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 from January, 2008 through December, 2012.
The blue lines represent 2008 data, the orange lines represent 2009 data magenta lines represent 2010, green lines represent 2011 data and the purple lines represent 2012 data.
Looking at the numbers, 2012 was a good year for real estate in La Quinta. With sales of 1,530 units, 2012 was the second strongest year for unit sales since 2005 (1,563 units sold). 2004 was the best year ever for unit sales in the City of La Quinta at 1,938 units sold.
Golf Course home sales in La Quinta.
Like the sales numbers for the entire city, the sales-volume numbers (587) in the higher-end market (which contains many of the golf properties in the chart above) were also the best since 2004 (785).
The number of “distressed” (bank owned and “Short Sale”) properties has decreased from 46.0% of total sales in 2011 to 31.9% in 2012. This is especially impressive when the total number of sales in 2012 increased by 5.8% over total sales in 2011. Here are the sales figures from 2006 through 2012 showing what an important factor distressed property sales played in overall La Quinta sales picture:
| Year: |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
| Total Sales |
1,118 |
942 |
1,076 |
1,202 |
1,360 |
1,446 |
1,530 |
| Distressed Sales |
5 |
40 |
366 |
605 |
623 |
665 |
488 |
| Distressed/Total |
0.45% |
4.25% |
34.01% |
50.33% |
45.81% |
45.99% |
31.90% |
From 0.45% of sales in 2006 to 50.33% in 2009, you can easily see why “distressed” sales have played such a big part of home sales pricing. Recently, the Desert Sun newspaper had a headline stating that the median home price had risen 31%. This is not hard to accept when you replace a significant number of lower priced distressed sales with higher priced regular sales. Lessening the impact of the distressed sales is good for everyone.
Here is a chart of the number of home sales in the City of La Quinta since 2000.
We are gradually coming back from the low in 2007 on a steady upward trend. The outlook seems to be improving as we are seeing the return of developers and a significant increase in new construction.
The famous bubble.
A lot of our current economic troubles have been blamed on the “Real Estate Bubble” which “popped” in 2006.
In 2005, an article published by the National Association of Realtors spoke about the “bubble” and how it represented a lack of value in the inflated home prices of the time and that people would soon realize that the inflated home prices did not represent the actual value of the home and the bubble would implode. The article went on the say that for as long as the NAR had been recording it, Real Estate appreciation had risen at an annual rate of 4.5% and that when the bubble broke, prices would come back down to meet that normal appreciation line.
Price per square foot of home sold from 2000 to 2012 in the City of La Quinta.
This chart shows the “Bubble” as sale prices departed from the normal line in 2002 and returned to it in 2009 as predicted by the NAR. What the NAR had not predicted was the number of distressed properties that would come into the market place and the significant affect they would have on the sale price of regular sales. If the number of distressed properties continues to shrink, we should see the actual price line come up to the “normal” appreciation line in the next year or two or maybe we need to establish a new “normal” line.
Overall, we continue to see more positive signs in the market place and the media continues to be encouraging. We are anticipating a good year in 2013. The mortgage industry is the best it’s been for conventional loans and even the “jumbo” loans, are becoming easier to get..
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 | 1,530 | 587 |
* 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.
Source: DesertAreaMLS