What's up with this crazy market?
Sunrise though our oak tree
What’s happening with the real estate market in Anderson Valley these days? What’s selling and what’s sitting? Is it a good time to sell or buy? These are some questions I think are in people’s minds when they think about real estate in Anderson Valley.
I can only really speak to what I have been seeing in the local market, with a little more anecdotal information gleaned from other agents I speak to. I’ve been pretty busy since the last part of last year, but I also know from my conversations with other practitioners that I am busier than most.
What I see selling is mostly land. I’m not exactly sure why this is the case - maybe it has just happened that most of the clients I’ve had have been looking to build? But I think it’s more than that. I think that the cost of insurance is probably one factor; when you buy land you don’t have to have fire insurance. Also, if you build you can build for fire resistance, which can help when it comes time to get insurance. You also don’t have to be on the hook for high insurance premiums while also doing renovations to make a dwelling fire resistant.
Having said all of that, I have recently had three residential properties go into escrow - one has closed and the other two are nearly closed. In two of these instances the price has been around $500,000, give or take. I’m not seeing a lot of interest in the many million-dollar priced homes on the market right now. I don’t argue that some of these homes are “worth” the amount being asked - they probably couldn’t be built nor the property around the homes in the shape they are now for less than that, but the market is not in agreement. This makes it a good time to buy, if you can convince a seller to accept less than they would like.
What about selling? As busy as I’ve been I say it is a good time to list. There are clearly buyers out there. They are motivated by price, however, so it’s not the time to expect to get the moon, but rather something more realistic. There’s a lot of factors behind this - the cost of insurance, as I mentioned, but also higher interest rates which removes a larger pool of buyers from the market. The current economic instability is also a factor, with the stock market on a bit of a roller coaster. The one thing about land - no one is making more of it (Ok, there are some exceptions, but they aren’t around here) and traditionally real estate has been a safe investment, though often one that needs to be held long term to see gains and ride out the ups and downs.
As always, I’m happy to discuss this further if you have more questions. Give me a call or drop me an email.