of the economic factors that are really poor.  Like I have also said before, this community seems like an island.  It’s almost bullet-proof from economic storms that plague most other parts of the country.  It will recover at some point, and maybe quicker than the rest of the country.

Statistical information provided by the Greater Alexandria Area Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.