Housing on ice
Winter storms drop real estate inventory in late 2007
Winter storms drop real estate inventory in late 2007

By Richard Mize

Published: January 26, 2008

December's ice storms dammed more than rooftop moisture.

They dammed — and damaged — central Oklahoma home sales, too, blocking business and cutting the number of closings by 18 percent compared with December 2006.

The housing inventory dropped anyway, slightly, although the average number of days a house stayed on the market before selling rose to 92 days from 76 days in November, according to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.

The winter storms caused roof leaks from ice damming, the pooling of moisture in places where it normally doesn't accumulate. With people huddled in their homes and many businesses closed, the storms shut down the housing industry, said Marolyn Pryor, president of the association.

The ice didn't cause the housing market slowdown, but it exacerbated it.

"The ice storm had quite a bit to do with it. Electricity was off for two weeks. People just couldn't get out,” said Pryor, owner of Marolyn Pryor Realtors in Mustang.

The unusually harsh weather could have affected the inventory, too, she said, if peo- ple with homes to sell just didn't actually put them on the market.

The Okla- homa City area ended the year with 8,783 homes listed for sale, according to the Metro Association of Realtors. That's a 5.5-month supply, according to The Oklahoman's calculations based on statistics from the Realtors. The supply was down slightly from 5.6 months at the end of November.

The Oklahoman calculates the housing inventory by dividing the number of listings on the market by the average monthly sales over the previous year. The average was 1,595 at the end of 2007.

The housing inventory's peak so far this year came at the end of September with a six-month supply. The metro area started 2007 with a 4.8-month supply of houses on the market.

The U.S. housing inventory stood at more than 10 months at the end of the year.

In the Oklahoma City area, the home-building slowdown also helped reduce the number of houses on the market.

In 2007, builders took out 4,759 single-family building permits in Oklahoma City, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore and Norman, according to the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association — down 11.4 percent from 2006.

That made 2007 the fifth-most active year for home-building of the past 10 years.

Construction in some neighborhoods remained active all year. Developer J.W. Armstrong said building in his Fairfax Estates, a residential golf community in north Edmond, was strong and steady in 2007. Nearby additions also fared well, too, he said.

Because they missed an unsustainable boom, Armstrong said, Fairfax Estates, on Covell Road between Sooner and Coltrane roads, and other neighborhoods are missing the bust that has some U.S. housing markets in shambles.

Fairfax Estates is progressing steadily, he said, with 160 homes complete, 30 under construction and 180 more planned.

"We've always had a stable market. We've never had people lining up to buy houses as they come out of the ground,” Armstrong said.

The metro area's most active year for home building in the past decade came at the top of the national housing boom, in 2005, when Oklahoma City, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore and Norman issued 6,310 permits.

The low was in 2000, when the cities issued 3,210 permits.

At the end of 2007, permits were down 7 percent in Oklahoma City compared with 2006, and down 19 percent in Edmond, 26 percent in Midwest City and 38 percent in Norman. Permits were up in Moore 8.3 percent.

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