The Coachella Valley Housing Market}

THE COACHELLA VALLEY HOUSING MARKET

by

Sebastian GibsonThe figures relating to declining home sales in the Coachella Valley assummer begins and temperatures rise do not look good. But as withall things, even poor figures in a strong housing market make forheadlines, but have little affect on reality.Here are the latest figures. First, the Statewide figures arethese. Home sales decreased 27.8 percent in April 2007 comparedto a year ago. However, the median price of a home rose 6.2percent. What’s it mean? Confusion to the economists. Bad news to Realtors. And for the general public, your home maystill be going up in price, even if you can’t sell it. Overall,that’s not so bad. In areas suffering a decline in prices, orwhere there is a glut on the market, the prices may have declined 5percent. Still, that’s not bad. Weren’t bubble burstssupposed to be more dramatic? Then you have the strong market based on population increaseprojections which are all extremely rosy for Southern California, theInland Empire and the Coachella Valley real estate

in particular.

That rosy prediction, however, did not help the latest figures for the Coachella Valley MLS

.

As with the rest of the State, sales of all types of homes (includingnew, resale and condo) declined 28 percent in April. For newhomes alone the drop in the Coachella Valley was 57 percent. Andwhile the median price of a home rose Statewide, in the CoachellaValley, the median price for all types of homes combined suffered adecline of 2.6 percent from a year ago with new home prices sufferingthe worst (a 6.7 percent decline from a year ago) and resale homesdoing best and actually increasing in price 2.4 percent for the medianprice of a home.So what’s happening? Builders are building fewer homes. That’s good. They have also taken dramatic steps to sell offtheir inventory. That’s good too, and even with their incentivesand price declines, the median price of homes in Southern Californiahas not declined substantially. That’s good also. The inventory of homes for sale on the market in the Coachella Valleyrose to 9,153 homes in April, and slid back just slightly to 9,108 inmid-May. As summer temperatures heat us and sales dry up furtherthis summer, the inventory may to 10,000 which will make for some badheadlines. But again, all may be explained away by the seasonaldrop in sales that normally occur during the hottest months (exceptwhen the market was roaring in 2004 when inventory was 1500). Andin reality, all it may confirm is that people are stuck where they are,except for first-time home buyers.The trend is not good and will not likely be improving thissummer. The new home sales decline in the Coachella Valley of 57percent in April compared with a year ago follows three straight monthsof declines of 53 percent in March, 43 percent in February and 23percent in January. And the story is the same in the InlandEmpire and in Southern California in general where home sales fell to a12 year low in April.Some economists have pointed to the recent fall-off in sales of moreaffordable homes as an indication of the ills caused by the people whobrought you no-interest loans and other creative financing that is nowbiting people in their posteriors. Others claim it is areflection of those who got in last in the market upswing or who havethe least to work with are now being hurt most as the pendulum swingsback. But no matter what price community you look at on the MLS,there is a glut of homes for sale and sales are hard to come by.To paraphrase a Stephen Stills song, you simply need to love the placeyour in, because moving may be out for the foreseeable future. And if you are a first-time home buyer, just like when you pick stocks,you need to be selective. Have your realtor look for the selecthomes where the price decline has been dramatic while the rest of theneighborhood has held steady or increased in value. If you thinkyou can time the market just right, lease short-term. But if youhave no luck picking stocks remember you want to be a contrariansometimes. When people are rushing to sell, that’s the time to bebuying. We may not be there yet, and if we do get there, you maynot even recognize it. And when you are ready to buy or at leastready to be prepared to buy, we can help.

Sebastian Gibson is both a realtor and a real estate lawyer in California of Sebastian Gibson Properties in Rancho Mirage, California dealing in

California Real Estate Property

, Palm Springs Desert Homes Land For Sale, Desert Area MLS and is the Senior Attorney with the

San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer

Firm from San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, the Palm Springs Desert Area, SoCal

Article Source:

eArticlesOnline.com}