RE/MAX Sales Soar!

In the backdrop of what appears to be a protracted housing recession for the country at large, RE/MAX of Hot Springs Village continues to experience very strong sales.

"March goes down in the books as one of the strongest months we’ve had in the past 3 years," remarked Jeff Hollansworth , owner of RE/MAX in the Village. "All the national metrics for home sales and new construction are in the tank and we just finished a month where our agents put 35 homes under contract. You have to go back almost 3 years ago to see this kind of activity and we're hopeful that this portends well for the remainder of the spring selling season."

The glimmer of hope that the national housing market would stage a sustainable comeback this spring has largely melted with the winter snow. Even as many await the traditional surge of buyers and sellers in the warmer months, analysts say it will be a year before there's any solid improvement in housing.

“2011 will be a real challenge, just like 2010," says Bob Walters, chief economist and vice president at QuickenLoans.com. "The key reason is that the jobs picture is still not bright enough. Plus, more oreclosures are coming.”

According to RealtyTrac, there were a record 2.9 million foreclosures in 2010. An estimated 50,000 new foreclosure actions are initiated every week, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. And, some 2.2 million homes are delinquent in mortgage payments and could be additional victims of the foreclosure mess.

Despite all this bad news across the country, the Village has largely escaped the foreclosure fiasco. There are currently only about 20 REO bank owned foreclosures in the Village and that represents a tiny fraction of the 8,500 homes. "We keep waiting to see this number go up," said Hollansworth, "however it appears that over the past 2 years the number has not fluctuated much from the current 18-20 distressed properties."

One thing that is for certain, recent Village homes that are selling have been primarily in the lower price range. In fact, in March, the average price of Village homes sold was $158,000 according to CARMLS. That's way beneath the average home price and demonstrates that things are not back to normal yet. In fact, in the past two year, there have only been 12 homes sold above $500,000 in price.

"One of the positive trends for the Village is that the number of homes on the market has decreased somewhat and now stands at 442 homes for sale. That's less than 5% of the total inventory and compares well to national statistics which show that 13% of all homes are vacant.

RE/MAX sold and closed 34 of the 64 homes (sides) in March according to CARMLS; which represents over 60% of the Village home sales volume. National presence and the most productive agents in the Village have helped to make RE/MAX the clear choice for Village buyers and sellers seeking results.