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Look to your right and select 2F) – Residential Lot Sales – a newly compiled spreadsheet showing the past 12 years of residential lot sales for our market of Santa Fe city and county. Sales of lots used to be a large part of our market, but the last several years have seen unit sales about 20 to 30% of what they were in the middle of the last decade.
The optimism that land developers felt from 2000 to 2007 was founded on a seller’s market for homes, with ever increasing sales volume and sales prices. As the economic crisis started to affect everything, including real estate, lot sales decreased dramatically (compare 2006 thru 2008) and even 2012 was still 74% below the number of lots sold in 2006.
Average sales prices have come way down also. During the boom times, many lots sold at premium prices in Las Campanas, Monte Sereno and many other developments. But now those cannot be resold anywhere close to what a buyer paid in those good old days.
Some lot buyers had immediate plans to build, while others thought they might build and retire on the property someday. Others purchased with the visions of easy profits in their minds. Some were successful if they sold quickly. Those that held on and waited for the market to return to the wild and wooly days of the last decade are still waiting.
There are some lot buyers starting to emerge from the shadows. If you have a lot you would like to sell, there is a small trend toward improvement. Stay tuned and talk to your Realtor. You can always reach me at alanball2@gmail.com or by phone at 505-470-7153.
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