Are Home Prices Going Down in Lehigh Valley? How Long Should You Wait to Buy?

Are Home Buyers making a mistake by holding off on purchasing a Lehigh Valley home. Are the prices really dropping that much?

Today, makes the 5th Lehigh Valley home seller I have spoken to in the past few weeks that plans to pull their home off the market and relist it next year. In each and every case, they listed the house at a higher price months ago and have slowly dropped the price in an attempt to sell. In each and every case, they fully intend to relist the house next year back at the original price they attempted to get.

With interest rates still at an all time low (in the low sixes) is waiting to purchase going to get you that house at a much cheaper price? Are home buyers making a mistake in holding off on that purchase? A $5,000 drop in a home price makes about a $30.00 to $35.00 a month difference in a mortgage payment. If the rates go up while waiting for home prices to drop what will your savings actually be? Are the prices really dropping drastically in the valley?

At the end of each year, I typically take the time to publish the home sale statistics for each municipality in the valley (visit www.LehighValleyHomesOnline.com and click on the municipality of interest). Even though we still have a month left, I decided to take a look at a few townships. I'll be adding the rest over the Christmas holidays.

Bethlehem Township

	2 Bedroom	3 Bedroom	4 Bedroom	5 Bedroom	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Median
2007	$199,679	$241,293	$348,418	$497,038	$49,000	$1,150,000	$284,078	$268,450
2006	$162,053	$242,358	$350,056	$477,740	$17,500	$1,250,000	$289,765	$270,000
2005	$217,367	$227,832	$343,347	$347,882	$24,500	$1,400,000	$283,113	$271,625
2004	$168,987	$207,184	$293,961	$434,274	$19,000	$1,295,000	$249,097	$224,000

Palmer Township

	2 Bedroom	3 Bedroom	4 Bedroom	5 Bedroom	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Median
2007	$195,593	$237,834	$349,901	$453,667	$129,000	$835,000	$276,131	$252,000
2006	$193,305	$236,449	$337,693	$387,444	$50,000	$975,000	$275,430	$251,500
2005	$194,278	$228,581	$328,111	$309,933	$85,000	$838,806	$262,959	$249,480
2004	$153,049	$197,865	$296,872	$383,220	$65,000	$609,900	$235,344	$217,950

Information provided by Rappatoni MLS and deemed reliable but not guaranteed for the date range of 01/01/04 through 11/10/07.  It does not reflect future sales, or currently listed homes.

So, the data shows that Bethlehem Township home prices have gone down a little but Palmer Township prices have gone up a little. To me, this data indicates that home pricing in the valley is flat. We aren't seeing the drastic decreases that the national media is reporting about (those are mainly the Florida and California markets). What we are seeing is that home sellers who attempted to raise their prices this year, based on the past few years enormous growth, are being forced to price their houses realistically and in many cases lower the price to last years price.

I don't have a crystal ball but in my opinion and many other agents I have spoken to now is probably a great time to buy a home.