What Are the Facts? #3 "They're Giving them Away!"

Decision Tree

Once more the HOA Board is playing fast and loose with numbers and facts.  At last night's meeting, they said that there have been "40 home sales in the past year … more than ever before."  That part is almost true -- there were 25 sales in 2013, however there were 23 in 2012 (I guess that takes it out of the realm of even "almost true."  Do they ever bother to even look at actual reports?)

Fallacy: Residents are "giving their units away."

Where the HOA Board's message really went off base, however, was when they said that the reason there are so many sales is because the conversion has scared the residents so badly that they are "giving their units away." 

I have been following park sales closely to try to determine what effect, if any, conversion is having on sales and sales prices.  I knew what the HOA Board was saying wasn't true as of October, 2013, but I wanted to make sure nothing had changed since then so I asked for a new set of official sales reports*.  I'll update this post as the 2014 sales are available.

Here's an interesting breakdown:

Year          Total Sales          High          Low       Average

2012                  23               200,000     22,500       82,124

2013                  25               142,000     30,000       75,722     

2013 AC*          16               142,000     30,000       82,950                                      

AC* - After Conversion - In other words 16 of the 25 sales made in 2013 were made after 7/1/2013 when buyers were informed of conversion.  Those sales had the low for the year as well as the high but the average sale price was actually somewhat higher than pre-conversion and the difference between 2012 and 2013 was minimal. 

At this point, I don't see that conversion is having much of an impact at all on sales, quantity or price.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, for a sale to take place, there is a seller and a buyer.  I've talked to a lot of the residents who purchased after the conversion was announced and they seem to be quite excited about the possibility of buying their lots, and for some it was a major consideration in making their purchase decision.

* Thanks Connie Winstead who reminds me that the numbers do not reflect "Sale by Owners" but says those are very rare.