Its high season… the weather is postcard perfect as usual, population is high here in the desert with seasonal owners and visitors coming to our desert paradise like wildfire. Many are in town for modernism week, streets are busy and lines and reservations are needed at most of our local restaurants.
It appears likely this year will be consistent or slightly better than the past two year’s sales trends. Even though there is a relatively strong sales demand today, it is likely we will see late season sales demand picking up in March, especially in price points above $700,000 up into the multi-million dollar luxury market, finally pushing down high levels of seasonal inventory. I continue to reiterate today’s buyers are cautious, educated, and value and price sensitive. With all of the online tools and property search portals available, these websites provide prospective buyers valuable information about pricing, past sales history, cumulative days of market, virtual tours and aerial mapping which helps them with north/south/east/west orientation, providing today buyers with ammo to make informed decisions.
My experience with recent sales has been in some cases tough negotiations, with two to four Counter Offers to pull solid deals together. I currently have ten properties in-escrow, a few in the $400,000-$600,000 range, but most in the $1.2M – $1.5M price points which is nice to see these higher-end homes now selling, and quite a relief to those sellers to finally be in-escrow and looking toward their move. Smart owners that have been sitting on the market unsold 45-60 days who have done nominal price reductions; 3-5% and in some cases 10% with luxury home listings are stimulating their listings, generating serious buyers and in many cases selling their homes.
There are pockets in selling prices today for example; $200,000 – $600,000 homes are selling, $600,000 – $1Million are very slow selling, $1.1M – $1.6M are slowly moving and the higher end luxury market is currently sitting with few sales. Again… I believe we will see stronger sales March through June, but not confident theses homes will sell without a fight on their hands in negotiating a mutually agreeable price and terms.
Positive thoughts ahead, keep a smile on your face, and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns.