Archive for December, 2008
Moose Boxes December 30th, 2008
I got this email from a fellow realtor today:
I received a call from my mother today asking for help removing a freezer from her driveway. Her next door neighbor moved out of the house last week. He came over to the house and asked her if she wanted a Moose Box and in the same breath spoke of kindling.
Her thought was, hmmm, a box for kindling, my boys might like that.
She told the neighbor sure. Next thing you know there is a dead freezer in the driveway. The dump charges $25 for freezers/fridges etc. So we paid to get rid of the “moose box”.
The moral of the story is: Be wary of accepting gifts with catchy Alaska names from thy moving neighbor….
Monday Market Memo for Dec 23-29, 2008 December 29th, 2008
Notice how few new homes came on the market this week. Of course this week included Christmas so most people were busy with family and not listing their home.
We also went below 700 in total inventory this week. I expect the inventory to drop by more than 50 next week as we turn over a new year. It will remain low until February or so when it will begin to build.
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Average Price | Median Price | DOM | |
| New | 5 | $203,100 | $199,000 | . |
| Total Active | 687 | $284,487 | $230,000 | 166 |
| Pending | 15 | $172,160 | $179,950 | 106 |
| Closed | 10 | $257,474 | $228,450 | 90 |
Three of the 10 closed homes in the past week were new construction which shows a comparatively healthy market compared to other parts of the country. If a builder can still compete with the resale market you know that the prices haven’t dropped below the costs of construction.
Many parts of the country are completely driven by foreclosure homes that are selling from 40–50 percent lower than they did in 2005. We have seen a weaker market here in Alaska than it was in 2005 but we certainly haven’t seen price drops of that magnitude.
Of course the reason places like Pheonix, Florida, Las Vegas and California are experiencing such huge declines is because they had such a rediculously fast run-up in prices. We didn’t have that bubble either.
Monday Morning Market Memo for Dec 16-22, 2008 December 22nd, 2008
Wasilla Real Estate News Memo for Dec 16–22, 2008. These are the statistics for single family residential homes in the whole Mat-Su Borough for the week.
This week was a lot better than last week which saw some of the lowest numbers for the last 3 years. Even though this is the slowest time of the year, we may see a resurgence in demand because of the very low interest rates.
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Average Price | Median Price | DOM | |
| New | 19 | $259,071 | $239,000 | . |
| Total Active | 712 | $282,820 | $229,450 | 158 |
| Pending | 12 | $209,942 | $182,500 | 132 |
| Closed | 24 | $240,240 | $207,450 | 57 |
A couple of $400K homes pended this last week which is a good thing. Demand has been slower on those homes and buyers have a lot of choices.
Demand is still pretty good for homes under $250,000. The market is competitive for sellers at all levels however. Buyers will tend to walk away from offers fairly quickly. So if you are a seller, market your home with a good sales price and don’t turn up your nose at buyers. The next one may not come along for awhile.
The Number One Secret To Selling In Todays Market December 18th, 2008
Pricing Your Home Right.
Thats all there is to it. Of course you need to expose it to the market, but all the marketing in the world will not sell an overpriced home. You can spend thousands and thousands of dollars on advertising, and many do, but you still can’t sell an overprice home.
By far, the most important thing to get right in marketing a home is pricing it right to start with. If a home is priced right for the current market it will sell. If it is priced too high, it will not sell, its a s simple as that. If it is price too low it will sell but you will leave money on the table.
Even though the secret is a simple one, actually determining the correct sales price is not so simple. In fact, its more of an art than a science. Appraisers value homes based purely on the numbers. But the appraised value of a home is usually not at all the correct price to market. The tax appraisers also put values on homes based on very broad guidelines but the tax assessed values are even less valuable from a marketing standpoint. We often sell homes for twice the borough tax assessment, and then sometimes for 30% under the tax assessment.
It takes an experienced realtor who has been marketing homes in the area for awhile to determine a realistic sales price. Even then, some homes are so unusual that that the price is really a broad range and the market has to determine the price.
I thought I would post the excepts of a letter that I sent to a prospective seller just yesterday. This was an easy house to price correctly. This seller decided not to sell at this time.
Hello (Mr Seller),
I have finished the research on your house. I have reviewed 84 ranch style homes that have been on the market in the last year. They were all between 1300-1600 square feet with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and 2 car garages. They had at least ½ acre of land. They were all built since 2000.
Your house has 1480 square feet, 1 ½ acres of land and otherwise matches most of the homes on the list.
Of those 84 homes, 32 of them are still active. They will be your competition. You will need to beat all 32 of them and they are all located in the Palmer/Wasilla area. These homes average $147 per square foot and have been on the market for an average of 116 days.
48 of the houses have sold within the past year. The more important sales are the most recent ones. These homes average $145 per square foot and have been on the market for and average of 59 days. Many of them were new construction and so they had a shorter time on the market because a lot of them were sold before they were built.
There are four pending sales. These are the most important because they are currently under contract but have not closed. We don’t know the sales price for these homes because it is not yet public knowledge but we do know the asking price. The asking price for these homes averaged $137 per square foot and were on the market for an average of 122 days. The two homes that were on the market for the longest time dropped their price significantly before they pended.
It is important to realize that home prices haven’t gone up much…if at all in the last year. They may be going down, but we don’t have enough data to support that yet. I would say that you should list your home for $220,000. You will have to wait and see how the market reacts to that price. You may end up selling it for $215,000 which is less than your purchase price.
BTW…here is your listing when you purchased your home, (link removed per MLS rules).
Please let me know if there is anything I can do. I would be willing to list it for a slightly higher price, but I think that anything higher than $230,000 would be just making a sign post out of your house. I would get calls and leads off the sign, but you wouldn’t get anything but wasted effort on your part.
Marty Van Diest
Valley Market Real Estate
907 232-7900
www.valleymarket.com
Wasilla Real Estate News, Monday Market Memo, Dec 9-15, 2008 December 15th, 2008
Wasilla Real Estate News Market Statistics for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough for the week of Dec 9–15, 2008.
This weeks numbers of closed sales, pending sales and new listings are the lowest I have recorded since starting these statistics about 3 years ago.
Only 3 pending sales for the whole Mat-Su Borough is pretty sobering. Of course, this is the week before Christmas, the slowest time of the year, but only THREE PENDINGS? And notice the median price of those three pending sales, only $133,000.
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Average Price | Median Price | DOM | |
| New | 13 | $335,565 | $224,900 | . |
| Total Active | 714 | $283,362 | $229,000 | 157 |
| Pending | 3 | $176,267 | $133,900 | 83 |
| Closed | 9 | $282,311 | $220,000 | 38 |
Another trend that I have been noticing lately is that the median asking price has been steadily dropping while the average Days on Market, (DOM), has been steadily rising. This either indicates that the prices are dropping or at least that there is downward pressure on prices.
In order to actually prove that prices are rising or falling you need to used matched pairs. That is, you need to have the same house, or almost the same house sell a year or two ago and then sell again today. With several matched pairs you can show that prices are rising or falling.
I did this study last summer and found about a dozen matched pairs. All but one sold for more this year than its previous sale of two years earlier. I hope to find the time to do that again in the next week or so.
Feel free to call with any questions about the Mat-Su Real Estate market. You can call 907 232–7900 or email me at [email protected]
Marty Van Diest, Tele 907.232.7900 / marty[at]valleymarket[dot]com
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