Wasilla real estate is starting to move.  The numbers in the chart below show that both the pending and closed listings are climbing again this week.  In addition, the days on market is dropping significantly.

The statistics are for the whole Mat-Su Valley for the week of 4/23–4/30.  The average sales times are dropping dramatically.  If you were to peruse some of the previous Market Memos you will see quite a shift.

Even though other parts of the country are watching real estate markets plunge. The local market is still pretty healthy.  That is because the Mat-Su Valley is still the “go to” place in Alaska for anyone wanting a nice lifestyle with some land and good neighborhoods.

Places like Las Vegas, parts of Florida and California where real estate speculation was rampant are seeing foreclosures pop up like spring dandelions.  While this could have a general impact on the whole economy, including Alaska, we have so far been sheltered from many of the direct impacts of collapse of the real estate bubble. 

The chart to the right, (click to expand), shows detailed figures from the Alaska MLS.  This data is 30 days old, (AKmls always looks back 30 days), but still shows interesting information.  It shows that in overall, prices are up by 4%.  There are certain areas where prices are down. 

I believe without actual data to back me up, that we have more foreclosures on the market in our area as well.  I know several Realtors that specialize in listing foreclosures and they have more listings than in past years.  But this is still a minuscule area of the market.

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I attended the Gateway Community Council meeting last night.  Community councils serve as local “town meetings” for different parts of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.  They allow people to discuss issues concerning their neighborhood and pass their concerns to the borough assembly.

Among the issues discussed were:

• Matanuska Electric Association plans for a coal fired power plant
• Trunk Road realignment
• Bogard Road extension to the Glenn Highway

The MEA coal fired power plant was the most contentious.  MEA currently buys all it’s power from Chugach Electric.  According to the general manager’s report, the contract with Chugach Electric expires in 2015 so they are planning to bring their own generators online at this time.  They feel they will need about 200 megawatts of power and intend to build two 100 mw plants.  One will be gas powered and one coal powered.

The coal powered plant will use circulating fluidized bed technology which is said to reduce the pollution associated with burning coal.  This is the plant that proves contentious.  Many people associate coal with the dirty smoke stacks of the early industrial era.  I’m not really crazy about the smell of coal smoke myself but I’m willing to explore the issue with new technology.  We certainly have the resource here in the valley and I’m all for producing something for ourselves for a change.  Let’s just put it downwind of my house…

The Trunk Road realignment has been put off for another year.  I think I’ve heard that for about 10 years now.  But it really is moving forward this time.  DOT has actually acquired quite a bit of property along the right-of-way.  We know that is true because we are helping one couple buy a home with the money from the state.  Here is the current map for the new Trunk Road. Notice that it will pass directly east of Shellywoods Subdivision and also just east of Pioneer Peak Elementary.

Bogard Road Extension is moving forward. It is scheduled for construction in 2009.  Here is the current map showing the two alternatives.  There is a place on the website to leave comments should you have any.  It seems that Dowl Engineering is doing a good job using the web as a public meeting.   This extension along with the Seldon extension out to Church Road will do a great job relieving the congestion on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

Speaking of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, it sounds like there will be four added stop lights this summer.  There will be one at Equestrian Street, Wagon Road, Hyer Road, and one more location that I can’t recall.  I think I’ll use the Parks Highway from now on.

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Below are the Wasilla Real Estate News statistics for this past week.  It shows pretty much the same thing that we have been seeing for the last few months.  The closed sales remain in the twenties but the pendings are starting to grow. 

There is still a huge gap between the average sales price and the average asking price.  That is why there is also a huge difference in days on the market for the inventory as a whole compared to the closed listings.  The houses that are in the lower price ranges sell fairly quickly.  Higher priced homes are on the market much longer.

Interestingly, the new listings are not growing significantly.  In fact, the total inventory is down as the chart below shows.  Sales are climbing at a healthy rate while we are not getting a surge of new houses on the market.  I believe that is because builders are not building on speculation as much as they did in the past few years. 

The next two charts, (click to expand), show that although we are selling as many and actually a few more houses that we have in  previous years, the average sales price is actually down slightly.  I think we have reached a plateau that will remain until local incomes increase.

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Spring thaw presents a few new problems for  home owners that get their drinking water from a well.  If you haven’t tested your water yet, this may be the best time to do it.  This is just another of the challenges to owning Wasilla and Palmer Real Estate.  Actually, this is a universal issue that we often ignore.

The spring runoff can saturate the ground and bring pollutants from neighboring areas onto your own property.  If your well is in an area where surface water gathers the problem is compounded. 

It is possible that surface water can run down the outside of the well casing to the pittless adapter that is in the side of the well casing about ten feet or so below the surface.  If this pittless is not sealed tightly and it often isn’t.  The ground water can then enter your well itself. 

Think about that for a minute!  Is your well downhill from a nieghbors dog yard, or horse barn?  Even if surface water does not collect around your well, the saturated ground water can still enter your well casing or in some cases with shallow wells it may pollute the aquifer that you are using for drinking water.

Test your water this spring.

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I am currently in Chicago at the National Association Of Realtors headquarters taking mediation training. It has been an eye opening experience.

Mediation in a real estate setting is a way to settle disputes outside of the court room and outside of arbitration.  A successful mediation allows all parties to the dispute to put forth their issues and then the mediator helps guide them to a conclusion that is satisfactory to all.

It’s not like a trial where someone has to prove the facts or defend your innocence.  It is just a guided conversation to help each side understand the other to see if there is any common ground upon which they can agree.  Usually, after seeing the issue from the opposite perspective the parties can agree to satisfactory settlement.

It is much faster, and much less expensive than solving disputes through the legal system.  All parties can get on with their lives without spending huge amounts of money for legal fees and waiting for the uncertainty of a trial.

The parties do not give up any rights to try mediation.  If the mediation is not successful they can go on to the court system.  But 90% of mediations are successful. 

The Valley Board of Realtors provides this service to our members and to the public to help settle any issues that arise as a result of a real estate transaction.  No transaction that I have been involved with has gone to mediation, but I certainly would not hesitate to recommend mediation over the more confrontational means of solving disputes. 

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This has been a very busy weekend with the Mat-Su Home Show.  Although I did not participate in the homes show with an open house, I fielded a ton of calls from curious buyers.

Some of the homes had more than 300 people per day.  A lot of them were just curious about homes but a surprising amount of people are planning to have a home built this summer.

Because of the busy weekend and my short day today I won’t have time to do the stats until late tonight or even tomorrow.  I am leaving for Chicago today and will be gone all week.  I’m taking some training to be a mediator for the Valley Board of Realtors.  I’ll write more about that later.

Jay Van Diest, will be taking care of things while I’m gone.  His cell is 232–4852.  You can still call me and leave messages.  I’ll be checking them while I’m gone.  But emails will work better.  My email is marty@valleymarket.com.

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I recently received a call for a lady in Oregon. She wondered if I could take a look at her property to give her a value. She hadn’t been there for about 10 years and although she still enjoyed the idea of owning her piece of Alaska she now had better places to put this money.

She and her husband staked the 37 acres about 24 years ago when Alaska still had a homestead law. You could stake out up to 40 acres in a designated area. Then after proving up the state would allow you to purchase it for a nominal fee.

I was not in a place where I could write down all the info but I got her name and directions on how to find it. So a couple days later my 12 year old son and I headed up the Glenn Highway for a late afternoon outing. This property is about an hour drive one way on the scenic byway.

I had the sense to grab a tax map and a power pole map. I figured I was well prepared…little did I know. I remembered something about a 3/4 mile long narrow drive that hadn’t been used for many years. I would know I was on the right track when I found a chain between two spruce trees at the end. Then it was a 1/4 mile walk from there.

After trying three rough muddy roads we finally gave up and tried the old logging road down to the Matanuska River. I knew that this road would get us close to the property. Muddy Creek almost had the road washed out but the beater Toyota was able to get around it OK…here’s a poor quality video of that part of the adventure.

Time to give up and go home. After looking at Google Earth it became obvious how I made the wrong turn. This area just happened to be in high resolution, (most of Alaska is not), so I was able to zoom right in on the cabin and actually see the driveway.

Yesterday Gerrit and I made the trip again and drove right to it. There were 5 inch wide wolf tracks in the muddy road but absolutely no sign of any human intruders over the years it sat empty. Talk about secluded, you could sit on the steps there and completely forget that the rest of the world even exists.

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I was looking primarily at homes this week priced between $200,000 and $260,000.  In this price range you can find a good sized home, on a decent sized lot. 

I picked four homes out of the list of 176 listings.  These are all 4 bedroom homes with two car garages.  In addition, they are all fairly new homes, I think the oldest is less than four years old.  Often, you will find that homes like these are better than new.  That is because all the bugs have been worked out and the landscaping is at least started. 

Here they are:

• 1163 Katie, $224,000, Listed with Kristan Cole, RE/MAX of Wasilla
• 3131 Southview, $229,000 Listed with Steven Gilroy, Prudential Vista
• 4760 Crabapple, $230,000  Elizabeth MacMullen,RE/MAX of Wasilla
• 4021 Birch Cove, $255,000 Marty Van Diest, RE/MAX of Wasilla

The last one is my listing and I honestly believe it is a GREAT house for the money with in-floor heat, vinyl siding, 840 sq ft garage and lots more extras. See the photos.

Thanks to Larry Ficek for mentioning a couple of these deals to me.  They truly are good deals today and I would be surprised if they are still for sale next week…I’ll check.

Speaking of Larry, here is a great listing he just put on the market. 

• 4450 Pinnell, $230,000, 2000+ sq ft, over 2 acres of UNRESTRICTED LAND, with a barn and 768 sq ft garage.  This is in the Palmer-Fishhook area.

But please call ME to see it since I told you about it.   I have to pay for this service somehow, and selling houses is how I do it. 

Or you can call my cell at 907 232–7900.

Check out past deals of the week.

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The market is continuing its upward trend in sales and inventory.  This looks like a normal spring trend in sales.  There are more new listings and more pendings than we have seen all spring except for last week.  One week does not make a trend, but two weeks at least starts one.

I notice that the average price for new listings is still lower than the average price of all the houses on the market.  Notice that the average price of houses for sale is almost $100,000 higher than the average price of pending sales. 

Houses priced at or under $200,000 are receiving the bulk of the interest primarily because that is where most buyers qualify.  Even then, houses have to be priced competitively in order to sell.  This past week I showed a buyer 10 houses in Palmer priced between $130,000–$160,000.  It was obvious which ones would sell and which were doomed to sit until the price comes down

.

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I’m here for mediation training, but thought I’d take a few pictures.

All I can say is…they sure do have a lot of concrete and steel here.
They’re all thumbnails, click to enlarge.

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