Palm Springs Real Estate
Coachella Valley Real Estate

Coachella Valley Sees 17.4% Increase In Real Estate Sales For July

September 20, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

coachela_valley_real_estateOnce again the numbers for sales in the Coachella Valley region saw increases by 17.4% for the month of July. This marked the second month in a row that there were double digit gains with as much as 23.3% rise for single-family, condos and new construction homes. With the median price all the way down to $180,000 compared to $274,000 just a year ago, it is no surprise sales continue to increase.

This is the perfect time to be looking if you are a first time buyer with cash, quality credit, and the incentive to capitalize on federal and state tax credits. Houses within the $100,000 to $200,000 range are hotter than ever with people bidding left and right. In addition, there has been an increase in the high-end market as well with homes above $417,000 gaining interest. One thing is for sure; sales are most relevant where foreclosure has been around. There was a total of 965 new and resale houses and condos closed in the Coachella Valley with a majority coming from resale single-family homes.

In Indian Wells, sales rose as much as 100 percent in the higher-priced market. There were a total of 16 sales with one reaching $3.8 million for the single sale. What you are seeing is homes above $417,000 have more and more people looking for purchase loans with an increase of 15.1 percent.

As expected, real estate agents are in heaven. The last year has been a terrific year to be a real estate agent with homes flying off the market. Some believe the bottom has long passed in terms of sales. Now it is a matter of getting prices to get out of the getter which could be awhile still.

There is no question the realistic pricing for homes has sales increasing month after month in Coachella Valley. Homes in the $800,000 range are having terrific success, but homes between $1 million and $2.2 million are beginning to see offers and deals land as well.

What is falling is the inventory on bank-owned property. Riverside County saw 58.7 percent of homes that resold were foreclosure resales. However, this is still the lowest this number has been since April 2008.
Although there have been signs of hope for the future, many still believe it is too soon to say the real estate market has gotten out of the bottom. With the continuing increase of job losses and foreclosures, it is just too soon to say the market is on an incline.

What is troubling is not knowing what the high level of mortgage defaults will do. The lender can potentially approach the foreclosure process or begin to move toward a short sale or loan modification. Instead of dropping homes into the sales market right away, banks are holding onto properties unusually long. It appears banks are trying to protect pricing of homes with the hope that holding onto homes will begin to increase the overall price.

So for now, it is difficult to say whether the bottom has been reached or if there is more to come. As soon as the job market begins to improve and foreclosure inventory decreases we will know the market is on an incline.

Coachella Valley Real Estate

The Two Sides of the Real Estate Market Of Coachella Valley

Coachella Valley Real EstateAs optimists continue to look for any signs of hope for the economy and real estate market, foreclosure problems have only stayed on track over the first of the year in California. Coachella Valley alone has recorded a remarkable 68 percent rise in activity compared to the same time just a year ago.

From January through June there have been a total of 391,611 California properties receive a foreclosure filing and over 12,000 notices of default, auction sales or bank repossessions in the valley. Any hope that the market had begun to turn around has dwindled with the release of these astonishing numbers.

Chief executive officer of RealtyTrac James Saccacio has said that a lot of the increased activity is due to unemployment-related foreclosures. While the real estate market continues to struggle, so to does the job market with hundreds of thousands of people jobless.Although Valley foreclosures are far higher than the rest of the sate of California, this does not mean things are happy go-lucky throughout. However, the valley has seen a fairly consistent flow of activity over the past year.

Many real estate professionals are waiting for properties in higher-income brackets to begin marketing and selling because of stock portfolio and job losses of almost 50 percent. While things are supposed to be looking up, the only number that is going up is the number of houses in foreclosure and those that are bank-owned.The only thing that has turned around for the real estate market is buyers. With so many tremendous deals to choose from, there has been a rise in sales. While there are a number of foreclosures on the market, normal sales have begun to see quite a bit of activity as well. One home in north Palm Springs even sold for $100,000 over its asking price with 24 offers coming in.

What people are finding is when a home is well priced, it is going to sell rather quickly. There are more and more cash buyers every day. Believe it or not, homes are more affordable today than they were dating all the way back to 1988 when this kind of data was first tracked.There is no question the incredible prices there are to choose from has enticed people to buy who otherwise would have not even begun looking. Overall, inventory on the Multiple Listing Service has decreased as more and more buyers are purchasing homes.

The numbers do not lie when it comes to the real estate market. While more and more homes continue to go into foreclosure, the buyer’s market is finally beginning to propel. I guess for now you have to take the good with the bad.

Palm Springs Real Estate