April 23, 2008

What’s Selling in Spring Valley lately?

Hard to beat these prices!

The actual sales prices are priceless. This is where the rubber meets the road and seller’s hopes and buyers efforts reach their ultimate compromise. As you study the asking prices, it’s valuable to know where they finally end up.

Your Name Here?

Make it Redfin!

This caught my eye because I bought a 5br home in 1979 for $80k. Things have changed. This 5br house w 2 baths sold on Apr 3rd for $273,750. That’s $132 per square foot, boys and girls. Impressive these days. 10163 Canyonridge Place in Spring Valley has 2,081 square feet, built in 1978. In 2005 it sold for $514k, almost twice the current price. The Redfin data isn’t current yet, but you can find more at Trulia. Zillow estimated this property at $397,500.

2423 Carrera Court is a similar recent sale. It’s a 4 br 2 ba 1,873 sqft home built in 1979 that sold for $280k ($149/sq.ft.). Sweet. The last sale listed was $165,500 (10/28/1993) which seems a reasonable appreciation for a residence in a community without dramatic fluctuations. The ZESTIMATE™ was $384,500

Let’s have a look at the ‘expensive spread’ with fewer calories for more dollars: 10540 Villa Bonita sold for $385,000 on Apr 3rd, 2008. Not an outrageous price for 4 br 3 ba 1,882 sqft is it? Still it is $205/sq.ft. which is a bit higher than the above listings. The price has come down as you might expect from $515 in 2005. We’re using Trulia for this information and they don’t offer Zillow estimates. This sale seems slightly higher than the previous, but for all we know there are gold filled plumbing appliances and carbon fiber toilet seats. There’s much you can’t learn from listings alone.

We should include a condo here so take a look at 3011 Chipwood Court, 2 br 2 ba 916 sqft and it sold for $137,900 on Apr 3rd, 2008. What can we add to this? It was built in 1987 and at this price it sold for $151/sq.ft. Does that seem low? Normally, smaller homes draw a higher price per square foot than larger homes. This is a very low price per foot even in East County. Add to that the fact that the unit sold for $322k in 2005 and this is a crushing reduction. On sold homes, we don’t have access to homeowners association fees and that is critical to evaluating condo sales.

Let us take a moment to reflect upon the wealth of information available to us in recent years. Let’s appreciate that it is a snowball effect that grows monthly and we can expect a continuing explosion of new data in the months ahead. Companies like Trulia, Redfin, Zillow and even the stodgy MLS are finding ways to inform and educate.

But all is not perfect. Nobody offers all the answers yet and you can’t depend entirely on the data they offer. Trulia doesn’t offer Zillow data. Zillow is somewhat limited with their estimates but improving. Redfin shows none of these recent sales but is good about active listings in general and lots of community information (and community blogs like this). There are others offering worthwhile information on foreclosures, open houses, freeform listings, FSBO, mortgage reform and much more. There will be new companies who may displace some existing efforts with innovative approaches. We are part of a pioneering effort that will lead us all into unknown territory. For those who fear change, it may be time to reconsider for there will be great opportunities. Buyers and sellers are in the driver’s seat for the first time in history.

You can follow my East County blog here or here. You’re at Redfin, the unbiased source for local real estate information.

[data from generally reliable sources, please comment on any errors!]

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