Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Monday Market Memo, June 23-30, 2008 June 30th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News residential sales statistics for the Mat-Su Borough.  This report includes the sales in Palmer, Wasilla, Talkeetna, Willow, Big Lake, Houston, Sutton and all the other communities in the Borough. 

Over 80% of the real estate activity is in the Wasilla and Palmer areas with the outlying areas occupying only a small fraction of the business.

Sales activity was definitely up this week.  I think the pending sales are the highest so far this year.  Closed sales hit 32 so that is healthy as well. 

		Average Price	DOM
New	51	$350,000	.
Total Active	913	285,671	128
Pending	44	$222,884	89
Closed	32	$243,833	66

I believe that many buyers that were waiting in the wings have seen the higher interest rates on the horizon and decided to step in now rather than wait. 

It is not uncommon to see a slight drop in sales activity during the mid-summer months was people entertain out of town guests, fish and generally enjoy the short Alaska summer.  But it seems that serious buyers are definitely still out there.

Buyers that want to be in a house before school starts really need to make their choices now.  School starts in just over 6 weeks and that gives just enough time to complete a normal transaction.

 

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Redneck Fishing June 27th, 2008

Categories: Alaskana

While many anglers were debating which streamer to use on the Russian River, and the purists were choosing between their eight or nine weight fly rod, a few Alaskans were looking for other ways to stock the salmon section of the freezer.

For them the Kasilof set net fishery was just the ticket last week.  The ten day long season closed June 24th.  For this old gillnetter it sounded like an efficient way to collect a few red salmon.

It did turn out to be a good way to fish, but I was also intrigued by the culture.  You don’t see many shiny subarus on this beach…a rusted out 79 chevy 4X4 is more like it.  

The beach is lined with camps of almost every type.  But I didn’t see any motorhomes.  Here is our camp, I’m returning real estate calls during a break.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s amazing what you can do with a couple tarps and a little ingenuity.  This one had a well stocked kitchen inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One camp was called Grumpy Geezers Getaway. Several were flying the stars and stripes from spruce flag poles. .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picking the nets and filleting several dozen fish every few hours is back breaking work. 

 

 

 

It’s nice to have a comfortable resting place…drag the sofa out to the beach, can’t beat the view.

 

 

Little informal parties seemed to start up between neighboring camps while people waited for the tide to turn so that they could pick their nets

 

Photos courtesy of Charlene Moss and Mark Van Diest…I can’t seem to find my camera since our return, haven’t had time to look for it while taking care of 80 filets.

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Monday Market Memo for June 16-23, 2008 June 26th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

For the first time in a LONG time I missed the Monday Memo, so here it is three days late.  I was in Kasilof catching red salmon until Tuesday night, yesterday was spent catching up with real estate and taking care of 40 fish.

These statistics are for the week of the 16th–23rd of June for the whole Mat-Su Borough.

We actually had a pretty good week.  Pendings and closings are both up.  New listings were up as well which put out inventory up to 917.  Notice that the total days on market for all the inventory is at 127 but the closed and pendings are much lower. 

Obviously, the houses that are sellable sell at a fairly reasonable marketing period while the marketing time for all the inventory continues to grow.

		Average Price	DOM
New	60	$252,876	.
Total Active	917	284,900	127
Pending	36	$227,379	73
Closed	28	$213,320	84

Looking through the 38 pendings for the week a couple of things stand out that tend to define sellable houses.

First, most of the them are in top condition.  In fact many of them are new construction at surprisingly attractive prices. 

Second, they were priced to attract attention.  Most had prices that were noticeably under the competition.  Here is an example, a brand new victorian style home with a view on more than 2 acres for only $119 per square foot.  Granted, it’s a large home so the total price was still much higher than the average sales price for the valley, but the price compared to the other homes brought in a buyer.

Third, many of them had something else.  They had a view,  unique location, unusual style or something else to set them apart. 

 

 

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Wasilla Real Estate Statistics for June 9-16, 2008 June 16th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Here are the residential sales for Palmer, Wasilla, and the rest of the Mat-Su Borough.

Our total inventory passed 900 for the first time this year.  But we did get 38 new pendings.  That is a good number.  Our closings are still on target for 100 sales a month. 

Notice that the average price near $250K for both the closings and the pendings.  That is a good sign that we are selling some of the higher priced homes.  For a long time we were only selling houses at or near the $200,000 price range.

		Average Price	DOM
New	55	$248,512	.
Total Active	901	283,557	125
Pending	38	$259,034	91
Closed	25	$249,438	104

There are some real good new construction houses on the market right now.  A lot of the pendings are custom houses built specifically to the owners specs.

 

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Interest Rates Are Going Up June 15th, 2008

Categories: Market Trends

I read quite a few articles on the financial markets every week.  For quite a while now there have been whispered warnings of inflation.  That whisper has now grown to a roar.

Oil prices have not settled, increasing the cost of all energy.  It has increased the cost of everything that needs to be transported from place to place. 

Now, with the crazy weather in the corn belt you can expect higher prices for corn, wheat, and other food products grown in places like Iowa.  If you have read the book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, you realize that corn is in just about everything in the grocery store.

Here is a quote from a weekly update I get courtesy of Alice Roe of US Bank:

• “The United States is the world’s largest exporter of corn. Relatively rainy weather recently across the Midwest portions of the United States has delayed planting of corn. This caused corn prices to escalate. Wheat and other staples are also in high demand amid reduced supply, causing prices to rise. Couple these factors with rising energy costs and the picture does not look pretty. Higher commodity prices result in heightened inflationary fears. Many analysts predict the food price increases already seen most everywhere will continue.”

Interest rates for long term loans like mortgages are based on the the lenders feeling about long term inflation.  Higher inflation fears equals higher interest rates. 

Interest rates are already going up.  They will likely continue to increase for the near future.  If you currently have a loan in process…you might want to lock your rate in.  If you are shopping for a house, you might want to tie one up so that you can lock in the current low rates.

As with any advice like this, this is only my opinion.  You need to check out the situation for yourself before making your decisions.

More on this topic:

• LA Times 
• John Mauldin  I subscribe to his newsletter.
• Financial Times

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