Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Wasilla Real Estates, Market Memo forJan 14-21, 2008 January 22nd, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

For the week of January 14–21, 2008 here are the real estate statistics for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.  This includes Wasilla, Palmer and surrounding areas.

These statistics are residential house sales, everything from cabins to mansions.

Well…the pending and closed actions sure took a dive this week.  You couldn’t tell it by our own business…we have still been real busy.  Still, it’s hard to ignore the numbers.  I think it is just a by-product of two weeks in a row of 4 day weeks. 

The total active listings increased by only 12 this week even though pending sales were down.  I expect a jump in all the numbers next week.

I talked to Tim Vereide of Prudential Vista Real Estate in Wasilla today.  He is another number cruncher it seems, as well as an all around nice guy and great Realtor.  He has been keeping track of monthly stats for quite some time.  Tim has been watching the core area, Palmer, Wasilla, Houston and Knik Road out to Settlers Bay. 

Here is a real interesting fact from Tim…573 active listings in Jan 2007 compared to 554 this year.  Also there were 127 pendings at this time last year compared to 131 this year.  Those are actually pretty encouraging numbers given that it seems that the sky is falling everywhere else. 

Written by Marty Van Diest 1 Comment »

Wasilla Real Estate, Monday Market Memo January 15th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

For the week of January 7–14, 2008 here are the real estate statistics for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.  This includes Wasilla, Palmer and surrounding areas.

These statistics are residential house sales, everything from cabins to mansions.

The new listings took a big jump this week. If you read the previous Monday Market Memos you would have expected that.  Are total inventory increased by about 25 listings this week.  The inventory will likely continue to grow over the next few months.

Pendings and sales came up slightly, I expect that they will hold pretty steady with slight increases over the next few months.  In the summer we usually see these running at about 30–40 per week, so this isn’t bad for mid-winter.

An interesting observation is that the average price for the total inventory has dropped about $20,000 over the last year while the average sales price has remained pretty steady.  Perhaps that means that sellers are starting to list their homes at more realistic asking prices.

We have been pretty busy this past week, writing offers on 3 properties and listing another 3.  This is good action for this time of year.  If you would like us to help you find a property or sell the one you have, give a call on the cell.  907 232–7900.

Written by Marty Van Diest Please leave a comment.

Wasilla Real Estate: Monday Market Memo 1/1-1/7/2008 January 7th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

These are the real estate stats for the first week of 2008.  New listings are starting to hit the market.  More than twice as many new listings came on the market compared to the previous week. 

But we had enough properties leave the market so that the total active listings actually dropped for about the 5th week in a row.  We have about 7 months worth of inventory at this week’s level of absorption.  That is still a buyer’s market.

 There are a lot of new listings in the works right now.  I’m sure we will see quite a few more choice properties hit the market in the next couple months. 

Interest rates are very low right now.  If you haven’t been paying attention you might be surprised to find that 30 year fixed mortgages can be locked in at 5.6% and it might go lower.

Written by Marty Van Diest 1 Comment »

Monday Market Memo…on Tuesday January 1st, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

This are the statistics for the last week of 2007.  All the numbers are down a little because of the two holidays of Christmas and New Years. 

Notice that the total active listings dropped by almost 100 since last week.  That is because of the fact that many listings expire Dec 31.  Not to worry, we will have a huge influx of listings this month and next to make up for it.

I am working on another post with my predictions for 2008.  It should be done by tonight…check back.

Written by Marty Van Diest 1 Comment »

Monday Market Memo, Dec 24, 2007 December 25th, 2007

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate statistics continue to show more of the same thing we have seen for the last 6 weeks or so.  These statistics are for residential single family homes for the whole Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

That is a steady flow of pending sales and closed sales with an inventory that continues to diminish.  At this rate it is possible that the inventory will drop below 700 by next week.  But it won’t go much below that because there is already a backlog of houses ready to hit the market after the first of the year. 

At this point prices seem to be holding steady.  There are more foreclosed homes on the market which is an opportunity for people looking for fixers.  They are not affecting the existing home market because most of them are in poor condition. 

Homes have to be priced competitively to sell.  Many, perhaps most of the homes that are over $300,000 are still priced a little too high.  If sellers want them to move they are going to need to become realistic.  Buyers generally look at a lot of homes before they make their decision.  It becomes fairly easy to pick out the overpriced homes after you have been in 40 homes.

Written by Marty Van Diest 2 Comments »