Area home sales fall nearly 12 percent in September

September home sales in the Wichita area fell nearly 12 percent from a year ago, following an August in which sales were essentially flat.

The South Central Kansas Multiple Listing Service said in a report released Wednesday that 734 new and existing homes were sold last month, compared with 831 in September 2013.

Year-over-year declines were recorded among existing and new houses. There were 697 existing houses sold in September compared with 763 in the same month a year ago. The report said 37 new houses were sold last month, compared with 47 a year ago.

Real estate officials attributed at least part of the drop to a seasonal slump.

“This sounds so trite … but we just go through these seasonal adjustments,” said John McKenzie, broker and owner of Coldwell Banker Plaza Real Estate. “In the middle of August, about the second week in August, there’s a back-to-school focus, vacations are ending. Things traditionally slow down till about this time.”

Gary Walker, vice president and general manager of J.P. Weigand & Sons, said sales do typically slow in August and September. He said those two months last year were “unusually good.” That means the differences appear greater when comparing abnormally high months to typical months.

“There’s just definitely been a slowdown, but I don’t think it’s anything to be concerned about,” he said.

Walker added that the fewer sales of existing homes could also be a reflection of fewer investors looking to buy houses on the cheap to flip or for rental properties.

“Whether that’s the case in Wichita, we really have no way of knowing, because that (sales to investors) isn’t tracked,” he said.

Meanwhile, the supply of new and existing housing inventories was mixed. The report said in September there were 7.7 months of new housing inventory, while existing housing inventory was at 4.4 months. Inventories above six months favor sellers, while inventories less than five months favor buyers.

Year to date, the total number of new and existing houses sold is flat from a year ago: 6,944 in 2014 compared with 6,932 in 2013.

Greg Fox, broker and owner of Realty World Alliance and the current president of the MLS, said the monthly drop isn’t as important as where total sales are in the first nine months of the year.

“The important number to me is year-to-date total,” he said. “It’s only 12 homes, but … it’s still a long ways ahead of where we were” a couple of years ago.

This story was originally published October 15, 2014 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Area home sales fall nearly 12 percent in September."