According to the WSJ - Strong demand and low inventory spark unexpected bidding wars—and a comeback for homes priced above $1 million; 'Americans finally got off the fence'
WSJ.com
By Nick Timiraos – Luxury Snaps Back
(a few highlights)
After a soft 2011, the luxury home market made a comeback in 2012, driven by growing buyer confidence, strong foreign demand, low mortgage rates, more realistic sellers and sharp drops in the number of home listings. Sales of homes priced at $1 million and above rose by 9% in the first nine months of 2012 compared with the same period one year ago to the highest level in four years, …
Still, many homeowners are finding that their homes are worth less than the peak values of six years ago. That has likely prompted some to hold their properties off the market. The supply of million-dollar-and-above homes being offered for sale dropped by nearly 8% this year, according to Realtor.com.
This year, bidding wars have become commonplace in affluent California markets from Brentwood to Palo Alto, where new land is scarce and where investors have pushed up prices by making all-cash offers to buy older homes that can be torn down and rebuilt.
"I had so many calls this year from disappointed buyers who thought they had a deal, and the next thing they knew, it was a bidding war and they lost," says Pamela Liebman, chief executive of the luxury brokerage Corcoran Group.
To be sure, many sellers are finding that their homes aren't worth anywhere near what they fetched at their peak, and sales are rising from extremely depressed levels of the past few years. Sales of $1 million properties for the first nine months of the year were nearly half of what they were in at the peak of the housing boom in 2006.
read all about it, Luxury Snaps Back
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In the Tucson Foothills there’ve been 48 $million+ sales so far for 2012 vs.
42 in 2011 – a 14% increase. But we’ve got a ways to go to catch up to the 123 sold in 2006.
And like WSJ’s findings home values here in the foothills are down considerably from the peak years (more so for higher priced homes). Which has undoubtedly caused would-be sellers to hold off on listing. And while the million+ market has improved this year, unlike WSJ’s findings, we are not experiencing a rash of bidding wars at $1million & up. And at $2million and up, well, sales at $2,000,000 are not breaking any records .
I can’t say whether or not it will hold true this time, but in the past I’ve found that the Tucson Foothills real estate market lags the trends, both positive and negative, occurring in some of the larger US markets by about 3 to 6 months.
see>( 2008- weekend reading) (2011- this is encouraging) (2011 - The rich are different from you and me: They're buying real estate)
see thefoothillsToday.com
to find your Tucson Foothills home
