Number of Homes Listed For Sale Fell in December

The number of homes listed for sale declined in many metropolitan areas last month, but the drop was smaller than has been typical for the holiday period.

The supply of homes available for sale in 29 major metropolitan areas in December was down 6.4% from a month earlier, according to figures compiled by ZipRealty Inc., a real-estate brokerage firm based in Emeryville, Calif. The ZipRealty data cover all single-family homes, condominiums and town houses listed on local multiple-listing services in metro areas where the firm operates.

On a national basis, inventories typically fall sharply in December from November because fewer people want to show their homes during the holidays. Over the past 25 years, the average decrease in December from the prior month has been 11%, according to Zelman & Associates, a research firm. Compared with a year earlier, the December inventory in the 29 metro areas was down about 9.5%.

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Nationwide, about 4.2 million previously occupied homes were listed for sale at the end of November, according to the National Association of Realtors. That is enough to last about 11 months at the current sales rate. The housing market is considered roughly in balance between supply and demand when the inventory is around six months.

These inventory numbers don’t capture the entire housing supply. Newly constructed housing and foreclosed homes, a large part of the supply, aren’t always included in Realtors’ multiple-listing services. In addition, many people have taken their houses off the market, hoping to get a better price later. Those homes will come back on the market eventually.

The ZipRealty data don’t cover New York City. Miller Samuel Inc., an appraisal firm there, says there were 9,081 cooperative apartments and condominiums on the market in Manhattan at the end of December. That was down 2.9% from November but up 41% from December 2007.

Weak office market leads to surge in lease renewals

Midtown

In another sign of a more conservative office rental market in the city, the amount of space taken by tenants signing lease renewals in Midtown jumped sharply in 2008 to more than a third of the total space leased, according to a fourth quarter report from real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis.

While the total leasing velocity in the Midtown market was down 26 percent to 15.5 million square feet, firms renewing their leases comprised 37 percent of the market, up from 20 percent in 2007, the report said.

Richard Persichetti, research services manager for the New York office of Grubb & Ellis, said he expected the trend to continue in 2009 as firms become even more reluctant to spend money on moving and build-out expenses.

“I think you will see renewals will be more common in today’s market because capital is in short supply,” Persichetti said.

In Manhattan overall, the report said office leasing declined while vacancy rates rose in 2008.

The amount of square feet leased in Manhattan fell 20 percent to 24.6 million square feet while the amount of space that is vacant or will be vacant over the next 12 months grew to 11.6 percent in the last quarter of 2008 from 7.7 percent in the same period in 2007, the report said.

The report also said investment sales in Manhattan fell dramatically.

For the entire year, investment sales in Manhattan fell by 70 percent to $12 billion in 2008 from $40 billion in 2007, according to the data. In the fourth quarter, just $862 million in investment properties traded hands, a 69 percent decline from the same period a year earlier, while Midtown had its weakest quarter in more than five years, recording sales of just $470 million, the report said.