Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Wasilla Real Estate, Statistics for May 5-12,2008 May 12th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News presents the real estate numbers for the week.  These statistics include all single family residences in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.  This includes Palmer, Wasilla, Big Lake, Houston, Willow, Talkeetna, Trapper Creek, Sutton and all points North East as far as Lake Louise.

However, over 80% of the real estate activity takes place in what we call the core area.  This includes Palmer, Wasilla, Big Lake and South Houston.  There are a lot of homes in the Knik-Goose Bay Road area and the Meadow Lakes area that aren’t in any city.

Below are the stats for the week.

Pending sales were up a little this week which is good.  Pretty much all the other categories were up as well.  The inventory is growing faster than we are selling the homes off…but that is to be expected in the spring.

I heard about one Realtor showing 77 homes to a buyer this past week.  They almost have it narrowed down now.  I think that is some kind of a record.  I usually lose track after about 25–30 houses to one buyer.  That is a reflection of the times.  There are a lot of houses to look at.

Three houses over $400,000 pended this past week, and several more in the $300,000 range.  One of our listings over $500,000 pended as well so it was a good week for the higher end houses.

I finished my new motivated sellers list for the week.   If you are interested just click on the contact link to send an email.

Also, if you would like to get a better search for houses just drop a line with the criteria you need and I will set up a search for you that is much better than the kind you can do online. 

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Wasilla Real Estate Statistics. May 5, 2008 May 5th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Monday Market Memo for the week ending May 5, 2008.  These are the statistics for the Mat-Su MLS for this week.

Well we went over 800 for our total inventory for the first time since last summer.  That was to be expected.  I think we will stay above this number for the rest of the summer.

There were only 24 pendings this week which is less than I expected.  This weekend has been very busy with a lot of showings.  I expect this activity to turn into pendings this week.  I was surprised at how many high end houses were shown over the weekend.  People were writing offers on these $400K+  houses as well. 

The sun is out, the real estate market is warming up.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Monday Morning Market Memo for April 28, 2008 April 28th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News Statistics for this week show a little life in the real estate market.  I have been waiting all spring for our normal jump and it started to show up this week.

Most of us have been experiencing more calls, more showings, and generally more activity in the market for more than a month but this has not been showing up in the statistics.  Just because people were looking, there wasn’t an increase in pendings and closings. 

This week both of those categories are up more than 30% over last week and over most of the previous 6 weeks.  If this new level of activity continues we will have a pretty healthy market.

I expected to see the total inventory top 800 this week, but with fewer new listings, and and increase in pendings the inventory actually dropped…a little. 

Foreclosure activity does not appear to be driving the market.  I just sent out my new Motivated Sellers list to the subscribers and was surprised at the small amount of foreclosures.  There are only 18  this week out of the 795 total listings.  But those foreclosures are selling.  The lenders are experiencing pain in some outside markets and they don’t want to hold on to foreclosures.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Wasilla Real Estate Monday Market Memo April 21st, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News market statistics for the week ending April 21, 2008.  This includes Palmer and the rest of the Matanuska Susitna Borough.

It is amazing that this week is almost identical to last week.  We had almost the same amount of everything except total active listings.  Those were up by about 20 and will probably go over 800 by next week.

I keep expecting to see a surge in sales for the spring.  That would be a surge in pending and closed listings.  But this hasn’t happened.  They have stayed almost steady at 30 and 20 respectively. 

The average price for pending sales is down this week primarily because of about 4 places that sold for 50–60 thousand.  Don’t worry, they weren’t screaming deals, they were worth just about what they sold for.

I did notice several from the Motivated Sellers list on the pending sheet today.  Some of the motivated sellers haven’t become motivated enough to get their price right yet.  They will, they are going to sell eventually.

I wrote and offer today on a house and received an offer on one of our listings.  There is still a market, we just have to be “in the market”…not “on the market”.  You will know you are “in the market” if you are getting showings.  If you aren’t getting very many showings…you are only “on the market”. 

Just remember, there are about 30 houses selling per week.  And the average price is in the low $200s.  The vast majority of homes that are selling are under $300,000.

If your house is in the $300s or more, you are fighting with over 240 other sellers over 3 buyers a week.  You need to be the among the best 3 out of 240 other houses.  Sorry for the tough news, but you might as well know the truth.

We had one of our $300+ homes pend last week.  These sellers got serious about selling and lowered the price down to where there were finally people looking.  We went from almost no showings to several a week and finally an offer.  That is what motivated sellers do, they get it sold.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Wasilla Real Estate News, Monday Market Memo for April 14,2008 April 14th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate statistics, including Palmer and the whole Mat-Su borough for the past week.

The market appears to be holding steady. There are more new listings, as expected in the spring.  The new pending and closed sales have been almost the same for the last 2 months. The following chart shows the stats for this week.

A very interesting phenomenon this week the stark difference between Days on Market, (DOM), for the pending and closed sales compared to the total active listings. I also notice that a lot of homes on my motivated sellers list turned up in the pending list this week…obviously they were good picks. I’m still updating the next one…it should be done soon.

Once more it is obvious that there are two markets out there.  There are 775 homes on the market with only 30 buyers a week willing to write offers on them.  Obviously, they only shop the houses that are priced and presented right, the other houses keep racking up DOM.

To get into the pending or closed category requires both price and presentation.  There are only so many homes that a buyer can see.  I showed 13 homes yesterday priced from $280,000–$380,000.  We started at 1 PM and didn’t finish until 8:30PM.   I don’t usually work on Sunday, but these people had come from outside and had a limited time schedule.  We found a couple interesting homes, but one was obviously priced better than the rest.  Guess which one interests them.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.