There is a big difference in the home sales patterns of last year versus this year. Mostly we have seen quite a bit of depreciation as the Sellers that have to sell have finally realistically priced their homes.
This year we have had 6 homes sell under 500K; last year there was only 2 and one was a foreclosure.
This year the homes that have sold under 500K have been very aggressively priced except for one which was a nicely remodeled foreclosure that was a two-story Pepper -Viner home on Ocotillo Canyon that sold for $424,900 at the beginning of the year. All the others that sold this year revealed the tremendous depreciation from the peak of sales in early 2006 with estimates of most non-custom homes depreciating approximately 25%. At the beginning of the year, 2 homes priced at exactly a million dollars and one priced at $1,250,000 (my sale) closed escrow and revealed that the over a million dollar price- range was doing fairly well in warding off the depreciation of the less-priced homes in Sabino Mt. Now most over a million dollar homes that were on the market gave up and are no longer listed for sale. The few that are hanging in there have little chance to sell since the buyers that are buying in the high-end are looking for bargains and there are many out there, but not in the million dollar plus homes currently listed for sale in Sabino Mt.
Last year there were 3 homes that sold for over a million and they sold for $1,449,000, $1,625,000 and $2,250,000 with the first 2 selling quickly and also selling at a great price for the Sellers. In today’s current market those houses would linger on the market unless they seriously reduced their prices.
Last year 3 homes sold in the mid-high end range: one at $660,000 (gorgeous, yet fairly small-2,519 square foot realtor-owned custom Santa-Fe on Ocotillo Canyon), $795,000 (my sale–a custom Sabino Mt Drive house that probably would hold its value today since it sold at a great price for the buyer), $825,000 (my sale–a semi-custom Outpost -built home that would likely sell for less in the current market conditions), and $938,000 (for a Sabino Mt Drive house that has been totally remodeled and has remarkable high Catalina Mt views and has held its value for the Seller because she has made the necessary improvements to make it very desirable.) Today the $500,000 – 1 million price-range is almost as challenging as the over 1 million price-range. This is proven by the remarkable list price of $699,000 on the 4042 N Black Rock Drive (3,631 semi-custom ridge-top Monterey home) that still has not sold although it is model-perfect and has views to die for!