Here are the latest sales numbers for all homes sold within the city of La Quinta as well as all Golf Course homes in La Quinta. The blue lines represent 2008 data and the orange lines represent 2009 data.
The chart above shows annual sales of homes within the city of La Quinta. When looking at “sold” data, you have to remember that the numbers are generated on the date that the sale is recorded with the county but that the decision to buy was made about 45 days earlier. As you can see from the chart above, our “season” begins after the new year and tapers off with the heat in June and July. We see a little spike in September and October in the number of homes sold from the folks that believe that the best deals can be had in the highest heat of the summer.
The number of homes sold in golf course communities in La Quinta has decreased since this time last year. While the lower end of the market has been extremely active ($400,000 and below), the upper-end (which contains many of the golf properties in the above report) has been sluggish. This can be attributed to many things, such as the higher interest rates and tougher qualifications in the jumbo-loan market, and many 2nd home buyers have been waiting on the sidelines to re-enter the marketplace once they feel more confident in the economy. We have seen A LOT of pent-up-demand from buyers waiting and we feel that when things return, they are going to return in a big way. If buying a golf property is something on your list, why not take advantage of the incredible prices and seller incentives now, when sellers will work with you, instead of in the future, when the demand starts to catch up with the supply? Especially if you’re buying and holding for 5+ years.
The bottom line…
Unit sales in 2009 are beginning to lag behind the same period last year as far as the numbers and the price/value of the homes reflecting the downward trend of the general housing market. Please remember that the decline of the real estate market greatly accelerated in September, 2009 when our economy went into crisis and consumer confidence disappeared. We are now, 6 months later, beginning to see increased activity, a trend that many economists believe will continue to grow in the next several months. With home prices as low as they are now, and capital starting to flow back into the banking system, tremendous opportunity exists right now for buyers in all spectrum’s of the market.
Here are some yearly sales figures for the City of La Quinta from 2002:
Year All LQ Golf Course
2002 1,354 259
2003 1,565 652
2004 1,931 813
2005 1,553 657
2006 1,098 491
2007 935 447
2008 1,063 416