Wasilla Real Estate News residential sales statistics for the Mat-Su Borough.  This report includes the sales in Palmer, Wasilla, Talkeetna, Willow, Big Lake, Houston, Sutton and all the other communities in the Borough. 

Over 80% of the real estate activity is in the Wasilla and Palmer areas with the outlying areas occupying only a small fraction of the business.

Sales activity was definitely up this week.  I think the pending sales are the highest so far this year.  Closed sales hit 32 so that is healthy as well. 

I believe that many buyers that were waiting in the wings have seen the higher interest rates on the horizon and decided to step in now rather than wait. 

It is not uncommon to see a slight drop in sales activity during the mid-summer months was people entertain out of town guests, fish and generally enjoy the short Alaska summer.  But it seems that serious buyers are definitely still out there.

Buyers that want to be in a house before school starts really need to make their choices now.  School starts in just over 6 weeks and that gives just enough time to complete a normal transaction.

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While many anglers were debating which streamer to use on the Russian River, and the purists were choosing between their eight or nine weight fly rod, a few Alaskans were looking for other ways to stock the salmon section of the freezer.

For them the Kasilof set net fishery was just the ticket last week.  The ten day long season closed June 24th.  For this old gillnetter it sounded like an efficient way to collect a few red salmon.

It did turn out to be a good way to fish, but I was also intrigued by the culture.  You don’t see many shiny subarus on this beach…a rusted out 79 chevy 4X4 is more like it.  

The beach is lined with camps of almost every type.  But I didn’t see any motorhomes.  Here is our camp, I’m returning real estate calls during a break.

It’s amazing what you can do with a couple tarps and a little ingenuity.  This one had a well stocked kitchen inside.

One camp was called Grumpy Geezers Getaway. Several were flying the stars and stripes from spruce flag poles. .

Picking the nets and filleting several dozen fish every few hours is back breaking work. 

It’s nice to have a comfortable resting place…drag the sofa out to the beach, can’t beat the view.

Little informal parties seemed to start up between neighboring camps while people waited for the tide to turn so that they could pick their nets

Photos courtesy of Charlene Moss and Mark Van Diest…I can’t seem to find my camera since our return, haven’t had time to look for it while taking care of 80 filets.

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For the first time in a LONG time I missed the Monday Memo, so here it is three days late.  I was in Kasilof catching red salmon until Tuesday night, yesterday was spent catching up with real estate and taking care of 40 fish.

These statistics are for the week of the 16th–23rd of June for the whole Mat-Su Borough.

We actually had a pretty good week.  Pendings and closings are both up.  New listings were up as well which put out inventory up to 917.  Notice that the total days on market for all the inventory is at 127 but the closed and pendings are much lower. 

Obviously, the houses that are sellable sell at a fairly reasonable marketing period while the marketing time for all the inventory continues to grow.

Looking through the 38 pendings for the week a couple of things stand out that tend to define sellable houses.

First, most of the them are in top condition.  In fact many of them are new construction at surprisingly attractive prices. 

Second, they were priced to attract attention.  Most had prices that were noticeably under the competition.  Here is an example, a brand new victorian style home with a view on more than 2 acres for only $119 per square foot.  Granted, it’s a large home so the total price was still much higher than the average sales price for the valley, but the price compared to the other homes brought in a buyer.

Third, many of them had something else.  They had a view,  unique location, unusual style or something else to set them apart. 

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Looking for some real quality. Check out this house on Lani Drive just about 2 miles west of Palmer.

Redwood siding, decks galore, 4 bedrooms, three baths, a kitchen that would fit right into a house three times the price.  It has a 2 car garage, and fantastic landscaping.

Everything in the house is tastefully decorated and arranged.  Check out the videos… and photos at the bottom

Main Floor Video 

Master Bedroom and more…

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Here are the residential sales for Palmer, Wasilla, and the rest of the Mat-Su Borough.

Our total inventory passed 900 for the first time this year.  But we did get 38 new pendings.  That is a good number.  Our closings are still on target for 100 sales a month. 

Notice that the average price near $250K for both the closings and the pendings.  That is a good sign that we are selling some of the higher priced homes.  For a long time we were only selling houses at or near the $200,000 price range.

There are some real good new construction houses on the market right now.  A lot of the pendings are custom houses built specifically to the owners specs.

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I read quite a few articles on the financial markets every week.  For quite a while now there have been whispered warnings of inflation.  That whisper has now grown to a roar.

Oil prices have not settled, increasing the cost of all energy.  It has increased the cost of everything that needs to be transported from place to place. 

Now, with the crazy weather in the corn belt you can expect higher prices for corn, wheat, and other food products grown in places like Iowa.  If you have read the book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, you realize that corn is in just about everything in the grocery store.

Here is a quote from a weekly update I get courtesy of Alice Roe of US Bank:

• “The United States is the world’s largest exporter of corn. Relatively rainy weather recently across the Midwest portions of the United States has delayed planting of corn. This caused corn prices to escalate. Wheat and other staples are also in high demand amid reduced supply, causing prices to rise. Couple these factors with rising energy costs and the picture does not look pretty. Higher commodity prices result in heightened inflationary fears. Many analysts predict the food price increases already seen most everywhere will continue.”

Interest rates for long term loans like mortgages are based on the the lenders feeling about long term inflation.  Higher inflation fears equals higher interest rates. 

Interest rates are already going up.  They will likely continue to increase for the near future.  If you currently have a loan in process…you might want to lock your rate in.  If you are shopping for a house, you might want to tie one up so that you can lock in the current low rates.

As with any advice like this, this is only my opinion.  You need to check out the situation for yourself before making your decisions.

More on this topic:

• LA Times 
• John Mauldin  I subscribe to his newsletter.
• Financial Times

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I showed a house last Friday to a couple that had already made up their mind. They wanted this house. They didn’t want to look at any other houses because this one was perfect.

In fact it was so perfect they wanted it just the way it was.  The seller was planning to sell some furniture, lawn mowers, and other personal items at a garage sale.  The buyer wanted it all…and they wanted it now.  The seller agreed to only take her clothes, a couple clocks and some pots and pans.  She left the dishes in the cupboards and the food in the fridge.

The buyers wanted to write a check and move in the same day.

It easy, but it’s not that easy.  Some things need to be done:

• You need to know the exact pay-off figures for the sellers loan.  In this case the seller had a first and second deed of trust.  The lenders for each were notoriously slow in giving pay off information.  One lender was the US Government and you know how slow they usually are.  This is where an experienced title company came in handy.  Mat-Su Title was able to get both pay-offs within three days. 
• You also need to know that the seller has a right to sell, and that no one else has a lien on the property.  For this you need a title report.  Mat-Su Title got that done in one day.
• Then you need to actually sign the closing documents.  In a cash sale there are not many documents, but they still need to be done correctly. 

We closed today, and the transaction records tomorrow…one week.   The closing took 15 minutes at the title company, total closing costs for the buyer…$179.

Not bad for a deal with two different lenders that needed to be payed off. Not bad for the seller either…she doesn’t have much to pack.  Tomorrow morning she just loads her clothes in her truck and drives away.

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People have been producing their own energy in Alaska for long time.  The photo to the left, of Holikachuk in the 1950s, shows two wind generators spinning on top of wooden towers.

Today, the independent minded use wind, solar, and diesel to power their homes.  Or some of them go low-tech with kerosene lamps, wood stoves and out houses. 

It’s probably simplest and the least expensive to forgo the modern conveniences and make do without plumbing and power, but for many that just isn’t acceptable. We like to flip the switch and see the light.  We also like indoor plumbing.

I recently talked with Ricky Wilder in Chickaloon.  He and his family live in a modern log home with in-floor heat a long way from the nearest power line.  They heat their home and detached garage with a central boiler from Frontier Heating Concepts in Palmer.

Electricity is supplied by batteries to light the home, run the pumps for the heat, and take care of all the other appliances normally found in a modern home.  The batteries are charged by a combination of solar panels, a wind generator, and very occasionally a diesel generator. 

I was most interested in the fact that much of the Wilder’s power comes from the sun.  We tend to forget that for six months of the year, we get more daylight than anyone south of us.  That daylight can generate electricity. 

In fact, Wilder reports useful solar power from February through October.  He likes solar so much that he plans to increase his solar array this year.  There are only three months of the year when he depends almost completely on the wind generator. 

When the wind is blowing…and it blows often at their hilltop location…that wind turbine is really humming.  It keeps the batteries charged easily. 

Ricky Wilder and his son Jordan have been fine tuning his system and helping others with theirs since they purchased their home.  They are currently working on a book about wind power and solar power.  If you would like to talk to them just drop them a line at akricky(the @ sign)yahoo.com.

Holikachuk photo compliments of celebratechar.org

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The real estate activity for Wasilla, Palmer, and the rest of the Mat-Su Borough for the week was very similar to last week. 

For the second week in a row there were more closings than pendings.  We had a record number of new listings for the week.  Eighty nine new listings and only 23 new pendings.  That brought our total inventory up to almost 900.  This is a great market if you are a buyer.

However we are still selling about 100 houses a month.  These houses are the ones that are priced right.  Buyers have about 9 houses to look at for every one that they buy. 

Last week saw several houses over 400K close.   That is good.  For the year so far, there have been 26 closings over $400K…there are 133 on the market.  So there is two and one-half years worth of inventory on the market in that price range.

Compare that to the under $200K market in the Wasilla and Palmer  There have been 173 closings so far and there are 171 on the market.  That is an inventory of about 5 months.  That is the active market and will continue to be the most active market for the rest of the year.

Most of the houses that sell are motivated sellers.  These are people who really want their house to be sold.  They will work with you to structure a deal that works  I’m almost finished with my list for the week if you want to sign up.

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For Palmer, Wasilla, Houston, Willow, Talkeetna and the whole Mat-Su Borough, here are the stats for the week.  These are single family residential homes that have pended, closed or been listed this past week.

We ended up with 3 times as many new listings as there were closings this week.  This week for the first time in a long time there were more closings than pendings.  Neither of those are good signs for our market.

With a market like this, sellers need to be serious about selling. I wrote about this in a previous post,  Price it right or don’t bother… this is even more true now than it was then.

If you would like an unbiased market value report of your house…give me a call or drop me a line.  I would be happy to meet with you.  My cell number is 907–232–7900.

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