As it sits right now the tax credit for 1st time and move-up home buyers expires today. (There’s always the possibility that congress could extend the credit, or move forward with another incentive but it doesn’t appear anything is in the works.) For those eligiable home buyers with a binding contract to purchase a qualifying home, you have until June 30 to close in order to claim the credit. The past 2 months has seen much higher demand for homes in the under $300,000 market segment boosted at least in part by the tax credit. How much? There’s currently 77 homes with a pending purchase contract in the Clatsop MLS, or about 15% of the total inventory. Of the 77 pending sales, about 64% of the homes are listed for under $300,000. That’s not much of a change from the past several months but it is a welcomed increase in activity for homes in the $250,000-$300,000 price range. That market segment has been soft for the past several months, but does appear to be improving if the current trend continues.

A look back: First Quarter- 2010

There were 76 closed home sales in the MLS for January-March 2010, compared with just 40 for the same period last year. Of those sales, 9 closed for more than $500,000 and 42 closed for less than $250,000.

Original Article Here: As the tax credit comes to a close, everybody wants to know… Did it work?

Gearhart voters say no to the annexation of the Highlands and Palisades communities. No votes total 312 or 74.46%. Yes votes total 107 or 25.54%. Thje figures are from the final unofficial tally from the Clatsop County Elections Department. Mayor Kent Smith says the opposition was very well organized: “Their communications with the public were very persuasive.” The Highlands gated community favored annexation, but opponents including residents of the Palisades didn’t like the idea of a gated community. Opponents also say sentiment hadn’t changed since annexation was turned down about eight or nine years ago. Palisades residents were also concerned that the city might put a road or street in to connect both the Palisades and the Highlands. Mayor Smith says Gearhart only loses about $56,000 in tax revenue from the loss of the additional tax base. Only Gearhart voters voted ion the issue.

Related: City of Gearhart to annex the Highlands & Pacific Palisades?

Original Article Here: Gearhart voters reject annexation of Highlands and Palisades

For most of 2008-2009 there was a surplus inventory of new homes available in The Reserve, as well as many lots.  Several of the new homes were discounted heavily starting in the spring of 2009 and it had the intended result. Gearhart Homes LLC sold 4 new homes in a very short time, setting the trend for others in to follow: Discount, and they will come. Discounts of over $100,000 on homes was not uncommon, and the lone resale that I’m aware of recently sold for about half of the orginal 2006 purchase price. As the Gearhart real estate market begins to stabilize lot prices at the Reserve have done the same, flattening out at $80-100,000.  The Reserve at Gearhart is finally coming into its own, new home starts have been steadily popping up for the last 6 months, including several custom builds.

The location is ideal with easy access to the highway and just walking distance to the ocean beaches. The community also includes a community center and a park complete with playground equipment, fire pit, gazebo and BBQ’s.

[idx-listings linkid="52328" orderby="Price"]

Original Article Here: Reserve at Gearhart

Single Family Median Sales Price for Gearhart 2002-2009

In my last post I stated that 2009 wasn’t what I expected for the Gearhart, Oregon real estate market, and as the year comes to a close I still feel the same way. All though the number of units sold was up compared to 2008, the market didn’t feel much better overall in my opinion. There’s still about 2 weeks left in the year, and currently there’s two pending sales that will likely close before the year is out. With that in mind, here’s a few interesting things I found comparing this year (through today) with last year:

Gearhart Single Family Res. Properties 2009 YTD 2008

• Units Sold 33 27
• High Sale  $1,750,000 $1,800,000
• Low Sale  $155,000 $207,000
• Number Sold Under $500,000 26 15

Gearhart Residential Land/Lots 2009 YTD 2008

• Units Sold  5 18
• High Sale  $360,000 $885,000
• Low Sale  $80,000 $110,000

For your viewing pleasure I also added the chart showing median sales prices for Gearhart from 2002-present. The chart isn’t exact but does show the peak in late 2006 or early 2007 that resulted in a backup of inventory and the beginning of property value decline. The most interesting part of the graph to me was the relation between median sales prices from this year compared to 2005. My gut feeling has been that Gearhart has fallen back to about 2005 property values, but that was just a hunch without any specific research. We’re not quite there yet, and it’s hard to predict if we’ll get there. However, something to keep in mind going forward is we could get there which means a little further decline in values. On a side note I think it’s interesting that we did see a little activity in Pinehurst and The Rese

Original Article Here: 2009 Was A Mixed Bag For Gearhart Real Estate

For the month of October, Gearhart saw a slightly lower sales volume than the previous month with just 2 closed residential (single family detached) sales. We saw 4 new listings and a number of listings expire or otherwise come off the market bringing the overall available inventory slightly down to 73 active listings- Down five from the prior month. October also resulted in 3 new pending sales (SFD) for a current total of 5.

There was one residential lot sale in Gearhart during October and two new pending sales. The single sale was Lot 20 @ The Reserve, and the two pending sales were at split between the Reserve and Highlands. Currently there is 49 residential lots listed for sale in Gearhart and list prices range from $65,000 to $795,000.

The Gearhart condo market has been hit especially hard this year, and including the single condo sale in the month of October that makes just 2 Gearhart condos sold this year. Not only has the Gearhart condo market been slow, but the average days to sell a condo this year is 366.5 days! Not so good. On the upside there’s a relatively low inventory of condo’s for sale in Gearhart at just 8 active listings after 1 sold and 3 expired listings during October. Also, the condo sale did involve financing- and condo financing has been a huge challenge the past year.

Original Article Here: Gearhart Oregon Real Estate Update | October 2009

10/22/2009- Gearhart, Oregon Real Estate Market Stats:

• Gearhart Homes for Sale: 72  (-2)
• Gearhart Res. Lots & Land for Sale: 50  (-4)
• Gearhart Condo/Townhouse for Sale: 12

• Pending Gearhart Homes: 5  (-1)
• Pending Gearhart Lots & Land: 7  (+2)
• Pending Gearhart Condo/Townhouse: 1

• Gearhart Sold Properties for the 09/12/09- 10/15/09: 5  (-1)

For comparison purposes, differences indicated by (*) are compared to about a month ago.

10/22/2009- Seaside, Oregon Real Estate Market Stats:

• Seaside Homes for Sale: 124  (-8)
• Seaside Res. Lots & Land for Sale: 81  (-6)
• Seaside Condo/Townhouse for Sale: 67 (-4)

• Pending Seaside Homes: 25 (+4)
• Seaside Seaside Lots & Land: 4  (+2)
• Pending Seaside Condo/Townhouse: 2  (-2)
  

• Seaside Sold Properties for the week 09/12/09- 10/15/09: 10  (-7)

For comparison purposes, differences indicated by (*) are compared to about a month ago.

source: Clatsop MLS. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed accurate.

I love charts and data so lets look at the market trends in Gearhart and Seaside compared to Clatsop County as a whole:

The blue line on the chart represents the active inventory, and the red represents the pending inventory. The common theme in both Gearhart & Seaside and the county as a whole is declining inventory. This is due to both an increased sales rate and listings come off the market unsold. That trend is certainly positive for the market, as the simple ‘supply and demand’ applies to our real estate market. The less inventory, the greater demand for the remaining homes available. This doesn’t directly translate to increased prices however. Until we see a slow down in REO inventory and increased lending volume the upward pressure on pricing won’t materialize. The pending inventory is an indicator of future market trends in some ways, a heavily increasing pending rate would indicate the market is flattening out for example. We’re not seeing a increases in pending inventory across the board, but overall the number remains stable and is increasing in certain areas in the county. Seaside is a pleasant surprise in all this, the chart is a perfect indicator of what we’d like to see everywhere. When those lines get closer and closer to each other, supply is decreasing and demand is increasing leading toward a balanced market. We’re still a long ways from that, but heading in the right direction currently.

Original Article Here: Gearhart Market Update 10/22/2009

Also, the new construction Reserve home at 503 Diamond Lane just had a price reduction to $494,000!

Original Article Here: Reserve info added, new price on custom home

You’ve likely noticed a video tab at the top of the page, and some video thumb nails  over here ——>. The reason for the video is nothing really gives you a great feel for a home like a poorly made video amateur attempt at cinematography. Even with professional photography it’s still two dimensional… So, check out some of the videos including the elk:

Pardon the dust if you will, you’ll notice some tweaks going on for several weeks. You might even see things appear and then disappear the next day.

I listed two great new homes for sale in Gearhart this past week, 1395 Dooley Ln & 503 Diamond Ln.

503 Diamond Ln. Gearhart, OR

503 Diamond Lane is an awesome new home in The Reserve at Gearhart, that includes custom touches and upgrades that the usual spec home doesn’t.

1395 Dooley Ln. Gearhart, OR

1395 Dooley Lane is located in East Gearhart, and combines a single level 1700+ sqft home with a detached shop into one package for less $$$.

Original Article Here: New features, some video and new homes for sale

9/18/2009- Gearhart, Oregon Real Estate Market Stats:

• Gearhart Homes for Sale: 74  (-1)
• Gearhart Res. Lots & Land for Sale: 54  (-1)
• Gearhart Condo/Townhouse for Sale: 12
• Gearhart Bank Foreclosure/REO’s: 0

• Pending Gearhart Homes: 6  (-1)
• Pending Gearhart Lots & Land: 5
• Pending Gearhart Condo/Townhouse: 1

• Gearhart Sold Properties for the week 09/06/09- 9/11/09: 0

9/18/2009- Seaside, Oregon Real Estate Market Stats:

• Seaside Homes for Sale: 132  (-2)
• Seaside Res. Lots & Land for Sale: 87  (+3)
• Seaside Condo/Townhouse for Sale: 71 (+1)
• Seaside Bank Foreclosure/REO’s: 3

• Pending Seaside Homes: 21 (+1)
• Seaside Seaside Lots & Land: 2
• Pending Seaside Condo/Townhouse: 3 
  

• Seaside Sold Properties for the week 09/06/09- 9/11/09: 2

source: Clatsop MLS. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed accurate.

A pretty quiet week in real estate here on the coast, at least the pending sales are keeping pace with the amount of active listings and overall inventory is slowly trending down.  Some interesting market stats for YTD sales in Seaside & Gearhart, including all property types:

• Gearhart YTD Sales 2009: 30
• Gearhart YTD Sales 2008: 37

• Seaside YTD Sales 2009: 68
• Seaside YTD Sales 2008: 74

Original Article Here: Real Estate Market Stats for 9/18/2009

Original Article Here: Did You Know? The RE/MAX Edition 2.0