Lynn Franklin

It's a fun weekend to live in Butte County! Part of the reason that I love selling real estate in Paradise and other parts of Butte County is because the community is always offering so much to our local residents. I can always tell prospective Paradise area buyers just how great of place this truly is to live!!! It makes selling real estate so much easier!!

Whether you like nature or fun amusements there will be something for you this weekend in Butte County. The 2^nd annual Wildflower and Nature Festival is going to take place in Riverbend Park and the Midway Rides carnival will also be in town. You can check out the Butte County home site for more details on both events. I hope to see you there!!

It was a slow week for the Magalia real estate market with no properties closing escrow and only 4 properties going under agreement. A couple of key things happened though that may interest Magalia area buyers. There were a number of price reductions (13 of them!!) and the interest rates dropped to 5.85% for an average 30 year fixed rate. This spring market is shaping up to be a buyer's delight with interest rates and price reductions being ideal. Areas receiving the most interest in this Magalia market are those single family properties priced below $250,000, as well as the manufactured homes.

The Paradise Real Estate market had 2 big changes this past week which will positively impact area buyers. The first was that the 30 year fixed rate mortgages fell again with the average rate now being 5.85%. In addition to this great interest rate, there were 20 price reductions in Paradise, signaling that sellers are ready to make a deal.

Overall the Paradise market activity is about the same as it has been over the past month. There were 17 new listings that entered the market, 11 properties that went under agreement, and 5 Paradise properties that closed escrow. The property types that are experiencing the most activity are also the same as previous weeks with 26% of the Paradise single family homes priced below $250,000 being sale pending, and 25% of the Paradise single family homes priced between $350,000 and $450,000 being sale pending. The Paradise manufactured home market is also experiencing consistent activity with 17% of those properties being under agreement.

The Paradise real estate market had one of the best weeks of activity we've seen in quite a while. There were 7 properties that closed escrow and another 19 properties that went under agreement. This better level of activity unfortunately did not have any impact on the overall Paradise inventory as we saw a startling 27 new listings hit the market. This, along with the fact that we saw 34 price reductions in Paradise, is still signaling great opportunities for Paradise buyers! The interest rates are still at very low levels with the average 30 year fixed rate at 6.13. The real estate categories remaining the strongest in Paradise are those single family homes priced under $250,000, as well as though priced between $350,000 and $450,000 with both categories having 25% of their total inventory currently under agreement. The manufactured homes in Paradise are also still on the stronger side of activity with 20% of their total properties currently under agreement.

Slowly but surely, things are starting to pick up in the Magalia real estate market. Over the last few weeks, we have seen a very gradual increase in activity from week to week. This past week was no different, with 5 Magalia properties going under agreement and another 6 Magalia properties closing escrow. There were only 11 new properties that hit the market in Magalia which is a sign that the pace of inventory growth may be slowing. There was also a decrease in the number of price reductions this past week in the Magalia real estate market with only 8 existing listings altering their price. For the third week in a row, the category of real estate that continues to receive the most activity in Magalia are those single family properties priced between $350,000 and $450,000 with 20% of the total properties in that category currently under agreement.