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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…
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February 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Greetings Real Estate Fans, Well, the first month of the year is finished and we are still in the same place as last month. We have seen some changes that are contrary to the state and national trends. Our inventory is up almost 200% while nationwide it is closer to 10%. For the last four months, the majority of sales have been in Twentynine Palms, not Yucca Valley. Buyers are purchasing less expensive homes. Over 80% of homes sold in this Update are below $400,000. The weather has been cold and in some cases, wet! This is not prime home buying weather. Many of the “experts” are predicting an explosion…
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January 2023 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update and 2022 Year End
Greetings Real Estate Fans, A new year, a new market. Needless to say, things have slowed way down in the last six months in our Hi Desert real estate market. Word around town is many Short Term Vacation Rentals (STR) are vacant with little future bookings. Since a large part of our market was dominated by these buyers, I would expect to see both a slowdown and a raising inventory. We are seeing both. The weather has been colder and wetter than the last few years. I expect this is also having an impact on our market. For me, two items in this report tell the tale. First, until January…
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December 2022 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Merry Christmas Real Estate Fans, For me it’s the Christmas season. For those of you that celebrate a different holiday this time of year…Happy Holidays! You can hardly open the internet without seeing a variety of housing news. It does not matter if you look at the national picture, state picture, or the local market, the news varies with talking heads taking a variety of positions. I subscribe to the group that believes much of this will pass in the next six months. If our government allows it Time will tell but I believe many buyers don’t know what to believe so they are standing on the sidelines. No one…
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November 2022 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Warm Greetings from a Cold Desert, Sorry, this may be a bit longer than you are accustomed to. Our temperatures have cooled in our real estate market. Let’s be clear, it’s not blizzard, stay inside conditions in the market. Depending on your view we are either in a Fall or Spring real estate market in our local communities. Sales have cooled from our hot, post Covid market. Inventory is way, way up. At this writing we have around 650 active listings in our communities. We still closed escrow on over 90 properties last month. Prior to 2019, this would have been considered a great month for sales. The Fed’s raised…
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October 2022 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Happy Fall Real Estate Fans! Our temperatures are cooling. Many of us are in the mood to get outside and enjoy a beautiful fall in our spectacular desert communities. Our market has changed a couple of time over the last writing as we try to navigate this confusing real estate market. My comments may be a bit longer than I usually write. I believed and told you that I thought we would see some rebound in our market by now. I was not prepared for interest rates to jump from mid-5% range to the high 6% range in just about a weeks’ time. This has cooled our market even more…
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June 2020 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Warm, Summer Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen, As we watch spring fade into the past, we can only hope our world settles down and we can find a peaceful, and hopeful future. With that being said: As far as local real estate is concerned, I am starting to believe we may see the strongest market our area has ever experienced. I believe the stars are aligned for our communities. Read this from Fox News: Nearly 40% of U.S. adults living in urban areas indicated they would consider moving “out of populated areas and toward rural areas,” compared to 29% of overall respondents. And 43% of urbanites – a significantly higher percentage…
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May 2020 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Spring Greetings Real Estate Fans! Once again it is time for my monthly real estate market update. April is in the bag and we are moving towards summer. Obviously, the Pandemic is taking a toll on our market just like most around the nation. Yes, we are selling real estate (at this writing I have four open escrows). Just like last month, I still maintain that no one has any idea what to expect as we come out of this. I have no intention of piling my opinion on to the countless opinions you have heard. Here is what I know about the virus and how it is affecting our…
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April 2020 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update
Greetings my “Shelter in Place” Friends, No question we are all experiencing something we have never experienced before. Make no mistake, along with all the other issues this pandemic is having, real estate buying and selling is pretty much stagnate at this time. Many of you have reached out to me for my opinion on how this will all play out. All I can say is this is new for all of us. No one, and I mean no one, has any idea. All the talking heads are in the same boat. At this time, no one knows how this will play out. BUT…I can give you a bit of…
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Market Newsletters Mortgage Update!
A reprint from Market Newsletters. Are We In The Midst of Another Mortgage Meltdown? Things are changing rapidly in the mortgage market. Almost overnight, loan programs have disappeared, interest rates are all over the place, and more than a few lenders are closed for business indefinitely. All this despite the Federal Reserve buying more than $100 billion / week of mortgage debt. Is this another meltdown? In many ways, the current situation is far worse than the 2008 meltdown. Credit is evaporating more quickly. Mortgage rates aren’t as responsive to Fed bond buying. Borrower income/employment demographics have imploded much more decisively and much more suddenly. And the average mortgage servicer is…
