Earlier this month (July 2^nd) I reported that 25 percent more Rumson homes had sold in the first half of this year compared to last year, and that there was a slight increase in the median selling price. Today let’s take a look at Fair Haven.

Although we’re seeing a slightly higher number of home sales in Fair Haven, the increase isn’t as dramatic as the one in Rumson yet. With many people on vacation, July and August are traditionally slow months for real estate, but I predict that we’ll have strong Fair Haven home sales in the fall, and a significant percentage increase by the end of the year.

For Fair Haven, both the average and the median (not shown on table below) selling prices are down slightly, but take a look at the absorption rate:

The absorption rate is an important real estate indicator: it's the length of time that it would take to sell all of the homes that are listed for sale, assuming that the current rate of sales remains constant.  

In a “normal market” the absorption rate is between five and seven months. But, for the past few years, the absorption rate has been MUCH higher than seven months (meaning that we’ve been in a “buyer’s market”).

For Fair Haven, the absorption rate has moved from 8.3 months a year ago to 7.2 months now. That’s almost back to a “normal market”!

The absorption rate for Fair Haven is much lower than it is for Monmouth County as a whole. And we know that Monmouth County’s rate is lower than New Jersey’s as a whole.

This is just conformation of what we already know — the Rumson-Fair Haven area is a great place to live, and people continue to want to move here.

Len