Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Monday Market Memo, Nov 18-24, 2008 November 27th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News statistics for Nov 18–24, 2008.  These are the statistics for residential sales in the whole Mat-Su Borough.  This includes Palmer, Wasilla, Sutton, Houston, Willow, Talkeetna and more.

We are in winter mode in real estate.  The new listings are falling and the total inventory is also falling.  Houses are still selling however.  There were 29 new pending sales last week which is a healthy number for this time of year.

Notice the difference in the average and median price for this weeks pendings. That is because there was one very expensive lake front home that pended this week.  People are still buying those nice homes.

Speaking of nice homes…we just listed this beautiful home on 5 acres on Lazy Mountain.  This is a rare find.   . 

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Monday Market Memo, November 10-17,2008 November 17th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News statistics for the week of November 10–17, 2008

These statistics include all residential sales on the Alaska MLS system for the Mat-Su Borough.  They do not include vacant land sales or commercial and multi-family sales.

I included the statistics for the same week in 2007, the week before Thanksgiving.  You will notice that I include more details in the report now than I did then   I have added them as a response to my readers.  If you would like different details, let me know and I will add them if possible.

This week is on the left and 2007 is on the right.

Notice that the statistics are very similar except for total inventory. The inventory is down by about 10% compared to last year. I would expect the inventory to continue to drop as we go through the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. The inventory is lower because people generally don’t want to make a move from their house during the holiday season. After the first of the year, people will begin to put their homes back on the market and it will slowly grow.

The other noticeable difference is Days on Market.  Marketing time is up by a significant amount.  It takes much longer this year to sell a home than it did last year.  Sellers should be aware of this and prepare for it.  Still, the homes that are competitively priced tend to sell quickly.  Here is a quote from last years post…”although the new listings usually show a significant decline during that time of the year, buyers do not stop looking.  If a good house hits the market buyers will be all over it.  This is actually a good time to put a well priced, clean home on the market.  You will have less competition…”

If you would like some help to determine a competitive price for your property, give me a call at 373–0999 or email marty@valleymarket.com

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Wasilla Real Estate Statistics For Oct 21 through Nov 3, 2008 November 3rd, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Here are the statistics for this past week for all residential property in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.  This includes Wasilla, Palmer and all the surrounding areas.

The closings came up last week after two down weeks of only 15 closings each.  The end of a month is usually a higher closing period than mid-month.

Pendings are down drastically this past week however.  My reasoning is that buyers are hesitant to commit just before this major presidential election.  Next week, when the sun comes up like it normally does, some buyers will decide to move forward no matter who is the President of the United States.

The total inventory has dropped again and may go below 800 by next week. 

If you would like to get my list of motivated sellers, just drop me a line at marty@valleymarket.com or call 907 232–7900

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Monday Morning Market Memo… Oct 20-27, 2008 October 27th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Wasilla, Palmer, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough real estate statistics for the week of Oct 20–27, 2008. 

This week I noticed that 6 of the 15 closings were new construction.  Although the new construction market is down along with the rest of the real estate market, it is still holding it’s own.  Obviously 1/3 or more of the buyers are finding better value with new construction than with existing homes.

Only 5 of the homes that closed this week were built before 1990.  That is consistent with the total inventory where 28% of all the homes on the market are pre-1990.

That indicates a shift in our market.  For a long time we were concentrating on homes that were built during the early 80s real estate boom.  Now those are obviously a minority of the homes sold.  Homes built during that era need to be aggressively priced because they are competing with the very energy efficient homes being built today.

We closed on this home in Hart Lake Estates this week.  Everyone who saw it commented on how nice it turned out.  The appraiser, the buyers and their Realtor were all pleased with the results.  The builder, Petr Rytikov is going to begin another home very similar to this one near Lucille Street in Wasilla soon.  If you are interested in finding out about it, give me a call at 907 232–7900 or email me marty@valleymarket.com  .

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Monday Market Memo…Oct 13-20, 2008 October 25th, 2008

Categories: Monday Market Memo

Here are the statistics for Wasilla, Palmer and the rest of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough for the week of Oct 13–20, 2008.

I looked back at our inventory last year at this time, it was a total of 915.  Our total inventory is down significantly, thats a good thing, because our total sales are off by about the same amount.

There were 31 pending sales last week, that is a healthy number for this time of year.  The closings are low but will probably spike a little in the next couple weeks.\

There are a quite a few buyers in the lower price ranges, but there are very few homes in that price range.  This is the price range between $150,000–$200,000.  Many of those buyers are opting for new construction because of the scarcity of homes that meet financing criteria. 

I am working with a buyer right now who is getting into a brand new 3 bedroom, 2 bath home of just under 1200 square feet for $172,000.  It is a five star plus home, so when it is finished he will receive a $7,500 rebate check from Alaska Housing for energy efficiency.  Not only that, over the years he will save even more because his utility bills will be significantly lower than other homes.

If you would like to find out how to do that, give Jay or I a call at 907 373–0999 or email me at marty@valleymarket.com

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