Palm Springs Market Watch: April 2007

Type	New Listings	Pendings	New Listings/Sales Ratio
Single Family Homes	974	286	3.4 to 1
Condos	435	178	2.4 to 1
Multi-Family	52	7	7.4 to 1

The market for April was very similar to March. Inventory continues to increase, thus further shifting to a buyers market.

The most difficult market is multi-family. April is a mirror of March. For every multi-family property going into escrow in March, 7.4 new properties came on the market!!!!

Of the 7 properties that went into escrow, most were in the 5 to 6 cap range and had reasonably accurate financials. As I said last month “the property must be accurately presented” or putting the property on the market is a waste of time and distorts the true picture of the residential income market. And yes, I know this is a personal pet peeve of mine, but I get very tired of having to recalculate residential income financials.

Per the Desert Sun, on April 28th, resale home “sales” were down 37% from March 2006. New home “sales” were down a whopping 53%. The median price for the Coachella Valley however rose 11% for the same period, while Riverside County as a whole rose .2%.

What does this mean? Did all our properties go up 11%???? It means a larger number of more expensive homes sold this year than last year. The median number states that half of homes sold for more than $455,000 and half sold for less. The lower end properties are suffering from the fallout of the sub-prime market, while the higher end homes have not been impacted as much.

In the current market be sure you know your statistics and understand what you read. Know why the “percentage of foreclosures” in California has risen so much? Because in 2005/2006 there were almost no foreclosures, thus any increase will reflect a HUGE percentage. It’s not as scary at it may seem.