Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Glenn Highway to the Matanuska Glacier December 18th, 2009

Categories: For Buyers

I took a trip up the Glenn Highway to look at a ten acre lot near the Matanuska Glacier.

It was a beautiful day there, but foggy and zero degrees in Palmer. Since the Chugach Mountains were in the shade I took a few photos of some of the sunlit Talkeetna Mountains. Here is Granite Peak which is just past Sutton near mile 65 of the Glenn Highway.

One of my favorite mountains is Castle Mountain at about mile 72, just before you pull into Chickaloon.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

And then at mile 95 is Victory Peak which towers over Victory Bible Camp and the long since closed Victory High School where I graduated in 1971.

Speaking of schools, here is Glacier View School where I attended 8th grade. It was only a two room school at that time and in a different location. The current location overlooks the Matanuska Glacier. It has one of the best views in the country…or world for that matter.

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Palmer’s Colony Christmas December 13th, 2009

Categories: For Buyers

If you are close to Palmer you should attend some of the Colony Christmas festivities. There are craft shows, fireworks, parades, steak feeds, triathalons, and lots more.

Check out the photos and the video of the parade.

The steak feed is at the Palmer Moose Lodge benefiting Palmer Amateur Hockey Association. And I am giving away two free tickets….
contact me by email if you are interested in them.

marty@valleymarket.com

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Are You A Real Estate Pro? December 12th, 2009

Categories: For Buyers

“I am not working with a Realtor, I don’t think I need one…” I frequently hear comments like this from callers who want to know where a particular property is located so that they can drive by. Occasionally they will say that they have bought and sold property in the past so they are confident in their ability to handle the transaction.

Of course, I never question them but just let them go on their merry way. But often I want to say a whole lot…and that’s what’s nice about having a blog! I can say it here, so watch out! INCOMING RANT !

I have been in real estate marketing since 1991, that’s 18 years. I meet every Tuesday morning with a group of other Realtors, most of whom have been in real estate longer than that. You know what we talk about? All the NEW THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED that week so that we can help each other out.

Since 1991 I have been involved in at least 700 real estate transactions, probably more than that, I haven’t counted them up. Every single transaction is different and I learn something new almost every time. In fact, that is one of the things I like most about real estate. It isn’t repetitive and boring, your head has to be in the game all the time.

We work with a lot of different people during the transaction. Here is only a partial list. I will add to it as I remember more.

Buyer
Seller
Title Company
Lender
Appraiser
Surveyor
Inspector
Engineer for Well and Septic
Structural Engineer
Electrician
Plumber
General Contractor
Mold Specialist
Radon Specialist
Borough Government
City Government
…I’ll think of more

All the people above are needed to help with a part of the transaction that if not completed can kill it. Each of these have specialized knowledge to help navigate the obstacles that occur in each transaction.

A Realtors job is to coordinate the transaction from start to finish.

And that’s only part of the job.

And if the transaction doesn’t close…guess what! We just worked about 100 hours for nothing.

That’s why I like real estate. It’s not boring.

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Wasilla Real Estate Statistics for Dec 1-7, 2009 December 8th, 2009

Categories: For Buyers

These statistics are for all the residential single family homes in the Mat-Su Borough. This includes Palmer, Wasilla, Big Lake, Houston, Talkeetna and all the other communities in the borough. The vast majority of the real estate activity is in the core area around Wasilla and Palmer.

As you can see from the chart below, all the activity is down. Fewer people look at homes during the times between Thanksgiving and New Years.

		Average Price	Median Price	DOM
New	15	$235,843	$232,950	.
Total Active	729	$273,722	$234,900	168
Pending	13	$181,077	$188,500	48
Closed	16	$221,998	$193,135	92

One interesting thing is that certain houses are getting a lot more action. I have one house that has seen more showings in the last twe weeks than we have had in the last two months. It seems that a bunch of buyers are just discovering what a unique opportunity this house is. Take a look at it here.

The only thing that has gone up is days in the market. That is because fewer new listings are coming on the market which drives the total days on the market up. That number will tend to go down in the spring after a lot of new listings come on the market.

A contrarian way of marketing real estate is to hit the market when the competition is not. That would be anytime between now and the end of February.

On the other hand, buyers should know that mid-winter is your best chance to get a deal. I addition, this is a fantastic time to lock in a really low interest rate.

Other articles you may like:
2009 Real Estate Statistics
Deals Of The Week
Foreclosures, the Good, Bad, and Ugly

Sign on to my Face Bookpage for additionnal updates.

Based on information from AK MLS, Inc. for the period Dec 1-7, 2009 but not compiled or published by AK MLS, Inc. Data maintained by AK MLS, Inc. may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.

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Real Estate Reading? December 7th, 2009

Categories: For Buyers

Interest rates rose this week. Hopefully this won’t be a continuing trend. Interest rates probably will rise when the fed backs out of the mortgage market which is supposed to be in a few months. Still, the current rates are really good. in the high 4s right now which is better than anything on that graph above.

I got the quote below from “Mortgage Market In Review” that I receive every week from Alice Roe of US Bank.

“The biggest fear of bondholders is inflation. Real or perceived, inflation erodes the value of fixed income securities causing prices fall and rates to rise. The last thing the struggling housing sector of the economy needs is escalating mortgage interest rates. Unfortunately comments from Fed Chairman Bernanke have many traders concerned that rate hikes are on the way. Bernanke indicated the Fed would follow a “rolling exit process” in which special programs run down and ultimately implement a tightening policy. He went on to mention raising rates and indicated the Fed will cut back and close emergency lending programs as the markets normalize. The reaction to these remarks was fast and furious as mortgage interest rates shot higher. While it is almost inevitable that the Fed will eventually raise rates, the question still remains when that process will actually start to occur. Many traders took Bernanke’s remarks as a warning of things to come sooner rather than later.”

In the same week we get notice that 30 year mortgage rates are lower than ever..

News also came this week that FHA loans will become tougher to get. They will cost more and require higher credit scores. Currently FHA loans are a huge part of our market. If they put these new restrictiions into place, and it sounds like they will, buyers will have a harder time getting a loan which will have an effect on house prices.

And finally, this same week, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation reduced the difficulty of getting loans with them. Hopefully this will blunt the negative effects of the tougher FHA standards.

We are living in interesting times. A quote from John Mauldin, (whose newsletter you should read), this week goes, “My basic thesis is, we’re going to see a pace of change that far exceeds anything human beings have experienced since the dawn of man. Furthermore, in terms of technology, that change is going to accelerate. We’re going to have multiple waves of technological change. It would be as if electricity, the steam engine, and the automobile all showed up at the same time. Boom!”.

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Get on the Deals Of The Week List….Foreclosure List….or Motivated Sellers list.

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