Focus On Mesa Oaks & Counrty Club

I was supposed to get to this earlier this week, but other business got in the way. That happens sometimes. So I'm sitting here with my laptop in front of the TV looking at the Packers/Vikings game, hoping that they can figure out some way for both teams to lose.

This week we're up to an update on activity in our traditional high end neighborhoods, Mesa Oaks and the Country Club. For a little background on these areas, you can go check out my first post on them from last year.

While most of our market in recent months has been generally active and a little low on inventory, these two areas are pretty much running counter to that trend. As of this evening, we have 17 houses on the market in these areas (3 REO's/3 short sales/11 traditional). This is a big change from when I last reported on these areas in May. That's a big swing in the space of about 5 months.

Sales activity has slowed dramatically here. We only have one contingent sale listed there at the moment (a traditional seller) and 3 pending sales (1 REO and 2 traditional). Over the past three months, we've seen a whopping one sale. Are you kidding me? That one was a traditional sale in case you're keeping score.

If there's good news here, it's that the distressed sale activity up there has dropped to a very low level. But that kind of disparity in inventory is a bit concerning for values in the area. Obviously, when we only have one sale in the area there's no way to really establish a price trend. A lot of this will depend on how badly the traditional sellers in the area need to sell their homes. If some of them are truly discretionary, it may be that they'll come off the market rather than sell at fire sale prices.

Next week, I'm going to alert you to some of the frauds that are becoming common in the short sale arena. Make sure you check back in for that. I might even get it done before Sunday evening...