Bullhead City, AZ

NOVEMBER MARKET STATS

A GLIMMER OF HOPE?

The November Market statistics were released today by our Board of Realtors today and there may be a glimmer of hope in the numbers. I have highlighted some of the key numbers that I think deserve analysis. Of some interest are the numbers of new listings. These are down from last year, but I think that just reflects the fact the market is down so much many people have decided to hold on to their homes rather than sell for less than what they want or need.

What I find to be significant are the number of listings sold and the volume (dollar value) of those sold homes. Compared to November 2007 sales this year are UP 12.28%!!!! Volume is also up despite the sharp decline in prices seen in the last fiscal year (-16.26%). While I think much of the increase in sales is a result of those buyers taking advantage of the great deals found on foreclosed homes, our buyers are also buying regular resale homes.

This may be encouraging news and could indicate we are nearing the bottom of the market. Investors take note; if you are waiting for the bottom and wait too much longer you may find it has passed you by. On the other hand the average sales price in November was still 1.44% lower than October. Is this an anomaly? Maybe, since the average price YTD this year is only 13.22% lower than last year. For a while the average price decline was close to 18%. What this tells me is that the rate of decline seems to be slowing.

With inventories down and new listing taken also lower the trend is for fewer homes to be available and with fewer homes there will be more pressure on prices hopefully slowing the rate of decline even further.

No positives for land sales

While there are some signs of hope for the residential real estate market, just the opposite seems true for land and lot sales. Sales for November 2008 were down an astounding 76.47% compared to November 2007, with only four land sales for November 2008 as opposed to 17 in 2007. For the year sales are down over 50% compared to this time a year ago. The fact that average sales prices have dropped 21.56% does not seem to have had the same effect on land sales as it has on residential sales.

7:00A.M. to 11:00A.M

The Bullhead City area Coats for Kids Pancake Breakfast being sponsored by the Morning Kiwanis Club and Keller Williams Realty is going strong! The turnout for this event is expected to be huge and the weather looks like it will co-operate. The breakfast will be held at the Keller Williams Realty Office located 2440 Adobe Rd at the corner or Adobe and the Bullhead Parkway. The breakfast will include Pancakes (of course!), sausage, Orange Juice, coffee and more. Cost of the Breakfast is only $5.00 and all proceeds go to the Coats for Kids Foundation with goal of buying 200 new coats. We have received and are accepting donations of cash or coats from local residents, Realtors, and Keller William Regional in Phoenix.

Everyone is welcome to come to the breakfast! Please join us for this great cause. For more information call Alysia, Laura or Christy at (928)704-2568. See you there!!

I recently became the Team Leader for my Keller Williams Market Center. This job does not allow me to sell or list real estate. As a Keller Williams agent I had put together a marketing program for expired's to get listings and a website and pay-per-click add program to generate buyer leads. There programs were pretty successful and I really hated to abandon them. But what could I do?

Ah, ding!! Make my wife a Realtor and let her take over my real estate business! That seemed like the perfect solution. After a bit of arm twisting negotiations my wife agreed to come out of retirement and get her real estate license. Off to school Sharon went! She passed the final exam and then took and passed her licensing exams. She got her license just over 3 weeks ago and promptly took up my marketing programs. Since she had helped me with these and had seen me use my Keller Williams tools she knew just what to do and started contacting my old clients to let them know who she was and that she had a new career and was taking over my business.

Keep in mind when I started as an agent I went to work for a Mom and Pop real estate company that offered little training and who's main way of getting me business was sitting in the office for "up time", waiting for the phone to ring. My "data base" were 3×5 cards and I did not really know why I even had those or what to do with them. So, even in the good times market that I started my career in, business came in slowly at first and it took months for me to get my first closed deal.

What a difference knowledge and training make! Even in this slow market we are in now, Sharon wrote her first contract less than 2 weeks after getting licensed. While that offer did not come to a deal she knew her buyer was going to buy something! Less than 3 weeks after getting her license she opened her first escrow!!! She now has her first listing and is getting her second contract signed today! Even better she may write an offer for her third buyer tomorrow!! Only 24 days after getting licensed!

Sharon is confident, comfortable and has the attitude that she will be a great Realtor. I love it! And I think she will be a great Realtor and be very successful!! You go girl!!!

KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY
River Cities Cares
Community Events

Pancake Breakfast

When: Saturday, December 6 from 7am to 11am
Where: Keller Williams Realty - 2440 Adobe Road, Suite 106, Bullhead City, AZ
Pancake Breakfast - $5

Keller Williams Realty has partnered with the Coats for Kids Foundation to help kids in the Bullhead City Community. Our goal is to provide new coats for 200 kids in the community.

You can help in 2 ways:

• Drop off a new coat at Keller Williams Realty, Home Depot or Mad Dog Fitness.
• Come join us at the Pancake Breakfast - $5 each
  

We are accepting new coats until the day of the event at Keller Williams Realty, Home Depot and Mad Dog Fitness. The cost of a new coat through the Coats for Kids Foundation is $15 each. All net proceeds will go towards the purchase of the jackets.

Join us along with the Bullhead City Morning Kiwanis Club.

For more information on the event and how you can contribute, contact Keller Williams Realty at (928) 704-2568.

The October sales statistic are in for Bullhead City Real Estate from our Board of Realtors. While there are no big surprises, there are some interesting trends. Residential sales YTD declined 18.46% from the same period last year, with YTD sales in 2007 of 964 vs. 786 for 2008. For the month however, sales in October 2008 were only down 7.14% from October 2007. There were 65 residential sales in October 2008. If you are selling your Bullhead City home it is significant that listings taken dropped more than sales, down 24.21% YTD 2008 vs. the same period in 2007. This means inventory is coming down which may have the effect of slowing the rate of decline on prices and could even indicate a shift towards a neutral market from a buyers market. This could be the news that gets buyers off the fence an back to buying mode. The average price dropped only 13.23% YTD. Still, most sales in Bullhead City are foreclosures and mak up about 60% of all site built home sales

Land/lot sales are still sagging badly. YTD sales are down 47.35% from the same period in ‘07!!! The average sales price is down 21.44% since this time last year. While home sellers are keenly aware of the declining prices and doing a decent job of reducing prices to meet the market, that can't be said of land sellers, which may explain why land sales continue to suffer so badly. The combination of declining prices and declining sales resulted in an overall decline in sales volume of 58.64% from $32,877,571 this time last year to $13,599,708 in 2008. New listings did not drop as much as sales meaning inventory is still in the rise. Not a good sign for land sellers.

Even commercial sales are down though only 13% for the period. The encouraging news is listings are down almost 23%.