Wasilla Real Estate News market statistics for Wasilla, Palmer, Big Lake, Houston, Sutton, Talkeetna, Willow and every other little community in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

This update is for the week of March 24–31, 2008.

Although the statistics include the whole borough, about 80% of the real estate activity occurs in the Palmer-Wasilla Core area.  This is the area that is driving the market for the Mat-Su Valley

There were 60 new listings this week.  That is the largest amount so far this year.  We should continue to have a high volume of new listings come on the market throughout the spring.

The market has definitely picked up.  While the pendings and sales are a little higher than they were last month, the activity on showings and offers seems to be quite a bit higher. 

Right now, there still seems to be a reality gap between buyers and sellers.  I think that many on both sides are not understanding the reality of the market.  

Many sellers are not pricing their home to sell.  They are still in the mentality of a sellers market where a rising tide lifts all ships and even if you are overpriced, the market will eventually catch up.  Read yesterday’s post here.

But there are a lot of buyers that are also out in never-never land.  Remember…this is Alaska and you know how the bumper sticker goes.  Just because prices are free-falling in other parts of the country doesn’t mean that is happening here.  Take a look at this Fortune Magazine article about how much they are expected to continue falling in some places.

But prices are not falling here.  In fact at this point the average price is still raising, slowly.  The borough and others feel that the prices rose last year by 2%.  I think this is about right.   So just because prices are dropping dramatically in other parts of the country, it doesn’t mean they are dropping here.  In fact, at this point it appears as if prices will continue to hold steady or raise slightly in the future.

So, between sellers listing their homes at too high a price, and buyers offering too low of a price we are seeing a lot of paperwork flying around before we get the contracts signed off.  Buyers need to shop enough to know the market, and if a house is priced right…just buy it.  If you don’t, someone else will.  

I’m working on the Motivated Sellers list for the week.  It should be out tomorrow. Drop me a line if you want it.

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I once had a call from an out-of-state owner telling me that he wanted his house sold by the weekend.  It was Wednesday.  When I told him that could be done for the right price he asked me to fax the listing papers.  We had the house sold by the weekend.

He was a MOTIVATED SELLER.

Some sellers are not motivated.  How do you know they aren’t motivated?  Here are a few clues.

• The house has been on the market for 600 days with no price reduction.
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• They don’t want to show the house today…how about next week?
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• It’s still a mess, even though they had a 24 hour notice for showing.
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• You make a good offer which they reject with no counter.
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• When you show up to the house you are greeted with a snarling pittbull

On the other hand, there are sellers who are very intent on getting their house sold.  A motivated seller will always try to find a way to make a transaction work.  They won’t balk about a $2,000 difference between the offered price and asking price .  They will make the reasonable repairs to get the deal done.  They will even change their plans to move early to help a buyer out.

How do you find these motivated sellers? 

• Sometimes you can tell immediately by the price.  If a new listing comes on at 10% below the competition you know that is a motivated seller.  Buy the place for the asking price before someone else does.  That seller will be a willing partner throughout the transaction.
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• Sometimes the listing will say “motivated seller”…that’s a good hint.    Actually, that seller often owes more on the loan than the house is worth.  The seller is motivated but not able to do anything about the price.
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• It’s been on the market a while with a recent price reduction.  This seller is still serious about selling, but is trying to find the right price.  Make them an offer.
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• It is owned by a relocation company, or is a foreclosure.  These people are going to sell…period.  But they aren’t going to give the property away.  Read this on foreclosures. 
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• It’s a divorce sale.  They need to sell so that they can get on with their lives.
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• Last, but not least, get my MOTIVATED SELLERS LIST.   I  go through the MLS system and actually read the listings to see if it’s a Relo, Foreclosure, Divorce etc.  I also include those that have been on the market a long time but have had recent price reductions.  Occasionally a realtor will call and ask to have a house on that list because their seller is genuinely motivated.

Just drop me an email by clicking on my contact button.  Ask to receive the motivated sellers list. I just updated it.  There are 43 homes on the list right now. 

And here is a bonus that didn’t make the list.  This guy is really motivated.  He has only been on the market 10 days and has lowered his price three times already.  Click here to see the listing, call me to get in.  My cell phone number is 232–7900.

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I took a drive up Wolverine Road this evening to put a sign on a new listing.  Wolverine Road is one of Palmer’s secrets. 

Wolverine Road starts out as Clark-Wolverine Road from the Old Glenn Highway about one mile east of Palmer.  About 3 miles up the road, Clark and Wolverine separate, turn left to stay on Wolverine.  I found that someone else liked Wolverine Road as well.

I saw three moose on the 8 mile drive, this young one was munching on Willows next to Wolverine Creek

Just a mile up the road were some of our strange Alaskan Cattle. 

These shaggy beasts definitely look like they were made for an Alaskan winter.

Just across Wolverine Canyon is the giant carrot marking Wolverine Farms, home of the largest herd of Galloway Cattle in Alaska.

Someone who knows more than I do can tell us why every mountain peak has a puffy cloud above it.  There were no other clouds in the sky.

All this was to put a sign at the very end of Wolverine Road.  If you know anyone interested in a 69 acre parcel with about 20 acres in Hay and a 2200 square foot home let me know.  It’s a rare find, there are trails galore from this location.  You can leave right from your home straight into the Alaska Wilderness.  Here is a google map to the location.  Click on the satellite view to get a feel for this unusual opportunity.

Or you can call me for more info… 907 232–7900 is my cell number.

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Wasilla Real Estate News market statistics for the week of March 17–24, 2008.  These statistics are for Palmer, Wasilla and the rest of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

We are watching the spring inventory rise. If everything remains normal the inventory will continue to rise through April and into May when it will level out.  This is the time people are selling their homes to make changes in the summer. 

It is a great time for buyers because they have more choices of properties. 

So far, the market seems similar to last year.  There are a few changes however. 

It is taking longer to sell a house.  Last year the average days on the market was about 100 days for the Total Active and about 80 or so for the houses that sold.   This indicates that we still have an oversupply on the market.

The average sales price remains about the same as last year, with just a slight increase.  There is about a 2% increase across the board, but the higher priced homes are not seeing any appreciation at all. 

It’s important to watch the new house prices.  There still are a few daring builders building spec homes.  These builders know that they have to build a quality home for the money and it needs to compete very aggressively with the 2–4 year old homes on the market. 

Nick Fonov just finished this very nice home in Heritage Farms Subdivision.  It sold within a week after it was finished.  He produces a very high quality home for the price that competes very well with existing construction.  This 1900 square foot ranch sold for close to the asking price of $285,000. 

He is finishing another similar home in Serendipity Subdivision on Fortune Circle.  It should be done by the end of April. 

Other builders are still building and selling spec homes.  Jess Hall continues to do well in his developments and a few others are also selling new construction homes on speculation. 

But this is not a time when any builder can just throw up a structure and expect to make a large profit on everything they build.  Care must be taken with the quality and the costs.  Buyers have plenty of alternatives with homes that are only 2–3 years old.

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I’m not sure, but it does look like a pretty good deal.  Krystal Rodgers of RE/MAX thinks it’s the best deal right now.  She may be right. The last time I ran an alert like this the house sold in less than a week. 

Unfortunately, someone else sold it, so call me to see this home, unless you are already committed to another Realtor.  My cell is 232–7900 

It’s only 7 years old.  It’s a 1300 square foot ranch style home that seems pretty solid structurally even though the builder did not get inspections done when he built it.  Because of the lack of inspections it will not finance with AHFC but should work with most other programs.  It has 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths on 9/10ths of an acre.

The location is just off of Wasilla Fishhook about 6 miles out. 

This house has been on the market only 4 days, it will likely not last more than 10 days, so if you are in the market for something like this…call right away.

Oh…the price…only $130,000. 

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Something dawned on me late last night.  I know the light usually comes on in the morning but yesterday was backwards. What dawned on me is that some sellers haven’t gotten the word that they need to lower their price.   Last night at 11:30 PM I finished an 8 hour run of 3 BPOs. A BPO is a Brokers Price Opinion requested by a lender.

I noticed when going through the comparable properties that many people do not reduce their price even when their home has been on the market for a long time.  One home had been on the market more than 500 days at the same price.  Several had been at the same price for more than six months.

Buyers are the ultimate determiners of price.  Just because an appraiser, or a Realtor, or the borough thinks it has a certain value…that is almost meaningless.  It’s the buyers who call the shots.

Buyers are buying houses, every week, actually every day.  They are looking at a lot of houses before they make an offer on one.  When they find one they like they will make an offer.  By the time a buyer is ready to commit, he knows if the house is priced right or not.  Likely he won’t even bother to write an offer if the price isn’t close to where it should be.

So if you are in a hurry to sell, you should price it very competitively from the beginning.  Then you should set up a schedule of price reductions if you don’t get an offer right away.

Depending on your price range, and your urgency in selling you should make your first reduction after 30 days.  If you aren’t getting any showings at all your reduction should be at least 5%.  If you are getting some showings but no one is talking about an offer you might try 1/2 of that or so.  That still means a reduction of  $7,500 for a $250,000 home. 

Then you should evaluate your price every 30 days after that.  If you are getting showings, you are at least close to the price.  But if you aren’t getting offers, you are still too high.

Some houses are definitely priced right.  Just in the past week I have dealt with two offers for more than the asking price, and one that was right on the price.  These properties were priced right and they sold.  One of them had 4 different buyers competing for it. 

The market is active, if your house isn’t active…IT’S THE PRICE!

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Here is the market update for the week of March 10–17, 2008.  We have topped 700 listings for the first time since mid-December.  We will likely see listings increase over the next couple months

If you click on the chart to the right above, you will see a running tally of listings, pendings and closings since January of 2007.   You can see that pendings are starting to climb while closings are still lumbering along at a steady pace.

I anticipate to see closings begin to climb a little in the next couple of weeks.  Let’s watch and see.

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The is the DEAL of the week. 

I’ll be surprised if this isn’t sold by the end of the week.  This foreclosure just hit the market today.  It is 1885 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and a one car garage just off of Seldon Road..

It is $185,000 for a foreclosure in surprisingly good shape with new carpet and new vinyl.  It has a fireplace, living room and separate laundry room. 

Call me at 232–7900 if you would like good directions to the house or if you would like to view it.

It is listed with Lee Mitchell of RE/MAX of Wasilla.

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Wasilla Real Estate News market statistics for the week of March 3–10, 2008.  These statistics include the whole Matanuska-Susitna Borough, including Wasilla, Palmer,Houston, Sutton, Willow, Talkeetna and the rest of the outlying areas.

However, most of the real estate activity is in Wasilla and Palmer.

As the chart shows, we had more new listings this past week than at any time since the beginning of the year.  The spring rush has started.   We should see many more new listings come on the market in the next couple months.

We also had the most pendings for the year this past week.  For that reason, our total inventory only grew by five.  Our absorption rate remains pretty steady.  In fact if we were to keep the average amount of pendings at 40 per month, we would soon be in a sellers market again.

We only had 18 closings because these are homes that went into contract during the slower month of February.  We should see the closings soon come up close to the pending number.

Buyers should pay attention to the fact that the total inventory is down from last year, sales are steady so I don’t expect to see much of a drop in house prices.  Houses over $300,000 are still selling slower than and they have to be competitively priced to sell.

I attended an Alaska Housing Finance Corporation seminar this past week at the Lake Lucille Inn.  It was an interesting meeting.  The consensus was that values for the past year increased in the Valley by about 2%.  The real estate market was still healthy in Mat-Su with a steady market. 

The outlook for the 2008 appears to be fairly solid, there are several large projects that are bringing more people into the valley.  The Target store, a new 1,500 person prison and other smaller business show that the Valley continues to grow. 

In fact, the vacancy rate for apartments is only 3%.  That means the rental market is basically at capacity.  As the valley continues to grow, it will likely need more places for these renters to stay.

Jess Hall, of Hall Quality Homes, spoke at the seminar.  His business is still running at close to capacity because of his foresight in purchasing land for development in central areas.  He mentioned that housing starts are running at about 50% of what they were in 2005.  He expects that to continue and feels that is a healthy rate of new housing.  Construction costs are increasing and he expects new construction prices to increase by summer to match the cost of cement, copper, and all the other materials. 

Interest rates remain low.  They are as low as they have been for the past 40 years.  We have become used to the rates in the 6% range, but many of us in the industry remember the days of 12% mortgages only too well.  I have a copy of an article somewhere write during those days that said we will never again see single digit mortgage rates. 

If you would like a copy of my motivated sellers list, read this post and drop me a line.

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On Monday I mentioned that I would add a feature showing the foreclosed properties.  I intended to just add a link to all the foreclosures that I could find on the MLS system.  But…I discovered that would be against MLS rules so I have done something even better.

In a previous article I noted that foreclosures are not always the best deals on the market.  In fact, foreclosures usually sell for exactly what they are worth.  You can read that article here.

Still, foreclosures are usually priced below the other similar sized houses and for the right person they can be a good deal.  Even better deals can sometimes be found.  These can be relocation properties where a holding company does not want to sit on a vacant house, or they can be divorce sales where a judge orders the sale of a property.

So I have gone through the MLS one by one and come up with 42 listings that meet the criteria of the title.  These properties will absolutely be sold.  In fact, most of them will likely be sold fairly quickly. 

It is against the MLS rules for me to just post these 42 properties on my website.  I am only supposed to give this information to people I am working with, so I have come up with a way to do that.

All you need to do is drop me a note via email.  Mention Motivated Sellers in the body of the email, include your name and phone number and I will email the list to you.  Just click here to email me. 

This list will be done weekly to keep you up to date with these motivated sellers.  There is no way to do an automated search for these types of properties because it requires me to read through each listing for clues. 

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