2009 Ann Arbor home sales totals close to 2008

Year-end 2009 home sales data just released by the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors show a 2 percent annual drop in home sales, a 6 percent gain in condo sales - and a $116.9 million drop in dollar volume.

Those numbers follow totals from 2008, when national economic uncertainty battered the residential housing market.

Yet that uncertainty continued into 2009, leaving many Realtors concerned about the market and its performance during the early months of the year.

By year-end, many Realtors cited signs of stability that are borne out by the December sales totals. Higher home sales - 229 sold in 2009, compared to 216 the previous year - and higher condo sales - with 44 units sold compared to 27 in 2008 - show a market that stopped the declines in unit sales.

And the number of new listings declined in 2009 after several years of growth fueled in part by the Pfizer exodus from Ann Arbor, which was announced in January 2007.

Listings of homes dropped 20 percent in 2009, while condo listings dropped 25 percent.

The number of homes that sold in 2009 is 45 percent of the listings, while the number of condos sold is about 43 percent of the listings. In 2008, the percentages were 36 percent for homes and 30 percent for condos.

Those signs of stability are contrasted by the dollar volume generated by those deals: The home market was down $100 million in 2009, while the condo market lost $16.9 million on the comparable unit sales.

The average listing price fell $30,000 to $193,171, and the average sale price dropped from $211,342 to $182,287.