Homes Taking Even Longer to Sell

It’s getting harder to sell a home, as the length of time the average property stayed on the market has hit its highest level since before the 2008 market crash.

Homes sold in February spent an average of 103 days on the market, according to new survey data from RE/MAX. That’s the longest average time need to sell a home since RE/MAX began tracking the data in 2008 and exceeds the previous post-crash high of 100 days reported in February 2009.

The time it takes to sell a home has been steadily rising since last July, when the average bottomed out at a post-crash low of 82 days. That trend has been matched by a steady and sharp decline in average sale prices, which fell to $172,000 in February, down from a post-crash high of $213,000 in July.

A RE/MAX spokesperson attributed the trend to several factors, including the end of the federal homebuyer tax credit last year and a rising supply of distressed properties, along with an overall slowdown of the housing market over the winter.

At the same time, home sales ticked upward in February, as the housing market emerges from its slowest period of the year. February home sales were up 3.3 percent from their levels in January, which was only the third month-to-month increase in the past eight months.

“It’s a very good sign that home sales increased over January, which could mean that sales will increase further as we move into springtime, the prime home buying season,” said RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly.“If this trend for home sales does continue, we could also see home prices start to move up, as well.”

Despite the monthly increase, February home sales still trailed their level of one year earlier, showing a 3.0 percent decline from February 2010.

Just under one-third of the 54 markets surveyed showed annual sales gains in the February, with some of them significant, in contrast to the broader trend. Double-digit annual gains were seen in Albuquerque, up 22.8 percent: Miami, up 25.1 percent, Tampa, up 22.0 percent; Trenton (NJ), up 20.3 percent; New Orleans, up 16.2 percent; and Phoenix, up 12.2 percent.