Region's home sales drop 23% in April
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The number of homes sold in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area last month fell 23.2 percent compared with April 2010 when the federal homebuyer tax credit was propping up the housing market.
Home sales in the Pittsburgh region dropped from 2,260 in April 2010 to 1,736 homes sold last month, according to data compiled by RealSTATs, a local real estate information service.
The median sales price declined 3.9 percent to $117,000 from $121,700 a year ago for the five county region that contains Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
"The median sales price was lower in April compared to last year, but I tend to ignore last year," said Dan Murrer, vice president of RealSTATs. "I prefer to compare April two years ago because you are comparing two nonstimulated years."
When compared with April 2009, the median home price rose last month by 3.1 percent and home sales increased 2.3 percent.
"The comparison from April 2010 to April 2011 are meaningless because of the stimulus," Mr. Murrer said. "When you go back two years, homes are appreciating at an anemic 1.5 percent, but that's better than across the country, and it's better than the rate of return you'll get in a savings account."
Home values in the Pittsburgh area have remained fairly stable.
Median home prices stood at $109,000 in Allegheny County, $106,000 in Beaver County and $96,000 in Washington County. Westmoreland and Butler counties posted the two highest median prices at $120,000 and $168,950, respectively.
April 2011 also wound up being the worst month the area's top three homebuilders have had in three years.
NVR Inc., Maronda Homes Inc. and Heartland Homes Inc. combined for just 66 home sales, compared with 93 home sales in 2010 and 86 home sales in 2009.
The number of new homes sold by all builders fell 28 percent from 164 in April 2010 to 118 last month.
But interestingly enough, the median sales price for new construction rose 8 percent from $260,865 in April 2010 to $282,913 last month, which suggests there is still a growing demand for higher priced homes.
First Published May 21, 2011 12:00 am
