Our friends Bryan and Sharnee Epley who own RE/MAX of Alyeska recently went to 20 mile camping.  Sharnee arranged the trip with their friends for Father’s Day.  These are fabulous photos of their trip.  Since our weather has been so bad here in the valley, I sure enjoyed seeing these pictures.  They camped on a gravel bar about 30 minutes up river from the Seward Highway.  There were two eagles with chicks nesting nearby.  Noah, their youngest fished for dolly varden.  Preston, their oldest, brought a friend and the older boys had their own tent and camp fire.  Dinner was sausages roasted over the camp fire. Sounds like a great time.  If you are thinking about buying or selling in Girdwood, contact Bryan Epley at Bryan@BryanEpley.com 

Technically it is summer.  Summer solstice will be here next week and Father's Day is this weekend.  But, did someone forget to turn on the sunshine?  After a slow cold spring many of us convinced ourselves that sunshine would be just around the corner. 

Maybe the lack of sun is the reason record numbers of buyers have been on our website looking at homes this past week?  It's true there have been double the number of unique visitors on our site this week.  If they are interested in buying a home in the price range above $275,000 they will find a huge selection.  Take a look at the number of homes on in the Palmer Wasilla area that came on the market this week, versus the homes that pended and sold:

 Total Actives   New Actives this week   New Pendings & New Solds this week

       710                      60                               22                   20

When there are more homes being listed for sale than are pending and selling, we are gaining inventory.  This trend needs to change before we will have equilibrium in the market place across all price ranges.  As I have mentioned before the bright spot is under $275,000.  This price range continues to be a normal market with 2-3 months of supply.  Over $275,000 continues to be a challenging market with more homes for sale than there are buyers.  If you have questions about your home, email me at Kristan@KristanCole.com  or call 373-3575.  Kristan

What’s Happening to Our Market You Ask?

Our real estate market is continuing to stabilize, but we still have a ways to go.  The number of foreclosures in March was the highest so far since our market started to decline.  Those foreclosed homes must work there way through the system before our market can completely stabilize.  That being said there are positives to be pointed out about our market.  While the $275,000 - $500,000 price range is still flooded with inventory, under $275,000 the market is “very normal” with only a 2-3 month supply in any given price range.  I don’t like to use averages because it can skew what’s really going on in the market, but I will share a few statistics here that will help us all understand why our market has not stabilized.  The number of new residential listings as compared to 2007 at this same time is up 22% so far this year.  Also compared to 2007 the number of under contract homes or pending home sales is down 21% and the number of sold homes down 23%.  When the number of listings coming on the market is more than the previous year and the pending sales and sold homes are less, it creates an over supply of inventory.  This inventory must be absorbed before the market stabilizes.  On a positive note, the average sales price is across the market is still stable at $220,000 and the average sale to list price remains 98% on average.  The linked chart shows graphically what I am describing here.  On another note, the geographic areas of the market that are suffering the most are Houston and Willow.  The number of pending sales and actual sold sales is way off compared to 2007.  Houston is down 60%.  Ouch.  In the sort term gas prices will continue to hurt the Mat Su market as there will be buyers who choose to buy in Anchorage rather than commute.  In the long run, we have the land for growth and we will continue to be the fastest growing area in the state.   New jobs in the retail and health care continue to increase.  There is a new prison to be built.  And the “big deal” for us and the rest of the state rests on our legislators as they debate whether to approve the Trans Canada Alaska natural gas pipeline plan.  If you have questions about your home or your property, please call me  907-373-3575 or email me Kristan@KristanCole.com  

And the winner of our King Salmon Fishing Trip for two is Debra Hesterberg.  Congratulations and happy fishing.  My son Jesse caught a couple of King’s this past weekend.  So the fishing should be good.

Next contest we are giving away 2 $50 Shell Gas cards and 8 Free Tickets to North Star Speedway that can be used anytime this summer.  Email me by June 30^th to win. 

Later this week I will be posting the real estate market information for the month of May.  Stay tuned.  Kristan