Wasilla Real Estate News
November 12-19, 2007 Market Statistics
The market continues to hum along steadily without a significant winter slowdown so far. We will probably see the new listing numbers drop as people celebrate the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
As I have mentioned before, 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.
| Average Price | DOM | ||
| New | 32 | $234,244 | . |
| Total Active | 866 | . | . |
| Pending | 21 | $221,676 | 115 |
| Closed | 27 | $210,089 | 80 |
New construction is still a significant part of our market. In the last two months new construction homes have been about 1/3 of all the homes that have sold. That is not down significantly from the hot new construction market of a few years ago…CLARIFICATION: After I posted this I realized that this is misleading. While the percentage of new homes is not down significantly, the whole market, including new construction is off by about 20% or so from two years ago.
What has changed about new construction is the fact that more of those new homes are pre-solds. Pre-solds are what we call new homes that are sold before construction begins. A buyer contracts with a builder to have a house built. The builder does not start on the construction until the home is under contract.
Pre-solds are contrasted with “specs”. A “spec home” is one that is built on speculation by the builder hoping that he can sell it when it is finished. About 20 percent of the current homes on the market are “spec homes”.
It is obvious that a significant portion of the buyers are turning down the existing homes to opt for a new house. New homes are still competing with the rest of the market although builders have had to sharpen their pencils to keep prices competitive.
We wrote an offer last week on a pre-sold and have a spec home on the market with hopes to have it finished by the end of February. If you would like help with a new construction home give either Marty or Jay a call at 907 373–0999. That number rings both of our cell phones.
