Archives

September 2008

Interview with NAR Chief Economist

Posted at 9:07 AM, Sep. 24, 2008

 Clicking on the following link will bring up a recent podcast with the Chief Economist of NAR, Lawrence Yun. He believes that in most housing markets we may have reached the bottom and 2009 will be a strong year for real estate.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1803212607/bctid1811454285

Charlie

Buy Land!

Posted at 2:32 PM, Sep. 21, 2008

With all the turmoil in the various financial markets and the inevitable question of "what do I do with my investable money now?", I have the answer: Buy land! With the cost of building a new home (and the associated hassels) many people in the past two years have opted to by "used" homes. This has caused land prices to pause and recently decrease in many markets. Our market is no exception and 5 acre parcels which we never had enough of are plentiful at this time. Prices are good and owner financing is available. (Where else can you get 7 or 8 per cent on your money?) So, if you are wondering where to make your next investment, I say buy land. Call me or check our website, www.sonoitaproperties.com, for the latest inventory.

August Mountain Empire real estate summary

Posted at 4:14 PM, Sep. 9, 2008

 How are we doing in the Mountain Empire this past month? Not bad in some respects. In a typically slow period of our selling year, we had 2 lots and 5 homes go in escrow. Sales is another story as only one lot sold and that was for $88,000. In 2007, 4 homes and 6 lots closed escrow for a total of $3,500,000. 

Since a month does not a year make, we need to look at the year to date before forming a conclusion. In 2007 there had been 57 closed transactions through 8 months. These were split almost equally between land and homes. The total was $22,784,000. In the same time period this year, there were 25 transactions closed for a total of $14,201,000. So, we have had less than half as many closings and dollar volume is off 38%. The good news for sellers is that the price per square foot is up to $225 for $193. The bad news for sellers is that the price per acre is down to $15,548 from $19,500. Thus, as we have said for a while, land sales are still trying to recover from the boom times while home sales are recovering albeit with fewer transactions.

I continue to see more internet and foot traffic and have recently written contracts for both homes and land. To see waht is for sale, please check our website, www.sonoitaproperties.com.