Lot sales up 10%

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2017 saw a modest increase in residential lot sales in Santa Fe city and county reporting to the MLS database for the Santa Fe Assoc of Realtors. 2016 showed a total of 194 sales while 2015 showed 175. This is “modest” since we are still light years behind the volume of sales we experienced thru most of the last decade, topping out above 490 unit sales for six consecutive years ending in 2006. Since then it has been a dogfight just to be relevant and to be optimistic.

Lot sales trend down if people are not buying lots to build. Lot sales trend down when investors are uncertain of the values of lots year after year. Having been burned once or twice on a lot purchase, investors are standing on the sidelines waiting for a more stable and solid market and valuations. There are still a large number of lot sales (of the modest total we are reporting today) that show a sales price BELOW what that seller paid years ago. Would they reinvest in another lot? Without knowing which way the market was going? Not likely.

So any increase in lot sales is likely directly tied to a modest increase in future home owners actually buying the lot they want to build on in the near future. And we are not seeing a large increase in new construction across the board so new homes is not yet a thing we can get excited about. But the shift seems to be underway that will prove up an increase in lot sales again this year and beyond. One might feel that a 10% increase is great, but when you look at where we have been, it feels like a replacement bandage on the one that has been applied in the past. Healing is still taking place.

Please note the following breakdown and analysis of the 2017 lot sales numbers:

Sold prices ranged from $29K to $435K in Las Campanas, with 10 of the 20 lowest priced lot sales of the group of 194 sales. A total of 48 lots sold in Las Campanas.

Of all sales and in various price categories, please note:

91 sales below $100,000. 44 sales between $100K and $150K. 21 sales between 150K and $200K and 22 sales between $200K and $300K. There were 12 sales at or above $300K including one of a subdivision of 15 lots and one super premium lot in a highly desirable part of town that sold well above $1 million.   Average sold price= $142,429    Median sold price= $105,000

Compare to 2006:  561 lots were sold averaging $240K per lot (almost $100K higher than 2016 avg).

Thanks for visiting this blog site and do us all a favor: buy a lot today and build a new home on it. We need the activity and the inventory.  Happy 2017

Posted in Posts & Updates, Statistical Data - Santa Fe real estate market and tagged , , , .

The writer is a 68 year-old young man engaged as an active REALTOR (associate broker) with Keller Williams, in real estate sales and management in the Santa Fe NM market area. My career has been in and around the real estate industry for more than 35 years, ranging from mortgage lending (interim, commercial, residential); residential property management and leasing; shopping center development and leasing; real estate sales; sales training; title insurance as an executive and an escrow officer; various management positions; consulting and other related activities. That plus a bunch of banking experience including our family-owned Bank of Santa Fe in the 1980s. Where has the time gone?
My background means you have my working knowledge of the entire transaction process at your disposal. That comes with honesty and no bullshit.