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,…

Greetings Fans, It sure feels like things are ramping up, but the numbers sure don’t show it! I write my updates in the early part of the month and send them by mid-month. Sometimes we can see changes taking place in just those few weeks that I try to address in this cover letter. After attending several community events in the last few weeks and talking to other agents, everyone confirmed it feels busier, but the numbers don’t show it. Maybe when the weather turns warm again, buyers will spring like wildflowers in the Park. Maybe! One big issue that will have a lasting impact on our community is the…

Happy Love Month Fans, The New Year has come and gone and now we find ourselves almost 7 weeks into 2025. Already so much is happening and yet so little at the same time. If I can offer one word to those Real Estate Fans out there, it would be HOPE! To be real, hope manifests in the future. We clearly are not there, but I believe we are at the turning point. It could happen later this year or next, but I believe we are in for a good run on real estate sales and values in our Hi Desert communities. So much is going on in our area,…

Greetings Real Estate Fans, Happy New Year to you and your family. New year, same story. In the last two weeks, rates have shot up back above 7%. Not only that but the economic news has been poor in the first few weeks of our new year. Many indicators are showing that rates may stay at this level for several months. Time will tell. I will be sending another email in the next few days addressing my forecast for this year. In this Update we can see the December numbers along with the year-end numbers for our local market. To be clear, 2024 was bad. Really bad. I have been…

Happy Holidays, Real Estate Fans! The Holidays are upon us. As usual, this brings our real estate market almost to a stop. With the cooler weather and lots of traveling, it seems every year we slow around this time. You might say it is tradition! Attached is the December Update. Since it is the holidays, I am not going to bore you with opinion. We can all read what the numbers tell us. Instead, I would like to offer you hope. I am an optimist. Hope rolls off my tongue easier than despair. Sure, this year will end with some of the lowest sales seen, nationwide and locally. But on…