As many of you are aware from my last newsletter, I was away from home the first half of June on a 12-day Mediterranean cruise. In all, I was out of Pagosa 18 days. My wife, Laurie, and I have been dreaming about European adventure for years, and we wanted to do it before we become too old and feeble. It was fun. We saw a lot of old churches, castles, statues, and a lot of narrow streets. After seeing all the ancient history, the USA seems like just a baby. 18 days is too long for me. After about 10 days, I’m ready to get back to Pagosa.
While were were gone, June was exceptionally dry. We had the biggest wildfire I’ve seen here since we moved here in 1983. The Little Sand Fire consumed about 25,000 acres. Thankfully, the monsoons kicked in on the 4th of July, and we have had several good rains since then. Unfortunately, the rains didn’t come early enough to save our 4th of July fireworks. The show had to be canceled due to fire risk.
Real estate was slow in June after a good spring. But it’s picked back up this past week with lots of activity. Having the 4th of July fall in the middle of the week may have been a positive factor. It seems like a lot of people just spent the whole week here.
I’m including a graph showing pending sales, which is a good indicator of current market conditions. Repo homes are way down from a year ago, but we have lots of land repos. The other big change in the numbers is the inventory of homes on the market has risen by 100 over the past 60 days. This is normal, with many sellers waiting for green grass and flowers before they put their home on the market.
I’m having a good year so far, and was fortunate to put a ranch under contract a few days ago.
If you are looking to buy, the time is now. Inventory is at it speak. The last time I checked, there was 3.75% money for a 30-year fixed mortgage, which is up from 3.5% two weeks ago. Finally, I feel good about saying we have hit a bottom in pricing.
GRI, CRS
2011 & 2014 Realtor of the Year
Phone (970) 731-4065
Fax (970) 731-4068
Cell (970) 946-3856
Email: [email protected]
