Some Market Movement?

At the time of this posting, a few areas of Santa Fe have experienced some positive movement over the past week. This is NOT an April Fool's joke. It's encouraging to see this type of activity. So where's "the action"? The Northwest quadrant (excluding Las Campanas) seems to be gaining some steam with 3 properties in the $600,000 to over $800,000 range that went under contract. Having viewed a good bit of the inventory in this area, I feel that properties that priced to sell are finally paying off and buyers are taking advantage of the deals out there. Like I always say, "priced right is half sold."

Another area enjoying some activity is Eldorado, and surprisingly, 4 properties above $450,000 went under contract last week! A bit surprising considering that the median price in Eldorado is currently $419,000 and of the 16 homes that have sold so far this year in Eldorado, the average sales price is just over $367,000. This upper-end shift in sales is encouraging and believe that it gives some insight to this crazy, unpredictable market.

These are just two areas that stood out as far as activity is concerned, but looking at the market as a whole, what I see selling are homes for full time users. People still have to have a place to live and what better time to buy it than now--low prices, low interest rates and pretty good selection. The second home market seems to be quite slow as people are being very cautious in spending those discretionary dollars. In my opinion, primary residence sales are out pacing second home sales.

Where are the prices going? I can only estimate that the typical primary residences will be holding their values and we will see fewer deals out there. Typical vacation homes will be a little more unstable. Santa Fe offers a great quality of life with four "gentle" seasons. People relocating here are living their dream now, versus waiting for the bottom or the economy to improve or a number of other things. You can't spend your life waiting for everything to be perfect. Often that's the best way to miss the boat entirely. We only have a certain amount of time on this planet, so live your dream now!