2012 1st Quarter Real Estate Trend

Here are some interesting Statistics for the 1st Quarter Homes sales in Mesa County.

This graph was provided by Advances Title Company as a preview to their newsletter coming out next week.


Feel free to give me a call, send an email, or a text with any questions. Thanks! Becky Behrens

Some Local Statistics for The New Year

I thought you would enjoy some statistics from last year! It has been VERY interesting to see how real estate sales are trending. Right now the inventory is low only 932 residential listings and we as agents are scrambling for good homes to list. Pricing is very important right now! Also, the average list price is $306,065.00 and they are on the market for an average of 194 days. We sold more homes in 2011, in 2011 we sold 2,394 homes and that is up from 1750 in 2010. Although that doesn't mean that the prices are increasing, in fact the average sales price is down from $210,512 in 2010 to $177,727 in 2011. The following are some more statistics by area. Thanks!

Area          Listings in 2011       Sold Listings in          Average Sales 

                Active           Sold            12/2011                   $ in 12/2011 

City              94              275                22                        $124,935      

North          121             297                 20                        $173,257      

Northeast     77             291                  20                        $155,373      

Southeast     45            304                   15                         $109,922     

Redlands   119             248                   21                        $287,112       

Orchard

Mesa           76              217                  14                        $154,260         

Fruita          84              306                  29                       $212,996          

Clifton       48               161                  17                      $93,515            

Palisade/

East OM    33                  60                   1                        $373,600         

Our brokers gave us the following statistics in our meeting this week.

Feel free to give me a call, send an email, or a text with any questions. Thanks!Becky Behrens

Housing market improves, but foreclosures spoil the party

We are seeing the same trend here in Grand Junction. Our inventory is down and home sales are up, however the average price of recently sold homes is down slightly. Housing market improves, but foreclosures spoil the party Feel free to give me a call, send an email, or a text with any questions. Thanks!Becky Behrens

As Close to a Crystal Ball as I can Get!

The following article is the closest thing I've seen to a crystal ball for the future real estate economy. I found this article very encouraging and interesting. I hope you do, as well. Just click on the following link to learn more.


Real estate price declines overshooting fundamentals?

Feel free to give me a call, send an email, or a text with any questions. Thanks!Becky Behrens

Mesa County foreclosure filings, sales, up year-over-year | GJSentinel.com

The fact that sales are up is a good thing. Just Remember that an increase in sales doesn't mean that the sales prices have increased. If you compare the first half of this year to the first half of last year the prices have decreased, some areas more than others.

Mesa County foreclosure filings, sales, up year-over-year | GJSentinel.com

Feel free to give me a call, send an email, or a text with any questions. Thanks!Becky Behrens

Foreclosure - Strategic Defaults' Can Damage Credit for Years

This is a tender subject. I know some folks feel that they have no other option, but I think it is important to know the repercussions. I'm a firm believer that the more information we have the better decisions we can make. If you are struggling to make your mortgage payments or you are already behind, it is easy to think that maybe you should just walk away. However, there are a few options out there and it is best to stay in contact with your mortgage company. You may be eligible for a loan modification or a good canidate for a short sale. Yes, both of these options will affect your credit, but not as badly or for as long as a foreclosure. Both of these options require work and diligence on your part. It is easy to feel very overwhelmed and just want to quit. Trust me during this process you will feel like throwing in the towel, but the reward for sticking with it is worth it. The Rewards are that your credit won't take as big of a hit. I know some of you feel it can't get any worse, but it can. The big picture of your credit score is that anyone who asks for your SSN can and probaly is running a credit check on you. If you refuse to give them your SSN them the various companies assign you as a person with low credit. Now, think carefully who already has or request your SSN. I can name a few - health and auto insurance, credit card companies, auto loans, banks, physicians, colleges, and employers. Not all of these entities order a credit check on you, but some do and based on your credit score they are increasing your interest rates, reducing your line of credit, cancelling you card, and increasing your insurance rates. The one that most folks don't think about is employers, depending on their parameters, low credit can hurt you from getting security clearance for some positions(especially for government positions). If you are applying for a job and you are in the running, but you have a low credit score it can hurt you. In general, all of these entities feel that if you have low credit score you are a bigger risk to them. I'm not saying this is right, however it does happen.

I know that there are a couple of you reading this now and you have tried these options, but for whatever reason these options didn't work out for you. They key is that you tried and gave it your best.

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-'Strategic Defaults' Can Damage Credit for Years

Foreclosures Account for 31% of Sales

This has been a problem for the people who want to sell their homes. They are having to compete with the foreclosed homes on the market. Buyers will look at the foreclosed homes and think they are getting a great deal because it costs less than a non-foreclosed home. What they are forgetting is that a foreclosed home has usually been vacant for awhile, sometimes more than 1 year. Most of the time the homes weren't winterized or taken care of until the bank took ownership. You can see that the carpet needs replaced, the home needs a major cleaning, and cabinets need replaced. However, you don't see if the pipes have frozen during last winter, if the swamp cooler is rusted through, that the hot water heater or furnace is inoperable. During the inspection you will find some of this out(if you hire a good inspector). So buyer beware...you could be walking into a money pit!

Or you could spend a bit more walk into a home that needs little to no work and the sellers have lived in and maintained the property(to their standards) while they owned it. There is no guarantees, but the chances are better you won't run into any major repairs.

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-Foreclosures Account for 31% of Sales

Feel free to give me a call, send an email, or a text with any questions. Thanks!Becky Behrens

10 Inexpensive Ways to Wow Buyers

Right now there are more homes on the market than we have seen in awhile. Once you decide to sell your home you are competing against bank-owned, forclosures, and short sale homes. These homes are usually priced less, but require some TLC (sometimes they require A LOT of TLC). So in order to compete with these homes, it is important that your home makes the best first impression possible. The following link will take you to some tips to help you accomplish this.

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-10 Inexpensive Ways to Wow Buyers


Feel free to give me a call, send an email, or a text with any questions. Thanks!

Becky Behrens

Foreclosure Deal Vs Tax Credit

This question was emailed to me today and I thought it was a great question-

• Do to the increase of Foreclosures increasingForeclosure if we be patient are we more apt to save more than the $8000 tax credit. Are there better deals yet to come or has the market hit the bottom? and a link to this article was included - Foreclosure rate more than triples in Mesa County

Let me just start by saying "If anyone out there has a crystal ball I could borrow, I would greatly appreciate it. Please, Please, Pretty Please!!!"

I replied with the following:

• The only reason that I can foresee as to why you wouldn’t get the tax credit is if you both made over $150,000 combined, and from there my understanding is that you will get a percentage of the tax credit. Your accountant could answer that question better than me and trust me he has been asked many times. You can view the specifics for the 1st Time Homebuyer Tax Credit here. Also, did you read this article from the Daily Sentinel yesterday( This is a very good article) - Bargains to be found in housing market? Another factor that you might not be considering is the interest rate. The Government has been purchasing mortgage bonds and they have recently announced that they are going to start tapering off from purchasing them. As this continues to happen there is a good chance the interest rate will increase. I have a very informative newsletter that I will forward to you (See my previous post, below).
  
  Now as far as the foreclosure rate is concerned, you need to remember that most of these short sales are home owners who are trying to sell their homes and lose less money and hopefully avoid foreclosure. Therefore, a lot of those homes they are predicting as foreclosures are already on the market or the owners are in the process of working out something with their banks (aka “Making Home Affordable”) Some of them have already been given the 90 day notice and some of them are either behind or almost behind on their mortgage payments and they are trying to get their home sold in order to avoid foreclosure. As we have seen, some of the sellers out there are making their payments, but can’t sell their home for less than they owe. Yes, if these short sale owners don’t sell their homes, there is a good chance they will get foreclosed on. Here is the thing to know. If they are actively trying to sell their home the bank will sometimes give them a break and allow them to become more than 3 months behind on their payments. Each foreclosure costs the banks a significant amount of money and they try to avoid spending it. Keep in mind that while all of this is happening the 1st lienholder has gotten an appraisal done and has a very good idea of what the home is worth. Therefore, before they agree to a short sale or sale it at foreclosure they know the homes value and each bank has their own formula of how much they will accept below the appraised value.
  
  My opinion on all this is that some of these short sales out there are pretty good deals. The market price on average is lower than it has been in a couple of years and these short sell homes have the owners and the banks willing to take some good deals. The home owners just want to be done and the banks want to avoid paying the thousands of dollars to go through the foreclosure process. There is a down side, and that is a short sale can take up to 90-120 days (some don’t take that long, it varies) to be approved. It can be hard to be patient during this time. If someone comes in with a higher offer before the bank reviews your offer, their offer may be considered as well. Unless they extend the tax credit you will miss out on it, but you may have saved more in the process. I hope this has answered some of your questions, let me know if you have any more. Thanks!

REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-How to Beat the Tax Credit Deadline

This article holds some very good tips for 1st time home buyers. One of the things I've been running into lately, is that there are some homes in a short sale situation that are a really good deals. Unfortunatly, depending on where the sellers are in the process, there is a good chance that despite your best efforts the bank will take too long to get their ducks in a row and you will miss out on the tax credit. The banks are overwhelmed and it isn't unusual to submit an offer and have to wait 60-120 days or longer to hear if the bank will accept the offer.


Click here to read REALTOR® Magazine-Daily News-How to Beat the Tax Credit Deadline

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January 2009 Newsletter-GJEP News

The Grand Junction Econimic Partnership just came out with this newsletter. As bad as the economy has seemed, it really isn't that bad. Our local economy has slowed down just a bit. When you look at the numbers you realize that our local economy is doing pretty good.

Click here for the Grand Junction Economic Update 2009 from the GJEP

Foreclosures Increase in Mesa County

That sure makes it sound worse than the actual numbers suggest. It is true that foreclosures are up over last year. A local article is saying that we had a 21% increase over last year, however I think that it is important to look at the numbers. Mesa County had a total of 242 foreclosed homes in the first two quarters versus 191 for the same period last year. Compared to other cities in Colorado and in the U.S., we are doing pretty good especially for a community our size.


Mesa Co. foreclosures outpace statewide increase - Local Article

New Home Building Down From Last Year in Mesa County

In my last post I mentioned building permits were down and a brief reason as to why. A huge reason is the lenders have more stringent lending practices. There was an article in the local paper that goes into more detail and explains how and why the smaller builders are struggling. One of the reasons for higher lot prices has to do with the cost of subdividing, development, and the amount of time it takes to do both of these in Mesa County. Also, notice that the statistics at the end of the article aren't for our local market except for one concerning foreclosures and I am questioning how accurate that statistic is. If you go to my previous post on foreclosures you will find a link that will take you to a list of current foreclosures.

Loans Hard To Get For Some Grand Valley Developers- This is the article from the local paper.

Are You Seeing A Lot of Foreclosures?

No. Not Really. What do you define as a lot?


We have seen an increase in foreclosures in Mesa County, but not even close to the amount the national media is making it out to be. I recently read this http://kevinwade.blogspot.com/2008/06/foreclosures-its-going-to-be-okay.html and found it very interesting that just 4 states accounted for more than half of the country's foreclosure activity.


You might find the following links interesting:

• For more homes currently in the foreclosure process, in Mesa County - Mesa County Assessors Office, Public Trustee



• Forbes article - Smart ways to Profit from Foreclosures