A number of readers have asked me how various neighborhoods are performing in the market. To find out, I split the Reno-Sparks metro area into several neighborhood groups and looked at September results for each during the last five years. Some of the results were surprising.
In particular, check out the South Suburban grouping (McCarran down to past Mt Rose, west side of 395). Its median price has nearly tripled from 2002. This has everything to do with all the extravagant custom homes being built in Arrowcreek, Montreux and areas surrounding.
Also interesting was the Northwest, North and Southeast Reno grouping (Around the University up to Parr Blvd, West of 395 down to South McCarran, bordered by Virgina Street). This area is still more than double its 2002 value, and its median is actually up over last year.
But sales activity is down in all neighborhoods, some by a little, some by a lot. And this isn’t even the whole story. If you drilled down even closer, you could probably figure out which parts of Southwest Reno, for example, are doing better than others. And in what price ranges.
This is why you need a good realtor when buying or selling a home. Before you make a move, you need to seriously examine the numbers to understand the current market.
7 comments
Diane:
Is the number in the “sold” column the year to date number of sales through September?
Also, Grand Wazoo asks a good question at the end of yesterday’s posts.
MARKET DETERIORATION UPDATE
Check out MLS # 60025503. 9016 Cabin Creek Trail. Another flip (”never been lived in”) gone bad in, where else, Del Webb’s Sierra Canyon in Somersett.
This house has gone back to the bank and is now an REO property. This house did not appear as a foreclosure and may have gone back to the bank on a deed in leiu of foreclosure. Owned for less than a year. Sold on 1/19/06 for $331,000. Now listed as a REO for $229,000.
If the buyer got a nothing down I/O flipper special loan, the monthly interest payment was $1655 a month. Add in about $300 a month for taxes and insurance. $1,955 x 9 months = $17,600 down the drain for the debtowner. PLus whatever else was spent on HOA, etc.
Now the bank is trying to basically cover its loan. How motivated will the bank be to get rid of this REO? We’ll have to watch and see.
Winter coming. Flippers getting desperate. Buyers figuring it out. REO property appearing. Comps falling.
If one seeks to lock in declining value on a house in Reno, there has never been a better time to buy.
And this is the weekend of Del Webb’s $84,000 off sale, right?
“I hear the train a comin’; it’s roll’n round the bend.
And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when…”
(all credit to the late and great Johnny Cash)
The house on Cabin Creek Trail in Somersett is a foreclosure.
So while Del Webb is having a $84,000 off “weekend sale” on their new inventory, we have the first foreclosure on a Del Webb resale.
RI and all, the neighborhood sold numbers represent the median for the months of September only during each year. September is an interesting month to look at because it’s usually a moderate number, rarely the extreme high or low in any given year.
It looks like another Sierra Canyon inventory house has hit the MLS. #60025708 for $250,712
more news …
Observers say some people may have taken a risk by purchasing more house than they could afford simply because they were offered creative financing, a danger for those who bought at the peak of the real estate bubble.
No one can predict the pain of 2007 and 2008 resets of adjustable rate mortgages, or ARMs, and how that, coupled with the baby-boom retirement, will affect local inventories that are already at record highs, a retired investor in Northern Nevada said.
“I predict that things will be bad in Reno, where we have 6,000 houses for sale with less than 500,000 people,” Gary Anderson said. “We already have a disaster. Add to this mess mortgage and appraisal fraud, the huge amount (of equity) people have taken out of their homes for cars and boats and tightening of lending standards and you have a disaster waiting to happen.”
more…
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Oct-29-Sun-2006/business/10142499.html