Wasilla Real Estate Monday Market Memo

Wasilla Real Estate News market statistics for the week ending April 21, 2008.  This includes Palmer and the rest of the Matanuska Susitna Borough.

It is amazing that this week is almost identical to last week.  We had almost the same amount of everything except total active listings.  Those were up by about 20 and will probably go over 800 by next week.

I keep expecting to see a surge in sales for the spring.  That would be a surge in pending and closed listings.  But this hasn’t happened.  They have stayed almost steady at 30 and 20 respectively. 

The average price for pending sales is down this week primarily because of about 4 places that sold for 50–60 thousand.  Don’t worry, they weren’t screaming deals, they were worth just about what they sold for.

I did notice several from the Motivated Sellers list on the pending sheet today.  Some of the motivated sellers haven’t become motivated enough to get their price right yet.  They will, they are going to sell eventually.

I wrote and offer today on a house and received an offer on one of our listings.  There is still a market, we just have to be “in the market”…not “on the market”.  You will know you are “in the market” if you are getting showings.  If you aren’t getting very many showings…you are only “on the market”. 

Just remember, there are about 30 houses selling per week.  And the average price is in the low $200s.  The vast majority of homes that are selling are under $300,000.

If your house is in the $300s or more, you are fighting with over 240 other sellers over 3 buyers a week.  You need to be the among the best 3 out of 240 other houses.  Sorry for the tough news, but you might as well know the truth.

We had one of our $300+ homes pend last week.  These sellers got serious about selling and lowered the price down to where there were finally people looking.  We went from almost no showings to several a week and finally an offer.  That is what motivated sellers do, they get it sold.