This current quarter which is not yet finished has 38 sold homes so far and an average value of $424,500 for a total dollar value of over $16 million. There was 1 home sold over $1 million and the lowest priced home was $187,500, it was a 3 bedroom 2 bath home on Timber.
The average price per sqft in Q4 2007 was $294, the average in Q4 2012 is $181. That is a average reduction of 38%. The good news in all this is that the average price per sqft for all of 2012 is also $181. That gives us a solid feeling that priced have bottomed and were stable all year. Based on the current sales volumes it seems a lot of people believe that is true as they have been buying homes like 2006-7.
The other thing worth mentioning is that Sunriver dropped to below 100 homes on the market a few days ago, this is the first time in at least 3-4 years it has been that low in the winter season. There are only 6 of the 99 homes that are short sales and there are 2 short sale under contract.
On the "not so good side" interest rates are starting to creep up and I am being told by the mortgage lenders that higher rates are coming. It may only be a .25 to .5 increase, but they are letting us know that they have also bottomed and are starting to rise.
The big question on everyones mind is what is going to happen to prices in 2013. That is a really hard question as our current political/ fiscal environment is in such flux. If the country does what it needs to do it will likely cost all of us more money out of our pockets and have a tendency to keep home prices low. Central Oregon has already seen a good recovery in our numbers, much of that has been the result of most of the short sales and bank owned properties have sold, so the average prices are starting to go back up to something more normal. I believe that we will see upward movement in the average price of a home sold in Sunriver in 2013. I think the primary reason is going to be that most of the desperate sellers, short sales and bank owned properties are gone and most of the low end sellers that wanted to sell have sold. Homes selling for under $250K made up almost 25% ( 33) of the homes sold in 2012. There are currently only 8 on the market. We will have to wait until we are a few months into 2013 before we will know what kind of year we are going to have.
Other than that, let me wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
BTW, it is going to be a VERY WHITE Christmas in Sunriver this year.
John
