Jan.-Sept. Home Sales Up 20% in Lower Merion and Narberth

In the first nine months of 2012, 647 homes in Lower Merion and Narberth were sold, a 20 percent increase from last year's 539, according to a report from the Prudential Fox & Roach real estate firm.

The total also is nearly a 40 percent increase from the 464 sales in January through September 2009, which came on the heels of huge turmoil on Wall Street.

Throughout the Main Line, 2,018 homes sold this year through September, a 17 percent increase over 2011 and a 26 percent increase over 2009.

Most neighborhoods have seen significant gains this year, over three years ago:

The figures for median sale price are less uniform. Lower Merion's median price has hovered around $475,000 to $500,000 since 2009, Narberth's around $300,000 to $350,000.

The most significant changes, taking into account the number of sales, are Bryn Mawr's median sale price climbing 13 percent in three years, from $525,000 to $592,000, and Villanova's jumping 24 percent from $745,000 to $925,000.

Throughout the Main Line, the median sale price fell from $389,000 to $378,950 in the past year. The Main Line median was $380,000 in 2009.

The final metric reported by Prudential Fox & Roach is the average time each sold house had spent on the market. Locally, that figure ranged from 80 days (in Wynnewood) to 124 days (in Bala Cynwyd), but few changes were statistically significant.

Gladwyne's average market duration fell from 131 days last year to 108 this year. Bala Cynwyd's 124-day average represents a 79 percent increase from the average of 69 days that homes spent on the market there in 2009.

For more information about home-sales figures from throughout the Philadelphia area, visit http://blog.prufoxroach.com/market-reports/

How do you view these home-sales figures? Are you encouraged about the state of the market? What are your plans for your own home? Tell us in the comments section below.