Summit County saw a bang up December allowing the full year to end with solid gains. For the month, dollar sales rose 42 percent to $87.2 million while sales volume increased to 185 transactions. Those numbers represent the third highest dollar volume and second highest transaction volume for the year. The strong results allowed the full year to record a 13 percent increase in dollar volume to $772.9 million, while the 1,624 transactions represented a 12% increase over the prior year. That full year performance is particularly impressive given that at mid year, transactions were up only 3 percent and dollar volume was actually down 7 percent.
News was a little more mixed on the pricing front. While the average selling price of a single family home rose 4% in the year, the average price of a multi-family unit fell a similar amount. However, in 2011 multi-family pricing dropped 14% so it would appear we are nearing bottom in multi-family as well. The more volatile vacant land market showed a 25% increase.
Looking at sale price points, the increase in unit volume slightly favored the mid tier of the market. Sales under $600,000 represented 73.6 percent of the volume versus 74 percent last year. Sales between $600,000 and $1 million were 18.3 percent versus 17.2 percent and sales over $1,000,000 were 8.1 percent of the total versus 8.6. There also was good news for the distressed market. Newly initiated foreclosure proceedings dropped by 23 percent and properties actually lost at a foreclosure auction were down 27% to 165.
Rising volumes, falling inventories and declining volume of foreclosed properties certainly bodes well for property values looking forward.
