Q1 2012 Sunriver Real estate update

Sunriver closed out 2011 with a strong 4th quarter.  It was the best quarter of the year for sales volume.  We are clearly in a sweet spot for the opportunistic buyers with market prices and interest rate the lowest they have been in years.  The traffic of buyers has been steady all winter and the quantity of transaction on the book for Q1 2012 shows that many of the buyers are buying.  We currently have 20 closed transactions on the books for Q1 with a total of $5.24 million in volume and we have another 14 transactions pending which will convert to approximately $5.5 million in volume.  While the average price of a transaction is down from last year we will most likely exceed Q1 2011's total sales volume because we have more traffic and more of them are buyers.

We currently have 106 homes on the market in Sunriver.  I do expect to see that number increase to 140- 150 by mid Spring and to approach 180-200 over the peak of the Summer.  The excitement around the opening of the new SHARC aquatic center has fueled much of the new buyer enthusiasm.  We are expecting a great summer season, come and check it out.

Thank you, John

Sunriver Real Estate - Q4 2011 Update

We are a couple of days from the end of the quarter and the end of the year.  In my article in for the December issue of the Sunriver Scene I forecast that we would sell 25 homes for a dollar value of $10.9 million in the 4th Quarter.  As of today we are at 23 homes and $10.25 million, that compares to 22 homes sold and $8.3 million in the same quarter a year ago.  It is possible that we could see a couple of more homes close this week and hit my number, but we will know for sure in couple of days.   The total for the quarter was $11.9 million compared to $10 million for the same quarter a year ago.

The other piece of good news is the average price of a home sold in the 4th quarter was $445K this year and $378K last year.  The price per sqft was down to $183 from $190 last year.  The good new is we are seeing buyers spend more money on average as the deals got better this year.

I will have a complete update with all the final numbers for the quarter in a couple of weeks.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a happy new year.  I really do think we are going to see the real estate market in Sunriver improve this year.

Thanks, John.

Sunriver Real Estate - Q3 2011 final numbers

The Summer season has ended in Sunriver.  We had a very good 3^rd quarter in real estate.  Q2 2011 produced $11.4 million in transactions, Q3 2011 produced $13.8 million in transactions.  That represents a 21% increase in dollar volume from Q2 to Q3.  The other really good piece of news is that we have 20 transactions on the books for Q4 totaling an estimated $8.4 million of carry over from Q3 2011.

     Of the 49 transactions in Q3 2011 25 of them were homes.  The average price per sqft was down from the $193 last quarter to $187, but the average percentage of sales price remained the same at 93%.  We did have one home that sold for very close to $1 million this quarter and we have several pending sales for Q4 that are in the high 6 figures.  This return of the high-end buyer should start to improve our average home values if the trend continues.

     It was very clear that the continuing improvements in the Village, the now completed 4 lane freeway from Bend to Sunriver and the buzz surrounding the SHARC have helped sell real estate this year.  With the SHARC opening next year I am confident we are going to see this trend continue.  The Sunriver owners have continued to invest in the community during some of the most difficult times we have seen in this country in recent years.  When we do see a turn in this economy as a community we are going to have one of the fastest recoveries.

Thanks, John

Sunriver Real Estate - Q3 update

     We are 2 months into the 3rd quarter of 2011.  August turned out to be busy and very productive.  We doubled the number of deals on the books for this quarter from 26 a month ago to 52 today.  The majority of the increase was also in home sales as we increased from 13 homes on the books to 34 homes.  Assuming we closed all 52 deals before the end of the quarter we would have a volume of a little over $15 million for the quarter for all product (homes, condos, shared ownership, land).  If we close all the homes on the books by the end of the quarter we would have a volume of approximately $12.5 million.  This would be over a 25% increase over Q2 2011 and an equally significant 25% increase over Q3 2010. This would also make the 3rd consecutive increase in quarterly sales for Sunriver.
     It does seem clear that the combination of record low prices, record low interest rates, the soon to be completed new SHARC center, continuing improvements in the Village and the 4 lane freeway from Bend have got the attention of the buyers.  Sunriver is making significant improvements to the quality of the "Sunriver Experience" and people have taken notice.
     The other thing to take note of is the amount of construction that is going on in Caldera Springs.  We also have 2 home sales and 4 lots sales on the books for this quarter.
     Rumors are flying that the SHARC center may have some facilities open as early as the first of the year.  We are all getting very excited.

Thanks, John
   

Sunriver Q3 2011 Real Estate Update

We are 1 month in the 3rd quarter of 2011.  It has felt very busy so far this quarter and the weather has finally turned to perfection.  We have 26 deals on the books for the quarter so far, for a total of approximately $7 million of transaction value.  There are 13 homes and 12  condo’s & timeshares and 1 lot.

The stats on the 13 homes are as follows, days on the market are down to around 130 from 193 last quarter and 242 last year.  If that holds up that is big.  Price per sqft is right at $192, exactly what it was last quarter, another indication that we may be at the bottom of this cycle.  Average sales price is up around $400k, last quarter was $373K.  We are still very early in the quarter, but I do believe we will show an improvement over last quarter and hopefully an improvement over the 3rd quarter which is going to take selling 28-30 homes this quarter.

If you have been in Sunriver recently you have seen how fast the new aquatic center is going up.  It is really creating a buzz and I feel strongly that it is helping us sell property.  They are giving tours on the weekends, you can sign up on the SROA website.  The place is going to be amazing.

Questions, comments, send me an email

Thanks, John

Sunriver Real Estate - Q2 2011 final numbers

    One month ago we had 35 transactions on the books ( sold and Pending) for the quarter.  We ended up closing 35 transaction in Q2 2011 for a total $ volume of $11,435, 710.  This was a nice up-tick from Q1 numbers, which was an up-tick from Q4 2010 numbers.  Maybe we have something going here.  We sold 26 homes in Q2 2011 at an average of $373K.  The good news was a significant drop in the days on the market to 192.  This is reflected by both the increased sales and a smaller inventory.
     The high end of the market continues to be very slow as the most expensive home sold in Sunriver in Q2 2011 was $641K.  We have some fantastic homes on the market in the $800K to $1 million range.  I will be very surprised if we don't see some action there this year.
     Sunriver is very busy right now and Bennington Properties rentals are having the best year they have had since 2008.   There does seem to be a lot of buyers in the market for Sunriver homes and I am assuming that Q3 2011 is going to be yet another improving quarter for sales volume.  We have 19 deals on the books, (sold or pending) as of July 10, 2011 for a total of over $5 million in volume.  Thats only 10 days into the quarter!!
     The new aquatic center (S.H.A.R.K.) is going up at light speed and is really creating a buzz.  It looks like it really will be on time for a Memorial Day 2012 opening.   I wrote the real estate article for the Sunriver Scene for August, watch for it, it has complete charts and data for the last 3 years by quarter.

Thanks, John.

Sunriver Real Estate Late Quarter update - Q2 2011

     We are 2 months into the second quarter of 2011.  We have 35 transactions on the books for this quarter so far ( 23 closed sales and 12 pending sales).  26 of these are homes and 9 are Condo’s, timeshares and one hangar space.  We are tracking toward closing 35-40 transactions this quarter and close to $10 million in home volume, with another $2-2.5 million in condo’s and other product for a total of around $12 million in total transaction volume for the quarter.  We are going to come in a little behind last years numbers, primarily because the average price of a home sold this year is down substantially from last year.   This is because last year the lowest priced home sold in the quarter was $300K, this year we have 7 homes sold or pending under $300k.  Also last year we had 5 homes sold over $640K, this quarter we have none.
     On the good news side we are seeing marketing times moving down (Q4 10 was 333 DOM, Q1 11 was 309 DOM, Q2 11 is currently 221 DOM).  The other interesting factor is we have 157 homes on the market as of  today, at the middle of July last year we had 240 homes on the market.  I do believe we are not going to get that high this summer which should help the market.  If you have a Condo listed, we are also seeing much more interest in that product this year than we did last year.  This is really the season when Condo’s start to see some activity.
     May has been a weather challenged month in Central Oregon with more wet cold weather than we normally see, this may have contributed to sales not picking up more.  School is getting out earlier this year than last and that should give us a faster start to the Summer season.   Bennington Properties had 80% of there homes booked for Memorial Day weekend and we did have lots of buyer traffic this weekend.  I do believe that the new aquatic center is creating a big buzz and it will really help Sunriver.

Questions, comments please contact me.

Looking forward to a great Summer.

Thanks, John.