Relevant to Taos Real Estate News Articles
Santa Fe Housing Slump Ongoing -
4/10/08
Kiera Hay - Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer
Santa Fe's housing slump continued during the first quarter of 2008, with the latest statistics from the Santa Fe Association of Realtors showing declines in both median home prices and total sales.
Home values were hit particularly hard. Median prices January through March
in the Santa Fe area— within the city limits and in county territory
nearby— clocked in at $353,900, down from $433,500 in the fourth quarter
of 2007 and $425,000 from the same period last year.
That's a drop of about 17 percent year to year.
"In every area, the median price has more or less gone down," association President Baro Shalizi said during a news conference at the association's office Wednesday.
After several quarters of steadily rising home prices in 2006 and 2007, the City Different experienced a decline in 2007 between the second and third quarters. It's been downhill since.
The median home price within the city limits fell almost $50,000, from $350,000 to $301,500, from the previous quarter. The in-city median was also down almost $54,000 compared with the first quarter of 2007, when it was $354,125.
Every part of the city experienced a decline in the first quarter when compared year-to-year.
The report also shows:
The median price of a home outside the city limits near Santa Fe, January to March, was $480,000— down from $517,000 from a year ago and from $549,125 in 2007's fourth quarter.
The number of houses sold in the city-county area also declined. There were 241 units sold in the most recent quarter compared with 273 and 297 in the fourth and first quarters of 2007, respectively.
There were 138 homes sold within city limits from January to March, down only slightly from 141 homes sold October through December and 142 in the first quarter a year ago. The drop was much steeper in the county, where there were 103 sales in the first quarter compared with 132 sales in the last three months of 2007 and 155 sales a year ago.
"As prices in the city have been dropping, people who have previously bought in the county may be buying in the city," Shalizi said. A Texas company's plans for oil drilling in the Galisteo Basin, where homeowners fear oil rigs might hurt property values, could also be a reason why sales have slowed in the county, he said.
Prices of condos and town homes are also going down, significantly. The
median price in that category went from $310,605 to $230,000 quarter-to-quarter—
a decline of more than 25 percent. The median price was $311,250 a year
ago.
The number of condo and town home sales dropped, too, from 89 units sold
in the last quarter of 2007 to 61 in the first quarter of 2008. There were
85 condos and town homes sold in the first three months of 2007.
Unlike in some parts of the country, the housing slump apparently doesn't mean there are more homes on the market in Santa Fe. Active listings actually have dropped slightly quarter-to-quarter, with 1,448 homes on the market January to March compared to 1,472 October to December.
The association's numbers don't reflect all home-sales activity in Santa Fe— the median price comes from sales of homes listed on the association's listing service and doesn't include homes sold, for instance, directly by subdivision developers. But the Realtors' quarterly reports have historically been used to measure trends in the market.
The overall decline in median prices may be attributable at least partly to an increasing number of homeowners willing to lower their asking price, Shalizi said.
Lower-than-expected offers are now the norm in Santa Fe, and sellers— especially within the last couple of months— are beginning to set an initial price more in line with what people are currently willing to spend, Shalizi said.
"Most sellers are aware of where the market is and they're pricing competitively. They do want to sell," he said.
Also indicative of this trend is the fact that homes, on average, actually
sold slightly faster in the most recent quarter compared to last year, Shalizi
said.
On average, homes spent 172 days on the market in Santa Fe during the first
quarter of 2008 as compared with 193 days in the same period a year ago.
Santa Fe Realtors displayed some optimism during Wednesday's news conference,
with Shalizi saying that Santa Fe's current market could provide the right
environment for select buyers looking to buy a first home or upgrade.
"With lower prices, a slowing down of the subprime mortgage crisis and recent national action by Congress to keep financing available, the market will stabilize with home buyers and investors looking for bargains," Shalizi said in a statement issued at the conference.
Gary Wallace of Santa Fe Properties said the declines for condos could be because more buyers, in the current market, can now afford single-family homes.
Despite the housing downturn, local Realtors appear to be happy with their profession— or at least are sticking with it. The National Association of Realtors experienced about a 4 percent decline in membership in 2007, but the Santa Fe Association of Realtors said its member numbers have held steady.
