We at La Quinta Desert Properties spend a lot of time discussing and trying to understand the local real estate market and especially what drives it and how those factors might affect our clients. We obviously noticed that last July, the real estate market in the Coachella Valley experienced a sudden and quiet event - a return to normalcy. While real estate in most of the country became “depressed” according to numerous articles appearing on the news wires and showing up in local newspapers all across the country, in out opinion, the frantic sellers market in our local valley just changed to a more normal market that we enjoyed prior to 2004. The frequent articles appearing in even our local paper spoke of the doom and gloom evident in other, unrelated parts of the country but the Coachella Valley did not demonstrate any of the symptoms highlighted in these articles.

During the hot summer months, buyers were not clamoring to see and buy homes as if it were their very last chance before the interest rates soared (which had arguably been a key ingredient to buying frenzy previously). As the summer heat gave way to a new fall season and interest rates did not soar, people began to get back in the market. At first, the over a million dollar homes started to see action. During the holidays and especially toward the end of January, the below a million dollar homes seemed to see a major increase in action.

We at La Quinta Desert Properties have had the best January ever. Finally, the valley’s Desert Sun newspaper published a very positive article (click here to read) about the health of our market in the Coachella Valley. The article, entitled: “Is the valley real estate market returning to normal? Yes, experts say”, points out the statistics to back up what we are now seeing.

Each morning, we do a specialized search of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for new homes that have come on the market in the last 24 hours. In addition to “new listings”, the report also shows all the price increases, decreases and sales that the current listings have experienced since we last visited the MLS. For a while the price decreases clearly out numbered the increases but that trend is beginning to change. And the sales were clearly lacking indicating that “price” was not as big a factor as was the lack of motivated buyers. It is our opinion that the buyers that were here were reacting to all the negative news and waiting for the sky to fall so they could get the deal of a lifetime. Yes, there are some terrific deals out there right now, but, for so many different reasons, the sky is not going to fall in the Coachella Valley! We believe that the current increase in serious buyers is because of the pent up demand that has been building since last July. People want to live here and they are proving that everyday!

Filed under: Real Estate
No Comments