Eloise Gift, New Mexico Real Estate

Given the facts of the August real estate market in the Greater Albuquerque Area, I'd say our region is having difficulty making up its mind which way to go. The inventory remains high with 6, 361 (9.28 months supply) homes for sale thus extending the buyers' market. Within this framework, we continue to experience the usual gentle fluctuations in the number of new listings coming on the market, the number of sales completed, and the average price of sold listings.

Continuing the yearly trend, the number of new homes that came on the market in August decreased slightly to balance out the increase of the previous month. At 1,663, the number of new listings for the month remains within the year's margin of fluctuation-between 1,500 and 2000.

In August, the highest selling price range of the Southwest Multiple Listing Service (SWMLS) area remains $200,000 to $250,000 followed by the $140,000 to $160,000 range. The areas in which the most homes were sold were from highest to lowest: the Southwest Heights with 43, Rio Rancho with 39, and the city of Albuquerque with 36.

The average number of days on the market was just under 80. The average sales price about $219,000 and the average median price, about $188,000.

Since the same time last year, our area has seen the time on market increase threefold and the total number of active listings by about the same margin. Yet the average and median prices have not fallen dramatically. In June, the average price of a home in the Greater Albuquerque area was $248,375 and median, $203,500. These statistics for the area combined with Forbes Magazine's top ranking of Albuquerque for growth in 2009, I give the Greater Albuquerque Area real estate market a more-than-passing grade for the month of August as the area strives to maintain momentum.

Information and graphics, compliments of the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors Southwest Multiple Listing Service.

Eloise Gift

It is amazing how delightfully different each day at the state fair can be! It's the same venue , the the same food, the same shows; but the experience is different each time. On my second visit yesterday I did not have to be an entertainer. I was at the fair to be entertained, eat, people watch and maybe play a game or two and go on wild rides.

Dinner was first, under the big blue sky with music blasting in the distance and the usual background noises of hawkers and announcements. it was to choose from among all the enticing fare sausage barbecue, turkey legs that the people walking by held up like giant ice cream cones. Should I order curly fries or Texas fries? The drink was easy - a tall container of fresh squeeze lemonade. Then it was off to the Hispanic Arts pavilion. The huge birds carved out of metal, (was it iron?) were most impressive. I wish I could have taken pictures of them. Terminantemente prohibido! It was not allowed. In the next pavillon I admired and wondered as I always do about the time and patience it must take to make those beautiful, prize-winning quilts and embroidered tablecloths and bedspreads. We had to find the dolls. My friend's friend made ovversized Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that won a prize. They allowed me to take pictures of them staring out from their glass case.

From there we wandered out onto the Mid Way tinto the bright lights where daredevil patrons were paid to get tossed and bounced around on every manner of ride and hawkers did their best to entice us to toss balls or the frogs (rubber ones, thank heavens,!) into impossible spaces to win stuffed animals or trinkets. I decided to save the experience for another day.

There should have been more people at the fair. The weather was perfect and it was half-priceentry fee day. I shall be returning. I still have not seen the animals or the Native American pavilion. There is always so much to see, do at the state fair.

Ladera Heights is an Albuquerque, New Mexico neighborhood you may want to explore if you are looking for quick and easy access to any part of the city. Air force personnel clients and Sandia Lab employees who are savvy real estate shoppers ask me to look for homes for them in the Ladera Heights section of town, anticipating prices compatively lower than those close to their offices but only an easy 10 - 20 minutes commute to work by way of I-40 from Coors or Unser Boulevard.

Indeed, the intersection at I-40 and Coors, one of the two major north south arteries (Unser, the second, is being expanded) is almost squarely at the center of the Ladera community. Ladera Heights is tucked in against the Petroglyph National Monument on the northern border,;Coors is on the eastern boudary;and the Southwest Multiple Listing places the westernmost boundary just west of Paseo del Volcan. The southern border is just south of Arenal.

Ladera is also a community of older (built in the 70's) and newer homes. The recent favorable real estate market that, in Albuquerque, lasted through the third quarter of 2007 gave rise to a rapid increase in new home construction and boosted the population in the area. Similarly, commercial ventures have escalated along the Coors corridor with many new openings as many Eastside business owners recognize opportunities for expansion on the Westside. The recently completed I-40 interchange at Coors Boulevard opened up a major artery to the west and vastly improved the commute time across the Rio Grande.

Living in Ladera Heights means quick access to nearby trails to the bosque and the Petroglyph National Monument; to golfing at the Ladera Golf Course; to the Open Space Visitor's Center, the Unser Racing Museum on Montano; restaurants, physical fitness clubs and an ever increasing number of other businesses and services in the area.

Three hundred eleven homes are currently on the market in the larger Ladera community. In a variety of age ranges, styles, and sizes, the homes vary in price from $84,000 to $799,000. In the section of the community closest to Coors and I-40, at the end of August, thirty-five homes were listed for sale, six were under contract, and five were listed as sold during the month.

Considering moving to New Mexico? Consider Ladera Heights for convenience and well-priced homes with wonderful amenities. When you are packing for your move, forget the snow shovel and bring your bike and walking shoes.

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A Gift for real estate -A Gift for all seasons

Looking for a Westside Albuquerque, New Mexico community in which to settle? Paradise Hills offers delightful spaces in Paradise East and Paradise West. Paradise West is virtually all new with ongoing construction in some areas. Paradise East includes vintage Paradise Hills (built about 40 years ago ) with mature gardens, each on .25 or more acre in the County of Bernalillo. It is a community that was developed around a golf course; and apart from Executive Estates on the south side of Paradise Hills Boulevard, was for the better part of the last forty years, an almost isolated Albuquerque community. Now, new communities extend in every direction around the golf course to fill out the original boundaries from the AMAFCA Las Ventanas Dam to the Calabacillas Arroyo, Paseo del Norte, and Coors Boulevard. It is a community that is aging like fine wine while renewing itself.

The golf course, in its latest reincarnation as Desert Greens, continues to provide recreation and an oasis of green open space as additional attractions of the area. Other attractions, apart from a variety of comfortable homes (older and newer) include expanding shopping and recreational resources. The Cottonwood Mall one of Albuquerque's four upscale malls is on the edge of Paradise Hills. Apart from its own shops and restaurants, and movie theatres, the mall serves as a hub for a widening circle of restaurants and other businesses.

Paradise Hills borders the Petroglyph National Monument with accessible trails to explore paths and the mystery of the glyphs carved on ancient rocks. Paradise Hills is also an area the offers magnificent views of Northeast Albuquerque, the Sandia, Manzano, and even the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez Mountains as well as the sleeping sisters (extinct volcanic cones) on the edge of the western high mesa. Depending on where your home is located in Paradise Hills, you may even have the equivalent of a ringside seat for the International Balloon Fiesta each year.

Homes in Paradise Hills range in price from the low hundreds to under $1,000,000. They include town homes and single family detached homes. If you are looking for quality of life, this is one place in which you can find it.

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Westside Albuquerque is made up of smaller communities, each identified by name and sometimes by unique features. The Trails, a master-planned community that is still being built on the farthest edge of the northwest mesa is one of these communities. It is bordered on the north by Paseo del Norte, on the south and southwest by Woodmont Avenue, and on the east by Universe Boulevard.

As the name suggests, this is a community of trails. Planned biking and walking trails cross the community leading to and from up to eight plannned parks. I found four of these parks, pleasant, well maintained open spaces integrated into the neighborhood, already functioning -- a community park, a soccer park, a baseball park, and a dog park.

The Trails is also home to the brand new state-of-the-art, green built Volcano Vista High School on Rainbow Boulevard across the street from the middle school that is currently under construction. When retail/commercial sites tucked into the northeast and northwest corners of the subdivision at Paseo del Norte.

The one and two story detached two to six bedroom homes at The Trails vary in sizes from just over 1300 square feet to above four thousand square feet. Several have private guest quarters and courtyards.

The Trails has easy access to Cottonwood Mall with shops, a movie theater, and restaurants. The area also has a quick direct path along Paseo del Norte through the Petroglyphs to more restaurants and shopping along Golf Road and communities to the east.