“A brighter economic picture, coupled with record-high housing affordability, pushed the spring home buying season off to a strong start,” said C.A.R. President LeFrancis Arnold.  “With a continuing improving economy and interest rates declining to new record lows in recent weeks, we should see a steady improvement in the housing market throughout the end of the year.” reported the California Association of REALTORS(r). 

• April home sales for 2012 were 10% higher than last month.
• April home sales for 2012 were 11% higher than this time last year.
• April’s statewide median price for the first time since December 2010 above $300,000, a 5.7% increase in April to $308,050. This is the second straight month of solid gains

Other key points of C.A.R.’s April 2012 resale housing report include:

• California’s housing inventory remains low, with the Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes remaining at 4.2 months in April, unchanged from a revised 4.2 months in March.  April’s housing inventory was down from a revised 5.6 months in April 2011.  The index indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.  A 7-month supply is considered normal.

• Interest rates remained extremely low in April, with 30-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaging 3.91 percent, down from 4.84 percent in April 2011, according to Freddie Mac.  Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 2.78 percent in April 2012, compared with 3.20 percent in April 2011.

• The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home fell to 49.3 days in April 2012, down from a revised 53.2 days for the same period a year ago. .

Even though we are experiencing historically low housing prices, down nationally 34% since 2006, it won’t stay this way forever. It will start going up and sooner rather than later.

Many things are starting to influence the increase in housing prices. Basically, the confidence in our economy is starting to get stronger – fewer foreclosures on the market and continued job growth. More homebuyers have the ability to get their finances in order to meet the home loan requirements.

The vacation home market is starting to make a comeback. Bidding wars are actually happening in several markets. Low inventories, historically low interest rates and low prices are making it very irresistible to stay out of this market. Multiple buyers are now competing against each other. You may be missing the window if you don’t act now. As the market continues to get healthier, home prices will go up.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week, “Sales of vacation properties fell 56% between 2006 and 2010, but climbed 7% in 2011 to 502,000, according to the most recent survey by the National Association of Realtors, a trade association. Yet prices remain soft; according to the NAR, the median price on vacation homes dropped more than 19% in 2011 to $121,300.”

However, home prices in California have started to climb upward. So, only when we look back at this point in time, will we actually know if the “bottom” was hit, but all tendencies are indicating it has.

Contact me today, if you want to start looking for a vacation home in the La Quinta / Desert area.

Here is a CAR.org video and chart showing how the Real Estate Market is doing in California.

Other key facts of C.A.R.’s March 2012 resale housing report include:

• California’s housing inventory declined in March, with the Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes decreasing to 4.1 months in March, down from a revised 5.4 months in February and down from the 5.4-month supply in March 2011.

• Interest rates edged up slightly in March.  Thirty-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 3.95 percent during March 2012, down from 4.84 percent in March 2011, according to Freddie Mac.  Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 2.77 percent in March 2012, compared with 3.22 percent in March 2011.

• The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home fell to 53.1 days in March 2012 and was down from a revised 57 days for the same period a year ago. A seven month inventory is considered normal.

• Place buckets of water throughout the house to provide moisture so your wood cabinets and furniture do no dry out.
• Close drains. If water isn’t continuously run through your drains, the traps dry up and are an open invitation for party city to who knows what crawls out of drains …. eeeww!
• Turn off the water – EVERYWHERE. The best is to turn it off at the entry point into the house.  While you’re thinking of it, give your water heater a vacation by turning the dial to the “vacation” setting.
• Lock all the doors and windows. Make sure you have a bar/rod in the tract for all your sliding doors and windows.
• Unplug EVERYTHING! Clean out your refrigerator and leave the doors open – you’ll have this unplugged anyway and by leaving it open, it would close up the smells and musty/mold growth inside a closed unit.
• Have some lights on a timer and make sure your sprinklers are on timers as well.
• Close all blinds and curtains. You may want to have the central air set at a high level to make sure it’s not running all the time when we hit 115 degrees or some just turn it off. But your home could get a bit toasty if turned off.
• Make sure your pool and yard care is kept up. And bring in all your yard furniture.
• Some other things some people do is to wrap cling wrap around the toilet to keep the water from evaporating.
• To keep the garbage disposal from seizing up, some pour vegetable oil down to keep it lubricated until they get back.
• Still other pour kitty litter in their refrigerator to make sure moisture doesn’t collect and mold.
• Cover furniture to keep dust off.
• If you are concerned with earthquakes while you are away from home, strap large furniture that may tip to the walls with earthquake straps. You may also want to lay lamps on the floors to keep them from tipping. Anything else you feel may slide around and break, you may want to place in the middle of the floor.
• Also, just to make sure your home is okay, you may want to have a neighbor or a professional company check on your place. That way, if something does happen it won’t be October before you find out.

Whether you are staying here or leaving the Desert, I hope you have a GREAT summer!

If you are looking for your home in the desert or looking to switch homes, contact me today – it’s always a great time to purchase!

Recent reports indicate the number of foreclosed homes on the market in the Desert are declining helping push up home prices. The Desert Sun reported, “Bank-owned and short sales accounted for 44 percent of overall home sales in March, down from 53 percent in March 2011”… and “Distressed properties made up 24 percent of condo sales last month, down from 32 percent in March 2011.”

Coachella Valley showed a 3.3% increase in homes sale, over Riverside County as a whole. Sales of $500,000+ homes went up 36% from February.

I’m always asked, “When is the best time to list my home?”  Any day that ends in a “y”.

Anytime is a good time to list your home.

La Quinta homeowners are more confident listing their homes in today’s real estate market. Even though “season” is nearing an end, homes are still listing and being sold. The market trend is starting to change back to where it was before all this happened. There is less of a tendency for sellers having to deal with buyers’ low-ball offers. Investors are purchasing the distressed, lower priced inventory, pushing prices higher for non-distressed homes; which needs to happen if recovery is ever going to happen.

This does not mean we start filling the balloon again. Home prices need to be realistic with the current real estate market. We know the home prices we saw in 2006 were inflated and we’re not going to bounce back to those prices anytime soon, but what it does mean is that if your home is priced right, it will sell. You don’t have to accept the first unreasonable low ball offer that comes across the table.

If you work with me, I will show you

• What similar homes have sold in the past months
• What your home will be competing against on the market today
• And how we can price your home to be competitive and get it sold. I have a proven marketing plan and strategy that will get your home sold in today’s market, but only on a day that ends in “y”.

If you have been thinking about living in a different area of the Desert, buying here for the first time or listing your home, call me today. You’ll see, “There Really IS Something About Mary!”

For almost a year and a half we’ve experienced a downward arrow and now we have state wide an increase of 1.5% over last year ( from $232,270 in 2011 to now $235,760. )

The report from CAR said:

• Tight inventory and robust home sales, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, fueled the substantial increase in the March median home price.
• Median prices rose 4.9% in Riverside County and 0.7% in San Bernardino County — the only two SoCal counties with a price increase.
• The supply of unsold homes was 4.1 months in the state. That is, it would take 4.1 months to sell all the houses on the market at March’s sales pace. That’s down from 5.4 months in February and March of 2010. A seven-month supply is considered normal.

What does that mean for you? Now’s the time to get your home listed! Inventory is low, staying on the market for a shorter period of time and selling for a bit higher than in the past.

Call me today to see how this applies to YOUR home!!