July 2009 sale statistics and information for the Morongo Basin
It appears that my “Summer Market Forecast” was a bit optimistic! New statistics came out this week for the month of July 2009 which shows much slower sales in our area than I believed would happen. I thought I would bring us up to date on the information included in the reports published by the County Assessor and provided by Vicki Bishop at Fidelity National Title.
YUCCA VALLEY
July saw the sale of 47 homes in the area. The average price of a home sank by more than 34% from 2008 to $105,000! The most expensive home sold was around $350,000. The average price per square foot was $72.00. Currently there at 802 homes in some state of foreclosure* in the 92284 zip code! This is around 10% of the community!
TWENTYNINE PALMS
July saw the sale of 25 homes in the area. The average price of a home dropped by less than 0.5% to $110,000! The most expensive home sold was around $225,000. The average price per square foot was $75.00. Currently there at 504 homes in some state of foreclosure* in the 92277 zip code! This is around 6.5% of the community.
JOSHUA TREE
July saw the sale of 18 homes in the area. The average price of a home sank by a modest 19.3% from to $83,000! The average price per square foot was $69. Currently there at 430 homes in some state of foreclosure* in the 92252 zip code! This is almost 8% of the community!
LANDERS
July saw the sale of 3 homes in the area. The average price of a home actually rose from 08 by 72.2% to $50,000! The average price per square foot was $73.00. Currently there at 430 homes in some state of foreclosure* in the 92285 zip code! This is just over 5.25% of the community!
MORONGO VALLEY
July saw the sale of 5 homes in the area. The average price of a home decreased by over 38% from to $83,000 in 2009! The average price per square foot was $77.00. Currently there at 157 homes in some state of foreclosure* in the 92256 zip code!
SUMMARY
I recently read an article where the economist was predicting that by 2012 real estate prices will be back to where they are today! He may not have been far off. As you can see from the above we have many homes in some state of foreclosure and no increase in the job market in our area in the foreseeable future. I think we will see a slowdown in sales over the remainder of the year. Prices in our area must continue to drop if we are to be competitive with other prime retirement areas. I stick with my May prediction, overall look for a further decline in price points in the Morongo Basin by at least 15% and as high as 30% by the year’s end.
Bob Armstrong
Broker
*information gathered from Trulia.com
