Real Estate Prices Drop in Emmaus

In an effort to explain the 15 percent decline in real estate prices in Emmaus Borough this year, D. Brad Patt spoke to the average person and compared the current real estate market to basketball.

Last year, with federal tax credits, it was like playing ball with a big, oversized rim that allowed a team to roll up the points on almost every shot, he said.

But this year the rim is back to normal size and it's harder to score.

The upbeat senior vice president of Prudential Patt, White Real Estate and The Premier Group in Allentown isn’t accustomed to talking about a slow market. But that is his task these days.

“This year is a normal, non-tax-credit market," Patt said. “Last year, the government was giving tax credits."

The tax credits, started in 2009, were aimed by the federal government at correcting the worst real estate market since the Great Depression. They had allowed credits up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers and $6,500 credits to current home owners purchasing a new or existing homes.

Indeed, Lehigh Valley sales were reported down 24 percent in May to 432 compared to a year ago, according to the Lehigh Valley Board of Realtors on June 20. But compared to April, sales were up 29.3 percent from 334.

The median (the midpoint of the prices) sales price was $164,000, down from $175,00 last year. And the average property is on the market 86 days,
compared to 76 in May 2010.

So when homeowners compare values between this year and 2010, it’s back to normal.

The incentive is gone.

Patt is one of a few real estate people in the Lehigh Valley who has a statistical hand on all sectors of the Lehigh Valley with the Prudential Patt, White Home Expert Report.

It showed Emmaus Borough’s prices dropping. The median price sold per property was down 15.38 percent between May 2010 and May 31, 2011, the study said. (This percentage represents the average of the median prices over each of 12 months.) The median selling price of a home in Emmaus was $168,450 this May, compared to $171,000 a year ago.

Sixty-seven houses were listed for sale this May, compared to 61 a year before. Eight houses were sold this May, and 15 a year ago.

“Readers should keep in mind in most areas, new business under contracts has not yet settled and is up strongly,” Patt said, “which is the element of comparing last year’s tax credit business vs. this year’s standard business.”

Craig Scharadin, a Realtor with the Frederick Group in South Whitehall Township, has sold houses in the boroughs, towns and cities in the Lehigh Valley since the 1970s.

He said he’s never seen such a strange market as this one. But he keeps plugging away, as he teaches the young sales associates to do. Emmaus and Parkland school districts are still No. 1 and No. 2 where people are interested.

“It seems to me that we’re doing a little better this year,” he said. “We're not booming, but we're better. I'm banging on the bottom.”

Realtor Larry Ginsburg, president of Prudential Regency Real Estate in Allentown, has been involved in the business throughout the area for 39 years.

“Those selling their homes need to price them properly," he said. “We need to get the foreclosures and short sales out of our system. And the unemployment rate, near 9 percent, isn’t any good.’’

Ginsburg said he feels for the young people entering the business. “There are about 432 sales per month in the Lehigh Valley," he said. “And there are 2,000 Realtors.”

Dan Shope is an associate of National Referral Service in Devon.