Real estate sales: no good news

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The local media has widely reported improved real estate sales from April to May of this year, citing figures furnish wholesale by the Des Moines Association of Realtors, the real estate lobby group.

Despite those claims, the Polk County Assessor's database shows there were 2,860 residential deeds issued in Polk County, Iowa in the last six months (Dec-May), compared with 4,013 issued during the same six month period a year earlier. That's a 29% drop, not an increase.

The total sales numbers for that period are even worse, suffering a 45% decline from more than $600 M last year down to about $400 M this year. And while realty agents are doing their best to stave off commodity pricing through incentive kickbacks and other perception management practices, even the average sale price took a dive from $152 K to $140 K, an 8% loss.

This look is a broader picture than the one being offered by the realty association because it covers six months, but even residential sales between April & May of this year (and compared to last year) look dismal.

While my research did involve only one county, can the picture for the greater metro look remarkably better? No matter how you slice & dice, there's nothing good in these numbers.

So what's the deal here? Are reporters too lazy to do their own research? Or is there a bigger menace lurking, like media influence? Or maybe I'm just wrong.

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