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January 2024 Hi-Desert Real Estate Market Update
Happy New Year Fans, 2023 will go down as one of the slowest years for real estate sales in our Hi Desert communities. I have been offering these Updates since 2013. Last year’s sales were on par with sales in 2013-2015. Around 1,100 sales in those three years. Last year we closed 1,123 homes in our communities. One would consider this a major slowdown from the peak in 2022 of 2,066 sales. Unlike national averages, prices in all our communities dropped. 6.75% in Yucca Valley. 13.60% in Joshua Tree and 7.50% in Twentynine Palms. Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree saw the average lot size increase while Twentynine Palms saw the…
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December 2023 Hi-Desert Real Estate Market Update
Season’s Greetings Fans, The holidays are fully on us along with the winter weather. The focus on family and holidays takes away from home buying. In our communities, November, December, January, and February tend to be our slowest months for sales in real estate. Last month was no different than most past years. There is hope for 2024. This last week we have seen interest rates dropping into the low 7% range. I have heard of some lenders even slipping into the high 6% range for borrowers with fantastic credit. The current opinion of leaders in our industry is that with the drop in interest and, more importantly, the Fed’s…
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November 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Happy November Fans, Attached you will find this month’s Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update. No big surprises but a couple of noteworthy items are included. As I mentioned last month, our market is tracking along like 2015’s market. In 2015 we closed escrow on 1,158 homes. We are currently tracking to close around 1,100 this year. The more interesting statistic is that in 2015 the average price of a home in Yucca Valley was $174,000 ($418,000 in this report). $152,000 in Joshua Tree ($437,000 in this report). In Twentynine Palms the average in 2015 was 100,000 ($266,000 in this report). Investing in Hi Desert Real estate over the last…
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September 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Greetings Fans, Fall is in front of us, summer behind. With a little luck, we should see a small uptick in our market for sellers over the next 10 weeks. The overall belief is that once the Fed’s stop raising or lower interest rates, buyers will come back in droves to the market. The belief is that buyers will believe interest rates will fall lower so they should get in the market at the higher rate, and refinance when the rates drop. The problem is no one believes rates will drop much below five percent in the foreseeable future. Foreseeable being the next 24 months and longer. Higher interest rates…
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August 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Update
Happy August Real Estate Fans, Boy…July sure was hot. I think we had some of the hottest days I can ever remember in our Hi Desert communities. The weather sure slowed our real estate market down from the crawl it was already in. Then we get news of what is referred to as a 1,000 year flooding event, hurricane Hilary. Well, she came and went with very little damage to our communities. Both towns and the County reacted quickly and kept the damage to a minimum. People visiting this upcoming weekend will hardly see the remnants of Hilary. As for the real estate market, things are slow but not dead.…
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July 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Dear Real Estate Fan, Summer has arrived in full force this weekend. It looks like this year, our July will be hot and dry. Many of us remember last year as one of the most humid summers on record. Dry heat, wet heat, this weekend will just be HOT! But not the real estate market. In fact, the more I look at the numbers, the more I think we may have slid into a normal state in our market. Last month we closed escrow on 112 homes. This is down from 168 in 2022. If I look at 2015 through 2018, our sales look very similar. Today our price points…
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June 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Happy Summer Fans! All information in the Market Update can be found on my blog at- https://greenrealestategroup.com/blog Spring is sure holding on in our Hi Desert communities. Yesterday I was gassing up at the Morongo Casino. My thermometer in my truck showed 68°! Never in my life have I seen it that cool in June as you transition into the low desert. With El Nino conditions being forecast; it appears we may have a cooler summer and a wet fall/winter. A cooler summer could equate in to more sales and visitors to our communities. Let’s hope. I read an interesting statistic this week in a commercial appraisal one of my…
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May 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Greetings, Real Estate Fans, We are still experiencing spring-like weather which may help extend our spring sales time. We are still pretty slow. The enclosed Alto report shows we are very close to slipping into a buyers’ market. We have plenty of inventory but, unfortunately many properties are priced above what locals can afford. Highlights of this Update include- Inventory has ranged from the low 500’s to the mid 500’s. Plenty for the number of sales we have. This year we closed 101 escrows in April, down from 177 last year. Over 71% of sales were below $400,000. As I mentioned above, this can give locals an opportunity to get…
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April 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Happy Spring Fans, What a crazy winter this year. We saw interest rates skyrocket with some of the quickest rate increases in 40 years. From my point of view, we had one of the coldest and wettest winters I can remember. It was just last Sunday we saw temperatures hit the high 70°s for the first time this year. We were still experiencing overnight temperatures in the 30°s this last week! With the weather bad news comes the beautifully stunning wildflower bloom we are now experiencing. The waves of purple and yellow flowers bring our local desert to life. What a great time to experience our High Desert communities. Because…
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March 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Happy Green Month Fans, Spring is almost here! With our wet winter should come an explosion of color with a prolific wildflower season. As our weeds are getting taller and taller so grows our inventory. At this point though, our buyers have not yet returned to our market as we would hope. Maybe with a little luck and good economic news, they will be returning this season. At this writing, it appears there may be a chance for mortgage rates to drop into the 6% range the next few weeks which would be good news for us. Our market has been stalled since last June. In the last four months…
