Coachella Valley’s Real Estate Market Forecast Upbeat California Desert Association of REALTORS® Told
PALM DESERT, CA – March 29, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — The Coachella Valley’s real estate market forecast for 2013 is upbeat despite the dwindling inventory of available homes for sale in many valley cities.
The rebounding real estate market marked by an increase in the median price of a single family home locally and statewide over last year was welcome news to about 300 REALTORS® and real estate professionals attending the 2013 California Association of REALTORS® Housing Market Forecast Feb. 21 at Indian Wells Country Club.
To see and download the complete forecast, including some Coachella Valley city by city information, please visit online at www.caldesertrealtors.com Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist and vice president for the state wide California Association of REALTORS®, and Pat Veling, owner of Real Data Strategies, agreed that the lower number of homes available, compared to just a year ago, is a key reason why the real estate market will grow slowly in 2013.”
“There is no question in my mind that if we get more people engaged in listing their homes, we’re going to see a higher increase in sales in 2013,” Appleton-Young told the audience.
Veling noted that this year’s real estate market is 180-degree turnaround from last year in terms of housing inventory and prices. He said inventory will rise as home values rise, especially among those who are “underwater” in their mortgages.
Appleton-Young and Veling said as the economy and job market improves this year, there is a larger supply of buyers trying to buy a smaller number of available homes in most price ranges, especially around the $200,000-$300,000 range
The CAR 2013 Real Estate forecast calls for the median price of a California home to see an increase in the “low double-digits,” a more positive outlook than the 5.7 percent predicted increase that CAR forecast last summer.
Wendy Formica, President of the California Desert Association of REALTORS® said the presentation “demonstrated real estate performance for 2012 clearly showing where we were and then Leslie Appleton-Young offered the current status of the market, which shows strong demand for lower price homes and a shrinking inventory due to fewer bank owned properties as well as homeowners reluctance to sell.”
Formica said it is interesting to note how many bank-owned properties, i.e. REOs, are being purchased by investors who are not “flipping” them for a higher price but renting them out. “Eventually as investors do start selling, this will give us a larger inventory of homes to sell,” Formica said.
CAR also predict that California’s median price will rise to $335,000 from $286,000 in 2011, with sales of existing single-family homes expected to jump about 1.3 percent to 530,000 closings.
Looking at factors affecting the real estate market for 2013 and beyond, Appleton-Young made these points:
Worst of the recession is over but slow recovery continues
Mortgage rates will remain low until unemployment drops to 6.5 percent
The tax and spend debate is critical at all levels of government
The “wild cards are the Euro Zone crisis/recession, China and India, global warming debate.
The California Desert Association of REALTORS®, The Voice for Real Estate® for the Coachella Valley, represents more than 3,200 real estate professionals from Palm Springs to Coachella. For more information, please call (760) 346-5637 or visit online at www.CalDesertRealtors.com
CONTACT:
Ann Ritchie, Executive Director
(760) 346-5637
(Media) John Hussar
PRNewsWorks (760) 567-8073
