Bullhead City, AZ

The September sales statistics are out and they point to some interesting trends. Of no surprise is that overall, sales are down. Total sales of all types are down 24% from this period a year ago, with 830 total sales thru September ‘08 vs. 1,089 for the same period last year. Interestingly enough. Single family home sales are down only 13% YTD from the same period last year, and the sales of SF homes are actually up for August (+26%) and September (+7%). I think this can be attributed to the bargains found in the foreclosure sector which account for over 60% of all SF homes sales lately.

However, the relatively strong sales of single family homes has taken it's toll on both the Condo market and Manufactured home market. Condo sales are down a dismal 49% for the year so far compared to last year with a total of 44 units sold so far this year vs. 86 a year ago. Ouch!!! Manufactured homes sales are down a whopping 35% from last year with only 262 units sold compared to 403 at this time last year. That trend, unlike the SF sales is not seeing any improvement with sales in August down 48% and September down 36%.

It is my guess that until the number of SF foreclosures gets reduced the sales of Condos and Manufactured homes will continue to stay in the doldrums.

Fall is here and things are hopping now that the weather is cooling off. This past weekend featured 2 concert events in Laughlin, the 4 Tops played on Friday night and the band Journey with their new lead singer were in concert Saturday night. More events are on the calendar including the following:

"21st Annual Chef's Food Fest"
Oct 16: Aquarius Casino Resort Pavilion- annual showcase of talent of casino and local restaurants chefs; lavish food displays and sampling; event is fund raiser for Colorado River charities and is one of most popular events on the calendar; Thurs (5:30 p.m.), $60 per person; also tables of 10 for $600 available; tickets go on sale Thurs, Sept 4; must be at least 21 to attend; for tickets or more information, call the Laughlin Chamber of Commerce at 702-298-2214

11th Annual dB Drag Racing

October 11-12

World Finals Sound Competition

Free Sat 9 am-7 pm Sun 9 am-2 pm

A must see for enthusiasts of

customized cars & car stereos

Extreme Vehicles

Mojave Crossing Event

For info: 928-330-2505

October 17-19

Bullhead City Hardyville Days

Celebrating the Heritage of the Colorado River

Community Park next to 1251 Hwy 95

Friday: 12 Noon-6:00 pm

Saturday: 9:00 am-6:00 pm

Sunday: 9:00 am-3:00 pm

Arts and Crafts Bullhead Chamber

Of Commerce Auditorium (entrance lower level)

1251 Hwy 95 Free Admission

River Valley Artists Guild sponsors

City of Bullhead City, Recreation Division

2047 Commercial Way

For Info: 928-763-0158

October 26, 2008 Chamber of Commerce Golf Classic Hosted by Mojave Resort Golf Club and Sponsored by the Avi Resort and Casino. The registration, continental breakfast and Calcutta will begin at 6:30 a.m. and Shot Gun Start at 8:00 a.m. Sponsorship tee signs and pre-registration for the tournament are available at the Laughlin Chamber. Please call 702-298-2214.

November 21-23

Tri State Renaissance Faire

2nd Annual Tri State Renaissance Faire

Rotary Park, Bullhead City

Hosted by The Adrian Empire

Friday and Saturday 9:00 AM-8:00 PM

Sunday 9:00 AM-4:00 PM

All volunteer charity event w/proceeds

To Mohave Valley Boys and Girls Club

Fee $5 adults $3 children

Combat demonstrations, renaissance crafts, classes,

games, archery contests, parade, Bellydancers,

musicians, and Shakesphere actors

For info: 928-763-9186

Just when things were starting to look up, the events over the past two weeks involving the banks, lenders and other financial institutions have conspired to put a heavy brake on our local real estate market.

Again.

During the summer, the failure of a number of lenders, the collapse of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and other similar events produced a saw tooth looking sales market. Up and promising one week, down and depressing the next. As those events waned, the end of summer sales were surprisingly brisk, and it looked like for the first time since hurricane Katrina that our real estate sales would not take the sharp September drop seen each year.

But no, this was not to last. Yet another catastrophic failure of the financial markets, which to me are a result of 8 years of poor leadership in Washington, sunk our real estate sales. Sales these past two week are running at about 50% of what we had been witnessing during the summer. It make me wonder what sales would have been like this fall had these financial failures not occurred. Then again, maybe it would be the same as the 3 previous years with sales in this resort market dropping off once the boaters left.

This week before the Labor Day weekend has proved to be more than a little strange for our local real estate market. Even in our "soft" market we see an average of 6 to 8 pended listings per day during the week, with Monday being the big spike after the weekend. That was not true this week. When a normal Monday produces 8 to 10 sales, this Monday saw a grand total of...................ONE pended listing!!! Tuesday proved to be not much better with only 2 pending sales. Even more intriguing was Wednesday with a fairly normal 8 sales, but, of the six site built homes entered into escrow, ALL were foreclosure homes sales!!

Thursday and Friday ended up being similar to Monday and Tuesday with a total of 7 sales for the 2 day period. Now, what really makes this odd is, we have been REALLY, REALLY busy!! Our top producing agents have been showing homes like mad, often going out to show homes 2 or 3 times per day! Many of our agents have been on the road EVERY day for the past 6 to 8 days showing homes to 2, 3 or even 4 prospective buyers in a single day.

OK, so where are the sales? Just around the corner. We have seen a shift in our local market and now all the pent up demand by bargain hunters, first time buyers and investors is starting to show. The buyers know there are great deals to be had and our market is nearing the bottom and the buyers are coming to pick their special deal from the tree. For the first time since Hurricane Katrina it looks like our fall and winter sales wiil go up, not down.

For buyers and sellers now is the time to act. Sellers need to get their home on the market and priced right to attract the buyers. Buyers need to find those special deals before the market starts back up and the great deals are all snapped up. This could be the start of our next big market shift and a return to a sellers market.

Don't get left out, call your Realtor today and get in on this special time in real estate!