Season’s Greetings Fans, Just a few weeks left this year. We are struggling to close over 850 escrows. I expect the number will come in between 845 and 860. This will be the lowest amount since I have been keeping records (2013). At this writing, we have 694 active listings in residential. Down from 707 when I wrote this Update. Many of these are very old. One is over three years active. 40 are over a year active. Another 117 are over six months active. Why is this important? Buyers use the Days Active in the MLS (DAM) as a source to negotiate price. The thought process is if you…

Greetings, Real Estate Fans, First a gratuitous plug. Debbie and I own a small graphic business. The graphics are reproductions of historic events, places, and businesses in and around our part of the Hi Desert. We have a partner who prints our graphics on all types of items like apparel, totes, hats, mugs, mouse pads, and many others. Last month we started a new marketing campaign focused around a “podcast” from local urban legend, Yucca Man. Yucca Man is a Big Foot type character that roams the Mojave Desert. For each item, we share the history of where the item is from or for. You can see the podcast on…

Pumpkin Greetings Real Estate Fans, Fall is in the air. Temperatures are dropping and so are sales in our real estate market. After reviewing the numbers, I think we will be hard pressed to close over 900 properties this year! Last year we closed 917 throughout our marketing area. I have been producing my Market Updates since 2013. This will be the lowest sales tracked by me. There is a lot going on in our local market. In May we had over 900 active listings. Over the last several months, sellers have removed their properties from the active market. In this Update we have 702 active listings. I have noticed…

Greetings Fans, Before I get into this month’s Update, let’s take a look at this article in Newsweek–https://www.newsweek.com/california-home-loses-third-value-three-years-2120759. To be honest, I hate it when we make bad national press. In my opinion, the true story is, in our communities, high priced homes have major price swings and some declines. Since mid-2022, homes sold under $400,000 represent approximately 70% of our sales. Before I continue, sales are very slow. The more numbers we have to work with, the better the data. With low sales, many months have big swings because there is not enough data for averages to work correctly. We see this frequently in Joshua Tree. With sales between…

Warm Greetings, Fans, When I first started in real estate, I would tell people that you could count on your fingers how many days a year we broke 100° and, even better, every night we cool into the low 60°s (in Yucca Valley). We have started August with a forecast of fourteen straight days over 100°. Worse, for me at least, is the lows. Forecasted in the mid 70°s. The times they are a-changing.  Two good things in this month’s Update, and two not-so-good things. First good: we closed on 102 homes last month. This is the most closings since August of 2023. Two years to break 100 closings. Second…

Summer Greetings, Real Estate Fans, July is here and the weather shows it. Last week we hit some hot temperatures in the Hi Desert, but our real estate market remains very cool. This is usually the month, along with June, that we close large amounts of escrows. Not so with June and nothing shows any change for this month’s closings. Before the turn of the century, it was common to see a statistic that said one in five Americans had worked at McDonalds at some point in their life. That number is now about one in eight. I just read a new survey that stated that currently, one in five…

Greetings Real Estate Fans, The weather is sizzling, but sales remain cool in our Hi Desert communities. There is a lot of real estate news nationally. In our local area, inventory remains high. In fact, it is very high. In mid-May we crossed over having 900 active listings in our communities. Last month we closed on 80 escrows. This translates into an 11+ month inventory in our area. This is very high. Nationally it is believed there is a five-month inventory. The industry considers it a balanced market with six months inventor. Our area seems balanced at a four-month inventory. Inventory is a BIG issue for us locally. Another big…

Greetings Real Estate Fans, April is in the books, but instead of flooding sellers with showers of offers, our sellers are feeling like they are in a drought. Actually, a severe drought!  At this writing, we have 880 active home listings in our communities (860 when I wrote this Update). This is almost a 10-to-12-month inventory (inventory divided by sales). The market is considered balanced when there is a six-month inventory. Our local market is balanced closer to 4 months. Many listings are just sitting. Waiting for someone to come look. Hoping for someone to make an offer. For some time now, the overwhelming number of sales are below $400,000! …

Spring Greetings Fans, This is my favorite season of the year along with summer. Things are just so warm and nice. Flowers are blooming, the wind is warmer, and pool time is right around the corner. Things are not warming up like usual in our real estate market. Spring and early summer tend to be some of our biggest sales periods. Currently we are seventeen closed escrows behind last year. This is disappointing. Most Realtors I speak with feel like things are better this year, but the numbers do not lie. Last week, mortgage rates dropped into the high 5% to low 6% range. By the end of the week,…