Market Update
IT'S A BUYERS MARKET
SALES:
The multiple listing service reports 11 homes going under contract
over the last 30 days in Wickenburg. This is among the best 30 day
period we have had in quite a while. 12 homes closed escrow over the last
30 days, the
median price was $220,250 with a high of 1.8 million and low of
$105,000. The average time those homes spent on the market was 134 days. Not
including the big sale the final sales price was on average $18,000 less
than the asking price.
inventory/
time on the market:
Currently we have 237 homes on the market which is up 8 from last
month.
The average time on the market is averaging a little over 7 months which
slightly higher than the average of years past.
PRICES:
Home prices are definitely lower than they were in 2006 and 2007,
not by a huge margin, but I can see that the same home in 2006 is not
selling for any more today. The media won't say this because they
look at median price, and our median price is actually up which only
tells me that more expensive homes are selling, not that prices are
rising. I also want to point out that not all prices are down.
Most homes under $250K are actually up slightly, with the exception of
Northridge Villas, which is down a little. So everyone wants to know
when we will hit the low point? Well a big change has happened this
month, and that is with the Media. All of a sudden most of the
media coverage is positive. The impact of the media on buyers
perception can't be ignored, and I predict buyers will get more and more
confident as the year goes on, and hence further price drops are going
to become more and more unlikely. So if you ask me the low point
is now.
Expectations:
Activity has picked up considerably with the arrival of 2008,
and that should continue through Spring, as this is always a busy time
for Wickenburg Real Estate. Normally sales drop off a little in
the summer, but my prediction is that buyer confidence will continue to
improve over summer 2008, and sales should remain steady. The big
questions is will the number of sales outpace the number of new
listings? I don't think they will. I think the number of
listings will continue to climb over 2008 especially as some of our new
developments start selling.
So if you are seller in the Wickenburg market the competition will remain tough, and there will be little chance of selling a home that is over priced. For buyers interested in Wickenburg, 2008 is fantastic year to buy. The prices should remain steady and probably a little lower than 2007. The number of choices will continue to grow, and interest rates continue to fall.
Land:
The demand for land has been much lower than normal of late even
though the availability is quite good. I attribute primarily to the asking prices of the land
that is on the market. The asking prices of land are actually higher in
many areas than they were in 2005. Looking on the bright side we have
seen a number of price reductions, and still continue to see
new listings to the market. So I wouldn't say that the values of land
are dropping, just that the asking prices are falling back to reasonable
numbers, that will in many cases still be comparable or even higher than
the banner year of 2005.
* When I mention an average I will exclude 2005 which was a most unusual year in Real Estate.
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