Here is an article from the local paper in Lake Havasu.
Home sales begin to get sea legs
By NATHAN BRUTTELL
Today’s News-Herald Friday, October 9, 2009 10:59 PM MST Lake Havasu City has seen rock bottom in the real estate market, according to local officials.
“We are definitely stabilizing right now but it’s going to be awhile before we really turn that corner,” Lake Havasu Association of Realtors President Pat Landry said. “Our supply is starting to go down and the snowbirds are coming in and we haven’t seen our numbers drop in the last few months. These are all good signs.”
The number of residential homes on the market has decreased in the last four months and foreclosure sales have skyrocketed, Landry said. Median prices, however, are continuing to see a rollercoaster effect in the last four months.
“I don’t think we can go any lower because we are down,” LHAR president-elect Suzanne White said. “We might do a slight increase in dollars but I think we’re going to see the same numbers because people are more willing to buy.”
The average median sale price for residential homes in September dropped slightly to $150,000 from $152,500 in August. The numbers were also down from July ($162,500) but up from June ($148,700).
“They are going up and down and that shows me that it’s starting to stabilize,” Landry said. “I think buyers are realizing it’s a good market and more and more people are starting to buy, causing the prices to stay where they are.”
Landry said she was particularly surprised to see that 139 of the 142 foreclosure listings sold in September.
“We’ve been running at about a 50 percent rate (of selling foreclosed listings),” she said. “So that number shocked me as I sat and looked at it.”
Landry added the current number of foreclosed home listings in the city is 105, with 106 sitting in escrow, indicating that foreclosed lots are starting to decrease. The trend may change in the next several months as several banks have reported a backlog of foreclosure listings, Landry said.
“They just got so many at one time that I think by January, we might see a lot more on the market,” she said. “With 139 sold in September though, that’s a really good sign of things turning around.”
There is still a problem with short sales in the real estate market, however, and Landry said banks have been inundated with too many listings to give approval in a reasonable amount of time.
“It’s taking the banks sometimes five to eight months to respond to the contracts and it’s causing buyers to just walk on some deals,” she said. “That tells me that I want to scream at the banks and that things need to change. It’s hurting us a lot.”
The first-time buyer’s incentive package has helped sales, but not as positively as many hoped, Landry said.
“The problem is that the government has given the tax break over three years and most buyers are still struggling to get that down payment,” she said. “We see only a few but having that extended over another six months would help us a lot.”
White said many Realtors are seeing many positive signs, but added that nothing drastic has occurred.
“I am seeing definite improvements in terms of number of sales and prices,” White said. “I think we’re getting more and more buyers on the market and things are starting to change for the better.”
