Rated earlier this year as Forbes' #1 real estate market for the year, the numbers are finally starting to demonstrate strength in pending sales. The absorption rate for the city has dipped below the 6-month mark, after hitting a high of 12 months nearly a year ago.

The Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors has reported jumps in pending sales month after month for the year and now closed sales are starting to outperform a year before. For June 2009, pending sales were up 9 percent for both year-over-year and month-to-month (from May to June 2009).

The inventory has been dropping for months and was down more than 11 percent in June compared to a year ago. Pricing has still been soft when looking over year-to-year numbers, however, in the last 8 months, the decline has stopped, and median prices of single-family homes has lingered around the $180,000 level.

Job growth is still a struggle for New Mexico as a whole, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; but the numbers have begun to ease as unemployment dropped to 6.8 percent in June in Albuquerque, way below the national level of 9.5 percent.

Published: August 7, 2009

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