Land Sales Continue to Nose Dive in 2008

Written by jordan on . Posted in Blog

Source: MULTIFAMILY EXECUTIVE News Service
Publication date: October 9, 2008

By Les Shaver

For months now, land owners, developers, and single-family and multifamily builders have talked about the severe drop-off in land sales. New numbers from Real Capital Analytics back those assertions-the New York-based real estate research firm says that sales have fallen off drastically, nearly 75 percent to date this year.

From January through August of 2008, land sales totaled $7.1 billion. During the same period last year, $27.2 billion in land was sold. In the first three quarters of 2006, that number was $16.4 billion.

“It’s not just sales, but it’s pricing as well,” says Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting, a real estate research and consulting firm based in Deerfield Beach, Fla. “The parcels that are being sold are incredibly below what they were a few years ago. We’re talking 20 [cents] to 40 cents on the dollar.”

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DIRT DIVE: Annual land sales have plummeted in 2008, according to New York-based research firm Real Capital Analytics. Through August, sales were off nearly 75 percent, versus the same period in 2007.
Year Dollar Volume
2005 $20.94 billion
2006 $25.95 billion
2007 $37.07 billion
2008 (to date) $7.17 billion