At the first quarter pole

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Three months in the books and we can say the year looks promising, although best ever or wonderful do not need to be said. No predictions here, yet March this year was a busy month with more sales recorded (from the Santa Fe Association of Realtors database known as MLS) than all but 4 of the last 95 months!

And inventory of homes listed for sale is in a range that we have not seen in over 12 years. Lower inventory means more urgency on the part of buyers; at least that is conventional wisdom. But since we have not seen lower inventory here in so long, will the now strong fixation buyers have with price prevent them from seeing the market shift to a balanced or even a seller’s market? A buyer trying to time the market shifts is often unable to lock in real savings when you consider the escrow process and the time it takes to complete a purchase.

There continue to be pockets of price and location that are not exactly the same as the rest of our market. I believe that homes between say $600K and $800K are in short supply because there have been very few new homes built in this range in the last 8 years. Some areas have good activity and proven success for sellers that price their homes to sell. Some would describe Nava Ade and Eldorado as warm to hot segments of our market. Homes and ranchitos that are some 30 minutes out are not in demand, by comparison. And lot sales are still creeping along slowly, although renewed interest is noted as some future homeowners cannot find the right home and decide they will maybe hire a contractor and build. The numbers on that are still weighted heavily toward buying resale as labor and materials make buying new an expensive approach. Also, materials and systems within homes are advanced beyond the quality and integrity of 20 plus years ago so a new home might be worth the cost to those that want the latest and best.

It is fun, with pleasing results, to compare sales for any 12 month period between 2008 thru 2013 with today’s most recent 12 months. We are so much better off now its hard to fathom how we stayed strong back when 100 sales a month was the norm. Now averaging around 150 a month, there is a larger pie for everyone to have a slice. Will we get to 200 a month levels anytime in this lifetime? We were there in 2004 and 2005 and 2006 so yes, it is possible. But it is not promised. Many sales then were to buyers mostly unqualified to buy, without sufficient income and lacking reserves to weather the changing payments as rates fluctuated. There was also a large-scale recession that wiped out substantial middle class net worth and crushed many jobs. Do mortgage lenders that were in business 10 years ago do things the same way now? Absolutely not. They could not get approval on maybe as many as half of the buyers and borrowers that they placed 10 years ago. Ask them to confirm. That is just my ‘oldtimer’ guess.

It’s not a simple math problem to calculate where our market is today when comparing with the past. That darned real estate bubble created some space between reality and dreams that seemed to make those dreams possible. But many were not sustainable and our slog through the mud of foreclosures and short sales has kept us humble and working harder than ever to stay even. If one were to guesstimate what sales would have looked like 10 years ago if the same loan qualification standards were in place then as they exist now, home sales numbers would have been much lower. There is no exact way to know how much, but I do appreciate the comparison of then versus now because the improvement in our market is actually better than it looks at first glance. We still have some foreclosures, of course. Just not as many showing up as we saw just a couple of years ago.

Keep reading and keep learning if you want to be in a position to make the correct decision about your own real estate transactions. Ask lots of questions and ask for proof of statements that seem too good to be true. You already know how that works.

Posted in Foreclosures, Mortgage, Posts & Updates, Santa Fe area real estate, Short Sales, 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.