3rd Quarter 2010 Final Sunriver Real Estate Sales numbers

First lets get the numbers on the table for Sunriver.  We closed 31 transactions ( homes, condos, land, shared ownership) in the 3rd quarter 2010 for a total sales volume $10.82 million.  The good news is that this was a small improvement over the 3rd quarter last year of last year which came in at $10.3 million.  The  bad news is that the 3rd quarter 2010 sales total was the 3rd straight quarterly decline in sales volume from the $16.6 million 4th quarter of 2009.  Q1 2010 was $13.7 million, Q2 2010 was $12.9 million and then Q3 2010 came in at $10.8 million.  A more typical year would have gone the other direction as we usually see most of our business happen in the 3rd quarter.  We have 17 transactions totaling $5.3 million currently pending for the 4th quarter which does give us a good start, we also still have close to 200 homes on the market to choose from.  I doubt we are going to match the $16.6 million we did in the 4th quarter of last year.

Our market is clearly grinding its way through the bottoming process and most of the data would indicate that we are going to see more of the same through the winter months this year and early next year.  Extremely low interest rates and prices have helped convince many buyers over the last year that it is a good time to buy something in Sunriver, but they continue to be very price motivated buyers.  

Caldera Springs had a good quarter with one home sale and 8 lots sales in the 3rd quarter and has 3 lot sales pending and 1 home sale pending for the 4th quarter.  There are a number of new custom homes under construction and the lot sales are a good indicator for the future of Caldera Springs.  Caldera will soon be offering a new cabin product in the $400K range which should bring in some new interest to the cabins. 

If you have any questions or specific requests please contact me.

Thank you,

John Watkins

541-390-3600

jdw48@mac.com

Sunriver Real Estate 3rd Quarter progress Report!!!

First I would like to say thank you to the Sunriver Owners for supporting the new Aquatic Center.   I strongly believe that this addition to Sunriver along with the continued updating of the Sunriver Village will add significant value to Sunriver real estate in the years to come.   I think the timing is perfect for these key improvements as I also believe we are at the bottom of the real estate problem in our area.

Now here is the data, so far the 3rd Quarter of 2010 is not an improvement over 2009 or the 2nd quarter of 2010.  Lets hope that with all this good news that the buyer's return to make this quarter the best of the year.   At the mid point of Q3 2009 we had closed 9 homes with and average price of $363k, currently we have closed 8 homes with an average price $352K for the 3rd quarter of 2010.  Q3 2009 had a total of 27 closed transaction for a total of $10.3 million in volume.  Q3 2010 currently has 8 closed deals and 16 pending deals for a current potential of $9.1 million in Volume.  I think we will do better than that and come very close to topping last year.

Caldera has 5 pending lot sales and 2 closed lot sales.  The pricing is very disappointing as it ranges between $119k to $199K.  Caldera has 2 pending home sales and Crosswater has 1 pending home sale.

We still have a great inventory of product with 226 homes and 56 condos for sales in Sunriver and 15 homes and 33 lots for sale in Caldera.  We also have fantastic interest rates still available.

Please call me if you have any questions on this data or you have any real estate needs that I can help you with.

John
541-390-3600
jdw48@mac.com

Sunriver Real Estate 2nd Quarter Final Numbers!!!

This is going to be a lot of numbers.  We closed 35 transactions in the 2nd quarter for a total sales volume of $12,928,086.  This number was 700K lower than the 1st quarter of 2010.  With prices continuing to decline and the number of homes on the market increasing sharply to a current number of 224 I was surprised we did not see more sales.  The good news is Summer has finally arrived and the traffic of buyers is way up.  We only have 11 pending deals rolling over into the 3rd quarter, but they do total $5 million in volume and the average price is up over $100k from last quarter.  The selling price as a percentage of listing price has held around 93% for about a year.

Q3 2009 had only 27 transactions and a total volume of $10.2 million, so the good new is we have a good start on beating the Q3 numbers for this year.  Sunriver is booked up heavy for the next couple of months and with interest rates still holding at record lows we should see an up tick in buyer traffic over the next few months.  The high end buyers still seem to be on the sidelines as we have not had a sale over 875K this quarter.

Caldera and Crosswater have not seen much activity this quarter.  Caldera sold 3 lots and 1 home and Crosswater had 1 lot sale.  Caldera continues to have a steady stream of new construction by existing lot owners and we do think that now with much more aggressive pricing that we will see some of the existing home inventory in Caldera sell this Summer.

For those of you that are already owners in Sunriver I do hope you will support the new pool and rec center vote.  I strongly believe that it will have a very positive effect on the future values of Sunriver real estate and help bring people back to Sunriver as they see we are investing in our community.  I own 3 homes in Sunriver and I will be voting yes.

Please call me if you have any questions on this data.

John
541-390-3600
jdw48@mac.com

Sunriver Real Estate 2/3 through the Quarter 2010 update.

The good news is we are way ahead of last year, the bad news is we are not going to match the Q1 2010 numbers.  In the last 2 weeks we have only added 2 new deals to this quarter and closed 5 pending deals.  The buyer traffic has been very slow over the last 30 days.  This is somewhat typical as people are waiting for summer at this point.  Our inventory of homes for sale has shot up over the last several weeks to 206 homes and I still expect it to continue on up to around 230.  We do have people shopping this market, but as a client of mine told me over the weekend " there is almost too much  to see, it is hard to make a decision".

The summer season is coming fast and soon we will be in the busy season.  With interest rates continuing to stay below 5% and the economy in slow recovery we are hopeful that this summer will prove to be good for all of us.

Sunriver Real Estate Mid-2nd Quarter 2010 update.

We have now closed 18 sales this quarter and have a total of $6.6 million of Q2 2010 volume.  We have already exceeded last years 2nd quarter numbers.  We currently have 13 pending sales for a total of $5.3 million that could close this quarter, which would put us close to $12 million for Q2 2010.  What is interesting is that Q1 2010 looks like it is going to have been stronger than Q2 unless thing pick up quickly.  Sales have slowed a little in the last 3-4 week as the traffic to Sunriver has been down.  Now that the golf courses are open and the sun and good weather will soon be here we expect the buyer traffic to pick up significantly.   

Two weeks ago we had 167 homes on the market in Sunriver, we now have 185.  I suspect we will be over 200 homes on the market by the first week of June. 

With a great selection of homes to choose from and interest rates still extremely low we should continue to see a growing number of sales this year.

Sunriver Real Estate 2nd Quarter 2010 update.

We have 13 closed sales for the month of April for a total of $4.6 million.  We have 14 pending sales totaling $6.6 million that should easily close by the end of the quarter.  We still have 2 more month to go in this quarter and my expectation is that we will most likely do over $12-14 million in volume for Q2.  In 2009 we closed 19 transaction for a $ value of 6.3 Million.  We will easily increase volume by 100% this quarter over last year.

Sunriver currently has 167 homes on the market, 38 condo, and 14 lots.  I had expected that number to be higher and I do expect it to increase to over 200+ homes by mid summer.   The good new for buyers is that most of the sellers are pricing there homes to sell in this market.

Sales have continued to be slow in Caldera.  There has been one home sale and one pending cabin sale this quarter and one lot sale and 3 pending.  Caldera is however seeing new construction of custom homes.  Many people who bought in Caldera are going forward with building.  Caldera's experiencing more building than any resort in Central Oregon.  There are a number of extremely well priced homes for sale in Caldera, truly something to consider if you are currently looking.

Please give me a call if you have any question about this information.

John Watkins

541-390-3600

jdw48@mac.com

Sunriver Real Estate 1st Quarter Final Numbers!!!

Three weeks ago when I finished and submitted my Sunriver Scene article for the month of April I forecast that we would have 25 closed deals and $12.25 million in sales for the first quarter.  Well I was way short, we closed 32 deals for a total volume of $13.7 million for the quarter which gave us a 100% increase over last years number of $6.7 million.

The good new continues as we have 14 pending deals already for Q2 2010 totaling $6.16 million.  This number is already almost equal to the $6.8 million we did in Q2 of 2009, so it looks like we are going to continue to blow away the quarter over quarter numbers for Sunriver.

We have moved up from around 130 homes on the market at the end of the year to about 160 currently.  I do expect to see a continued increase in the number of homes listed as we move through the second quarter.  With the Fed getting out of the mortgage buying business I do expect to see interest rates rise about 1/2 a point over the next month or so, but homes are still at bargain prices in Sunriver.