February 2015 – Gallaudet Properties

February 23, 2015

What Will It Be Today, 8 Chukkas or 18 Holes?

Where can you find horses, wedding parties, golf carts and pop music stars?

There aren’t too many places on the planet where those groups come together but here in the Coachella Valley we are blessed with the Empire Polo Club in Indio.

Established in 1987, the Empire Polo Club has a dozen grass polo fields, an indoor polo arena, stables, exercise tracks, the Tack Room Tavern, beautiful venues for weddings, and a lot more.

If you’ve never watched a polo match, you need to make it out there. It’s a great spectator sport and you can really enjoy the company your with during the event. The horses are incredible athletes and it’s great to see how the players work with their steeds. The games are divided into eight seven-minute chukkas and typically last two hours. And if you want to do more than just watch, there are a variety of ways to learn polo at the club.

More than polo
Now, what about golf carts and pop music stars? Well, for those of us who don’t ride, Empire Polo Club has occasional sessions of golf cart polo. If you’re a golfer you know you’ve been dying to take a whack at a little white ball while you were barreling down the fairway. Here’s your chance!

And regarding the pop music stars, the Empire Polo Club is the site of the world famous Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The event stretches over two weekends and in 2015 the dates are April 10-12 and April 17-19. Around this time of year, fans of the event start watching for the festival organizers to announce the lineup.

Performers as big as Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse, the Black Keys and Jay-Z have appeared in prior years. Every type of pop music is represented from rock, to indie, to electronica and hip hop. And all of this happens on an expanse of beautiful green grass where horses would be running around most other days. It’s a very unique place.

Golf reigns supreme
But we know that in La Quinta, Palm Springs, Indian Wells and even Indio, there is a somewhat more popular sport that involves hitting a hard white ball around a grassy expanse (hopefully!) and that’s golf. Since the history of polo dates back to the sixth century BC, it’s been around far longer than golf, whose origins go back a mere 700 years in comparison.

However, there’s no doubt about which is more popular today and that’s why we offer a free Golf Resource Guide and not a guide to polo fields. And if you haven’t yet downloaded our guide, we encourage you to take advantage of our offer.

It’s a great way to get a feel for how all the golf courses in La Quinta, Indian Wells and the general Palm Springs area relate to all the communities where you might consider buying a golf course home.

We have also included information on the relative costs of country club memberships as well as real estate prices. For many, owning a home on or near great courses such as The Tradition, PGA West, The Citrus Club, and others is a dream come true.

We’re in the business of helping people realize those dreams, so if you would like additional information or have more questions after you’ve looked over our guide, please give us a call, we’d love to help out.

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February 18, 2015

La Quinta, CA Real Estate analysis 2014 Year End

The City of La Quinta, unit sales for year 2014 are 16.6% lower than 2013. As you can see from the graph below, each month in 2014 fell behind the same month of the previous year. The fourth quarter of 2014 was the worst with 26.75% less sales than the third quarter of 2013. During 2014, we have had a very tight inventory of homes for sale which is a major contributor to the decrease in sales this year.

The 4th quarter of 2014 was the worst quarter for La Quinta since 2007. The quarter that recently ended recorded La Quinta sales of 230 homes, a drop of 26.75% over the same quarter in 2013 (314). Just to keep this in perspective, 2013 was the best year since the “bubble” burst in 2006.

What we have noticed here in the Coachella Valley was that during the late fall of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014 there was a noticeable increase in the number of American buyers most likely based on the slight improvement in the US economy and a decrease in Canadian buyers most likely based on the devaluation of the Canadian dollar. The number of buyers at that time, coupled with a very low inventory, caused prices to begin to rise substantially in many developments. Toward the beginning of the second quarter, there seemed to be a change in buyer attitude. The Canadian dollar kept declining against the US dollar and the number of American buyers decreased reducing the demand causing prices to level off and even declined slightly. This malaise which has been caused by the tight inventory, and the investors not liking the increase in pricing, has malingered for the rest of the year. We are hoping that after the election and as we enter the selling season, we will see more inventory and then sales again pick up.

This is a graph of the Real Estate “Bubble”. The red line represents the normal historical Real Estate appreciation rate of 4.5%

Here are some yearly sales figures (units) for the City of La Quinta from 2002:
Year – All LQ – Golf Course
2002 – 1,356 – 259
2003 – 1,572 – 640
2004 – 1,938 – 785
2005 – 1,563 – 638
2006 – 1,118 – 483
2007 – 942 – 444
2008 – 1,076 – 405
2009 – 1,202 – 409
2010 – 1,360 – 518
2011 – 1,446 – 510
2012 – 1,532 – 587
2013 – 1,537 – 567
2014 – 1,282 – 576

* Remember that the sales numbers represent “Closed” escrows. Since the average escrow is between 45 and 60 days, the decision to purchase the homes that closed in June was probably made in March to early April.

For more information about the Coachella Valley Real Estate market, Please call us at (760) 203-2621!

Source: DesertAreaMLS

February 12, 2015

The Citrus Club in La Quinta!

The Citrus Club in La Quinta is the private club of the famous La Quinta Resort and Club which when established in 1926 became a mecca for the rich and famous. The Private Citrus Club was conceived and established much later, in 1988. Since then the surrounding community has grown to 576 homes developed by 9 different builders. That number also includes 73 custom homes. Prices of these homes range from $600,000 to $2,500,000.

Because the Citrus is the private club of the La Quinta Resort, the membership opportunities are unique. Whether it be the Social, Sport, or the Golf Membership that is desired, included are all the amenities at the Resort in addition to those at The Citrus. These additional privileges include: tennis (known as one of the best programs in the Desert with 23 courts including 5 har-tru clay courts), the beautiful state of the art spa, the fitness center (in addition to the one at the Citrus), member discounts on dining and shopping at the Resort (that includes three restaurants in addition to the Mountain Clubhouse), and 42 pools all around the Resort. With the golf membership also included are the two Resort courses, the Mountain and Dunes, as well as the private Citrus course.

The Citrus Club’s (15,000) square foot full-service Fitness Center is state of the art. It features high quality cardio and strength training machines as well as a spacious classroom for innovative regularly scheduled classes including Zumba, Tai Chi, Pilates and Yoga, and an outdoor lap pool.

Currently at The Citrus there are 35 homes for sale. Most homes include pools and spas, and are on the golf course. The course was designed by Pete Dye and the practice range is considered to be one of the most spectacular in the Desert. There are 3 parks in the Citrus, all with waterfalls, lakes and nice walking trails.

For more information about The Citrus Club and other golf course communities in our Desert, please download our free golf resource guide where you can easily find and compare golf membership deposits, monthly dues, and real estate prices! Simply click the button below.

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