Yesterday I looked at the market trends for the Knik-Goose Bay Road area.  You can see that here.

Today I have the numbers for Palmer and Wasilla.  The first chart is Wasilla and the second chart is for Palmer. These are based on the specific map areas of Palmer and Wasilla. 

You will notice that the Wasilla area has more sales than Palmer.  The reason becomes obvious when you look at the maps, there just are more developments in the Wasilla map area.  The total sales volume is down about 18% from last year and down about 25% from the high in 2006.   However the median sales price is only down about 2% from the high in 2005.

 The chart below is for Palmer.  Palmer’s sales volume is done about 27% from the high in 2005.  In 2005 and 2006 Hall Quality Homes was building a lot of homes in several developments.  That building is still going on but at a slower pace.

Prices are also hanging in there in Palmer with the median price almost unchanged from the high of 2006.  That is an interesting statistic that will bear watching as we go through this winter.

The study of sales and prices show that the Matanuska Valley is weathering the real estate market quite well.  There is a lower volume of sales but they haven’t died.  The values are certainly holding their own better than the stock market has been doing lately.

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With the increase in gas prices this last year I thought I would take a look at the sales numbers for the homes in the Knik-Goose Bay area for the year so far.  This includes the Knik-Goose Bay Road area out to and including Settlers Bay.

For Realtors and others familiar with the Mat-Su Boroughs tax maps, these include OC3, OC4, and HO16.  You can see the borough maps yourself here.

This area was one of the fastest growing in the Matanuska-Susitna Boroughs which is itself the fastest growing area in Alaska.

You can see that the sales volume, (total sales), was amazingly steady from 2004–2007.  It dropped off this year to the same volume as 2003. Prices increased steadily until 2008 with a huge jump from 2005 to 2006.

I don’t think that this years decrease in volume can be necessarily attributed to gas prices alone.  Obviously we have seen a drop in sales volume across the board.  It is also obvious that we are not seeing a real estate crash, the volume is still as good as 2003 which we thought at the time was a very healthy sales climate.

I will take a look at the core area between Wasilla and Palmer for a comparison tomorrow.  For a comparison to the whole borough you can look at the study I did at the end of September.

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Wasilla, Palmer, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough real estate statistics for the week of Oct 20–27, 2008. 

This week I noticed that 6 of the 15 closings were new construction.  Although the new construction market is down along with the rest of the real estate market, it is still holding it’s own.  Obviously 1/3 or more of the buyers are finding better value with new construction than with existing homes.

Only 5 of the homes that closed this week were built before 1990.  That is consistent with the total inventory where 28% of all the homes on the market are pre-1990.

That indicates a shift in our market.  For a long time we were concentrating on homes that were built during the early 80s real estate boom.  Now those are obviously a minority of the homes sold.  Homes built during that era need to be aggressively priced because they are competing with the very energy efficient homes being built today.

We closed on this home in Hart Lake Estates this week.  Everyone who saw it commented on how nice it turned out.  The appraiser, the buyers and their Realtor were all pleased with the results.  The builder, Petr Rytikov is going to begin another home very similar to this one near Lucille Street in Wasilla soon.  If you are interested in finding out about it, give me a call at 907 232–7900 or email me marty@valleymarket.com  .

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The Chugach Mountains over Palmer were beautiful in today’s late afternoon sun.  Gerrit had been asking to get the old Skidoo Elan out for more than a week so we brought it up to Jay’s place on Lazy Mountain.  Jay and his family have ten acres there which gives the kids room to zoom around without going on anyone elses land.

This is almost a 30 year old snow machine, but Gerrit loves to zip around with it.  It is nice and light and rarely gets stuck.  If it does, he can horse it out by himself.

His cousin Thomas had his Snow Sport going and was spinning brodies all over the snow.

The two boys kept zooming around as it got darker and darker.

Thomas finally slowed down when his hands started getting cold.

We left Gerrit out in the dark and went in to Aunt Susan’s hot chocolate.  Gerrit finally got the hint and came out of the cold as well.

A great snow day…and it isn’t even November yet.  It’s going to be a fantastic winter !!!

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Priced at only $270,000 and ready for your occupancy.

This is a beautiful 4 bedroom home in top condition on a sunny Palmer lot.  This home is over 2,300 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths.  The kitchen is extra large with high vaulted ceilings giving you a feeling of even more spaciousness.

There are closets and pantries galore in this home.  Two pantries next to the dining area on the main floor, extra large closets in each bedroom and two closets in the entry way.

The garage is 600 square feet with lots of extra room for a workshop or storage.  Off the dining area is a deck overlooking the fully fenced back yard.  The deck is ideal for barbecues both in summer and winter.

There is an extra–large family room in the lower level along with the 4th bedroom and a 1/2 bath. 

This was built as a five star energy rated home with a 90% energy efficient York furnace. 

If you would like to know more about this home or set up an appointment to see it call me at 907 373–0999 or email marty@valleymarket.com  You can also hear a recorded description of the home 24 hours a day at 800 745–9113 Ext 1123.

Check out the photos below by clicking to enlarge, you can also see a map to the location here. And make sure to scroll to the bottom to see the videos of the home.

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Here is a beautiful three bedroom 2 bath home on a quiet culdesac between Wasilla and Palmer. 

This house has a beautiful yard with an established lawn and ornamental shrubs.  Note the play area in the back yard for children.

The three car garage gives you plenty of room to protect your cars and use part of it for a workshop. 

The kitchen has lots of cabinets but is still open and very bright and light.  It has solid surface counter tops.

Call me at 907 232–7900 or email me at marty@valleymarket.com if you would like to see this home.

Check out the photos and click on them to expand.  Here is a map showing the location.

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Here are the statistics for Wasilla, Palmer and the rest of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough for the week of Oct 13–20, 2008.

I looked back at our inventory last year at this time, it was a total of 915.  Our total inventory is down significantly, thats a good thing, because our total sales are off by about the same amount.

There were 31 pending sales last week, that is a healthy number for this time of year.  The closings are low but will probably spike a little in the next couple weeks.\

There are a quite a few buyers in the lower price ranges, but there are very few homes in that price range.  This is the price range between $150,000–$200,000.  Many of those buyers are opting for new construction because of the scarcity of homes that meet financing criteria. 

I am working with a buyer right now who is getting into a brand new 3 bedroom, 2 bath home of just under 1200 square feet for $172,000.  It is a five star plus home, so when it is finished he will receive a $7,500 rebate check from Alaska Housing for energy efficiency.  Not only that, over the years he will save even more because his utility bills will be significantly lower than other homes.

If you would like to find out how to do that, give Jay or I a call at 907 373–0999 or email me at marty@valleymarket.com

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