January 2012
Dear Eastview Homeowner;
Have we really turned a corner economically? Less people are unemployed and hopefully that’s not just because of holiday retail employment, though that seems far away already. There has been an increase in home sales and building permits and the stock market is up and holiday sales were up but not as much as hoped. Though no one of these has made a strong statement—just slightly up.
Interest rates are staying low, around 4%. They move a little but basically stay the same.
The 4th quarter in home sales is usually the slowest. But this year was the opposite. 18 Eastview homes sold in the 4th quarter. There were only 3 that were forced sales: foreclosures or short sales . The new dynamic is there were 3 sales of rehabbed homes after purchase in foreclosure.
Prices fell into 3 categories: under $610,000 were the fixers and bank sales, 1 as low as $407,500 for an 853sqft foreclosure with foundation problems. Then there were 7 sales over $700,000 that were mostly remodeled with the highest sale price at $740,000 for a 1900sqft remodeled home. The other remodeled homes sold between $710 and $737,500. There were 3 homes at 1750sqft and 2 at 2000sqft. The midrange Eastview homes sold was $620-$68,000. They were in ok condition, not fixed up but were larger in size, 2100-24606 sqft, then the others selling for more and less.
The average price was $644,194, 676 down 6.5% from 1 year ago. The average $/sqft was $361 .50 down 10% from 1 year ago. This value was last seen in 2003. The big jump in prices started in 2004 and we’ve totally negated that increase now.
Although prices are still going down, number of sales are going up. There were 55 Eastview sales this year vs 47 in 2010 and the low of 39 in 2009. I can’t remember a year where the 4th qtr had the most sales of the year. Usually the spring and summer see the most sales. But we also haven’t seen the large number of sales since 2004, the big sale rush. Maybe we’ve hit bottom and people feel safe enough to buy again?
If you need any real estate advice, please give me a call 310-293-7601.
Sincerely,
Lynne Testa, CRS, CDPE
310-293-7601 Ltesta@remaxpv.com
