Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

This is incorrect. Buyers are still looking for houses during this time. These are very serious buyers who are getting a little frustrated. They have been looking and looking and not finding what they need. These buyers are checking every day and not finding anything. They notice during this time of year that few new homes come on the market.

I looked at our MLS system for the last 5 years to show that buyers don’t take the holidays off. Here are the actual statistics.

From November 1 to December 31 an average of 184 homes came on the market. During that same time an average of 143 homes sold. So the difference of new listings to sold was 41 houses.

Taking a look at the next two months from January 1 to February 28 an average of 396 homes came on the market. During the same time 197 homes sold. The difference of new listings to solds is 199 houses.

So if you list during the holidays you have a much better chance to get showings.

Here are a few other good reasons to list your home during the holidays.

1. When your home is decorated for Christmas it is at it’s very best.
2. Buyer’s are more emotional during this time of year, and believe me, buying a house is an emotional decision.
3. Winter buyers are serious buyers compared to the spring time tire kickers.
4. Many buyers want to close before the end of the year for tax reasons.

If your home is already on the market this is a good time of year to make a price adjustment. If it has been on the market for awhile it needs a price reduction. A good sized reduction to get it to the market price this time of year will get attention for the same reasons as those above. You need to get ahead of the market before the flood of new listings hits after the first of the year.

So far this year we have had sold 155 foreclosed properties. We have sold 1100 total residential properties since January 1, 2011. That means foreclosures are almost exactly 14% of the total market.

You would think that foreclosures were a much larger part of the market from all the noise you hear in the media. Many buyers that I talk to want to see all the foreclosures because they think they are the only deals out there. There are currently 31 foreclosures on the market. If you would like to see them just click on the foreclosure link in the blue bar above. I have videos of most of them.

Actually there are a lot of other good deals out there as well. Foreclosures have been selling in an average of 50 days which indicates a pretty active market. On the other hand, the average days on the market for all of the 1100 closed listings so far this year are 58. That isn’t much different. The houses that sold were obviously priced right.

365 Things To Do, Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page4.

I”m getting ready to snow blow the drive way and thought I could post a few more that have to do with snow as a way of procrastination. So here they are:

63. Snowblow, shovel, plow the drive way…that only counts as one.
64, Shovel some ice off the lake and create a skating rink. Make sure the ice is safe.
65, Make snow angels.
66, Shovel snow on all your perennials to give them a little more protection.
67, Take close-up photos of snowflakes…and post them on this page.
68, Make a snow fort.

Got any more snow day things to do?