From Prudential Fox & Roach:
Unseasonably Cold Weather Leads to Dip in Southern New Jersey Real Estate Market
Pending home sales in March fell due to continued unseasonable weather throughout the five-county Southern New Jersey region. With several winter storms and a colder than average month, the HomExpert Pending Home Sales Index©, declined 13.2 percent from 99.9 in February to 86.7 in March, according to Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS®.
“Unseasonably frigid weather throughout the country and particularly in this region kept the pace slower than what is traditionally expected, “said Steve Storti, senior vice president of marketing for Prudential Fox & Roach. “As we enter the spring and the busiest time of year for buying and selling, we will look for the market to pick up.”
The following is the March 2007 HomExpert Pending Home Sales Index for the five-county southern New Jersey region:
County March Index February Index Percent Change
Burlington 81.0 88.7 -7.5
Camden 86.2 103.1 -16.2
Gloucester 83.5 102.7 -15.4
Mercer 92.6 107.5 -15.6
Salem 97.5 111.8 -10.1
http://climate.rutgers.edu/stateclim/images/nj_12month_temp_dep.JPG
Temperature in March was above average.
Here’s April’s reason for lower sales:
“Unseasonably frigid buyers throughout the country and particularly in this region kept the pace slower than what is traditionally expected,
“As we enter the spring and the busiest time of year for buying and selling, we will look for the market to pick up.”
The sheriff’s office?
If I become a Realtor, do I get a handy little booklet that tells me the exact temperature of when to sell a house? Maybe it’s not the weather but potential buyers temperature. Do I get like a meat thermometer to stick people with at open houses or do buyers come equipped with a pop-up timer? Turkey’s Done! Sign here.
“Unseasonably frigid weather throughout the country and particularly in this region kept the pace slower than what is traditionally expected, “said Steve Storti, senior vice president of marketing for Prudential Fox & Roach. “As we enter the spring and the busiest time of year for buying and selling, we will look for the market to pick up.”
Seriously, this is a joke, right?
When sales and prices are rising, it’s due to strong demand/limited supply and multiple offers. When the market is weak, the weather is poor; and pay no attention to the lack of demand. I really enjoy reading the excuses. They’re entertaining.
Re post 3
Don’t knock it Bob, Sheriff’s Office sales count as sales.
I wonder just how much foreclosures will be goosing the sales numbers in a lot of counties over the next six months.
Next month…
“Unseasonably warm and sunny weather kept buyers away”, says Steve Storti, senior vice president of marketing for Prudential Fox & Roach. People don’t want to be cooped up inside all day looking at houses when the weather is nice. They would rather go to a park or drink a Corona. Selling homes requires “Goldilocks weather”; “not too nice, not to nasty”. We have had perfect selling weather over the last few years, but climate change threatens to keep sales below trend for the rest of the year.
So I heard this am that the Retailers Trade Association said that April retails sales was down. And guess who is to blame ??
Yes? The WEATHER !!! . It’s kind of like being the devil. You get blamed for all the stuff that go wrong and god gets credit for all the stuff that goes right. !!
Devil and Saddam Hussain too.
“As we enter the spring…”
Gee, I thought May was the LAST month of Spring.