Palm Springs Real Estate

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

Once 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.

Palm Springs Real Estate

Should You Be Impressed By The Home Sales Volume Increase Of 38 Percent?

In the state of California, the Multiple Listing Service median for a single-family home increased over a one-month period.  However, the year-over-year median for May fell a tremendous amount at 30.4 percent.  With that in mind, is there really any room to be excited about the increase of 38 percent?

What you need to look at first is some of the numbers.  For instance, the Palm Springs region has shown a 46 percent decrease from May of 2008 with housing selling at $152,860 versus the $283,480 in 2008.  While the sales prices drastically took a dive, the sales volume rose by 38.2 percent.

Similar to Palm Springs was the region of Victorville/Lancaster, which reported even lower median numbers with a 47 percent drop from May of 2008.  On the contrary, sales volume there increased as high as 96.2 percent.

People that could never afford to purchase a home are finally being able to find the right fit for them.  Affordability for first-time-home-buyers has never been as high as it is today.  Sales for existing single-family homes for the ninth consecutive month remained above the 500,000 level.
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