Those of you who stop by on a regular basis know that once a month, my office gets together to drink bad coffee & dissect the previous month’s sales and listing numbers. And if you’ve been coming here for a while, you also know that if there’s any juicy or thought provoking information in those meetings, it winds up here, in the Sales Meeting Update.

This month’s meeting had some interesting charts that I thought were worth sharing, and my broker was kind enough to pass them on – even though she knows they’re doomed to end up here

This first one is a year over year comparison of new listings taken, pending sales, and closed sales, for just my office (CBWW West Town).

CBWW West Town Year Over Year Comparison

Yeah, it’s kind of ironic that they put the ‘08 numbers in black.  For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 40% fewer closings last month than a year ago last month. Aye carumba.

Now, keep in mind, these numbers are just for my office, and not for all of Knoxville, or even for all of Wallace & Wallace, but I can’t help but think that other companies are seeing similar trends. I’m sure the September Home Sales Report will shed more light on that when it comes out in a week or so.

Speaking of Home Sales Reports, there was also a chart from the August Home Sales Report data that I thought was interesting. It shows August closings for the entire Knoxville Area Association of Realtors going back 6 years-

What’s interesting to me about this slide is that although units sold are down considerably from ‘07,  average market time, although slightly elevated, has remained pretty steady.

And while ‘08 seems pretty rough in comparison to ‘05 & ‘06, it doesn’t look nearly as bad when you compare it to the pre-boom years of ‘03 and ‘04. Hey, I’m just trying to find something to be positive about over here, OK?

Well, that’s it for this month’s Sales Meeting Update. Comments and questions about these charts are, of course, welcome.

And as always, please keep in mind that I share this information with you in order to shed some light on the market, not to scare the bejeebus out of you. People really are still buying & selling homes out there and the last time I checked, there was even still money left for home mortgages. I hope.