I can’t seem to go anywhere these days without someone asking me about the market. Are values still rising? Are we going to have a crash? What is my home worth. Should I buy/sell now or wait? This article will attempt to answer some of those questions.
No Crystal Ball
It’s important to remember that we can only see the present with any clarity. We can also compare the present with the past but future predictions are hazy at best. So let’s start with last year, compare it to this year and guess about the future.
The Core Area
We will confine our comparison to the greater core area. The greater core area is a term I use for Wasilla, Palmer, Big Lake, and the Knik-Goose Bay Road area.
Yesterday
In 2005 the Multiple Listing Service shows 1380 residential home sales in the greater core area of the Mat-Su Valley. The average sales price was $213,834. That is surprisingly close to the amount of sales in 2004 which saw 1316 sales. But the average price was up 13% from 2004’s average price of $188,058.
