The notorious year of 2012 has come. I hope you all had a terrific and safe new year’s eve and day. My kids enjoyed watching the ball drop this year, however I had to wake them up a few minutes before because they knocked out around eight o’clock. Hopefullywith a new year comes a difference in Temecula’s real estate market. The criteria for my stats are Temecula homes for sale, single family residences, detached with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Let’s see what 2012 has in store for us:

• Total Actively Listed On Market in January: 325
• Average Temecula Property Listed Price: $ 344,719
• # of Temecula Properties Sold in December: 156
• Average Sold Temecula Property Price: $ 314,006
• Average Days On Market Of Homes Sold in December: 97

Well, let’s look at Temecula’s property prices for both actives and sold. It looks like active prices had a small decrease from December’s $347,400 to January’s $344,719. However, the Temecula Valley sold property price grew from $297,760 to $314,006. Overall, that is a 5.45% increase. I say that’s a fairly substantial increase in sold price within the last month.

I also noticed that Temecula’s average days on market has grown from last month’s. November’s average days on market was at 85 and it is now a whopping 97 days in December. That is a 14.12% increase from month to month. And if we look at October’s DOM which was 81 days, you can see that it is continuing to rise. What does this mean exactly? This means it is progressively taking longer and longer to sell homes. Nevertheless, if we look back to March we see that this is a seasonal pattern. During the summer, Temecula real estate’s days on market decrease and during the winter and spring, the days increase.

I hope my Temecula real estate analysis and trends report for January 2012 has provided you excellent data. As always, I hope you and your family are safe. If you have any further questions, I am available via email. Feel free to contact me anytime.

Stefan West

The year of 2012 has finally arrived. With the new year comes new year’s resolutions and new beginnings. I hope all of you started out the year 2012 safe and healthy, ready to take on the new year. I myself have decided to get an early jump on my market reports for 2012. As usual, my market report is based on single family homes, 3+ bedrooms, 2+ baths, and detached. Let us see how Menifee did this new year:

• Total Number Of Actives Listed On Market in January: 263
• Average Menifee Home Listed Price: $ 223,935
• Number of Menifee Properties Sold in December: 75
• Average Menifee Sold Property Price: $209,054
• Average Days On Market Prior To Sale in December: 90

Hmmmmmm, so there have been a couple significant changes between January’s Menifee market advisory and December’s Menifee market analysis. The first item that grabbed my attention was the difference in the number of homes sold month to month. November’s Menifee properties sold was 58, a fall from October’s 68 homes sold. So, the growth from 58 properties sold in November to 75 properties sold in December is a substantial jump. In fact, it is a 22.66% increase. That is a fairly important difference. People were doing more than just looking inmalls this past December.

Now, after seeing the number of homes sold in Menifee, why don't we look at the average price at which these properties sold at. November’s Menifee market report showed that the average sold price was $225,949 while December’s average sold price was $209,054. That is a 7.47% reduction from November to December. However, if we look at October's market analysis, the sold price was $209,566. That explains that this reduction isn’t ground breaking. It looks like a normal fluctuation from month to month, especially considering the significant jump in number of Menifee properties sold.

I hope my Menifee real estate market statistics and projections help you with your home buying needs. If you have any other questions, don’t be afraid to send me an email. I hope you and your family had a great new years and I’m looking forward to filling your market report needs this year.

Stefan West

Dec. is here and all things Xmas are taking place - youngsters are seeing Santa (I propose the Lake Elsinore Outlet by the way - no wait and a wonderful Santa Claus), folks are taking time off, and lots are out going to the malls shopping!  But that is not everything that folks are purchasing in 2012!  I gathered the figures for December and the sales info for November and we can see a holiday season surprise this December.

I will keep this advisory short and sweet because I also have got some shopping to get done today!  As usual, my advisory is primarily based on single family houses that are 3+ bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms, and detached - i.e. no condos or townhomes.  No offense to those properties however I believe pulling a standard dataset is crucial to knowing developments and the basic Single Family is king in Temecula Real Estate Analysis. So let's see what the holiday season is bringing the Temecula real estate market:

• Total Number of Actively Listed on the Market - 315
• Average Temecula Valley House Listed Price - $ 347,400
• Number of Houses Sold in Nov - 160
• Avg. Sold Temecula Home Price - $ 297,760
• Avg. Days on Market Prior To Sale - 85 Days
  
  

  Hmmmmmm.... what is going on here but a bump in Temecula homes sold from Oct to November 2011!  We went from 140 in both Sept and October to 160 houses sold in November, the month of Autumn!  That is a growth of 14.3% in what is generally a slow down month.  The more fascinating aspect is that we haven't seen many closings since Aug and June which had been close to 170 and 160 respectively. That is rather impressive.

  Paying attention to the other numbers, the number of active Temecula homes  on the market dropped from 352 in Nov to just 315 in December, a drop of 10.5% in supply.  However, the typical listed price slightly shifted at all, staying at the $347,000 range.  As for the actual sales or closing cost, it grew from $295,890 in Oct sales to $297,764 in Nov sales, a marginal improvement. Lastly, the days on market (DOM) has pretty much stayed identical changing from 81 days for Temecula October sales to 86 days for Nov sales. 

  I will definitely forecast that we may watch a decrease in sales this month than in November. Santa is a giving guy but it is still Christmas and I assume that people do not have the time or inclination to shop for houses as aggressively as they had in Nov. Nevertheless, I }wouldn't~would not} have expected November to be such a good month either.  I will say I continue to be busy and have a couple houses closing before the end of the year as do a number of my agents - so we will have to wait :).

  That finishes my December advisory for the Temecula Valley Real Estate Analysis and Projections. I hope you and your family have a fantastic Christmas and Happy New Year!  See you next year!

  Happy Holidays!

Stefan West, Broker/Owner of West Realty

What a great month for the city of Menifee!

The climate is fantastic, the purchasing crazy, and the holiday spirit is in full effect.  As we get nearer to 2012, people continue to ask me how real estate is doing.  I think the election, the stock market, and the real estate market are really on everyone's mind at this time of year.  So I have brought my numbers together so you can keep up to date on the Menifee real estate industry.

As you most likely know, my numbers are gathered based on single family homes, 3+ bedrooms, 2+ baths, and detached in nature.  This will exclude condos and townhomes but I think it to be the finest indicator of the real estate industry.  Let's take a look:

• Number of Actively Listed on the Market - 252
• Avg. Menifee House Listed Price - $223,077
• Menifee Houses Sold in November - 58
• Avg. Sold Menifee Cost for November - $225,949
• Avg. Days on Market Before Sale - 85 Days

These amounts match what I expected for the standard slow down as the holiday  closes in.  Ironically, when I created my Temecula Valley real estate report and trends, I was surprised to see an increase in closings month to month.  But in Menifee we see a far more common decrease in closings from 68 in Oct to 58 in November, a drop of 14.7%.  We also noticed an important decrease in sales moving from Sept to Oct - so I am careful with pricing at the moment.

Having said that, pricing of Menifee properties sold actually went up generally, from $209,560 the previous month to $225,950, a 7.82% growth in sold pricing.  This pricing difference continues a trend for 3 months now however Nov was by far the greatest leap.  Supply has remained almost precisely the same and days on market rose from 78 the previous month to 85 days this month.  So the significant change in avg. sold cost is a shock knowing that sales figures are lower, no difference in supply, and that it is taking homes more time to sell.

That closes your Dec. Menifee Real Estate report!  I hope the holidays are terrific for you and your family members and wish everybody a very Merry Christmas!

I know it is a little bit past due but here it is - your Menifee Real Estate Market Report for November 2011!  I had to absorb the holidays and all that food before I was able to bring myself to post this.  Actually, I was gone for a quick weekend and the real estate market in Menifee has grown incredibly active!  Congrats to Stephanie and Rudy on their new Menifee house by the way!

I will make this report pretty fast but will be contrasting it with my Menifee Real Estate Trends Report for October to see any recent changes. Despite the fact that I am writing after the fact, the figures were taken in November for this report.  As usual, I concentrate on single family houses, 3+ bedrooms, not attached, etc.  Maintaining a consistent standards is the core of this article.

• Total # of Active Menifee Properties Listed - 247
• Average Menifee House Listed Price - $223,451
• Ttl. # of Menifee Properties Sold in October - 68
• Average Menifee October Sales Price - $209,566
• Average Days on Market before sale - 78

Seeing this report, it appears that things are slowing as we come up to the year's end.  This is not unusual but it does differ with my Temecula Real Estate Market Report that shows the exact same amount of Temecula Valley houses closing in both September and October - ie., no true slowdown.  In October, Menifee property sales decreased  from 95 units in September to only 68 units in October, a drop of 28.4% month over month.  That is a fairly significant difference! 

Nonetheless, supply has also fallen from 300 active Menifee Houses in October to 247 in November, a 17.66% reduction in available inventory.  That is also an important reduction of available homes.  Going backward for a minute, we can see that both the average Active list cost and average Sold price have gone up.  The active list was $218,344 in October and is now $223,450 in November, a change of 2.33%.  The average sold cost grew from $206,600 in September to $209,566 in October, a minor 1.43% difference however still an upward difference in both statistics.

It looks like we are having a shrinking in the market on the supply side.  We are also seeing a constriction in the consumer or demand side as well.  I know standard and bank owned homes are leaving very fast if they are in decent to superb shape.  So this suggests that banking institutions are minimizing supply and the flippers are slowing down a tiny bit.  However the prices have held steady and slightly grew so we may have hit a significant balance.  Having said that, I don't like to see closings figures down that significantly over the fall in supply.  I would argue for decreased pricing but however, as of right now that isn't the situation given that supply is far more restricted.

This shows two months in dropping sales figures for Menifee home sales.  But pricing is holding rather well and I am extremely interested to see what develops in December actives and November sales in my upcoming article.  Meanwhile, I hope you all had a fantastic Menifee Turkey day and are currently putting on your Xmas lights!

Sincerely,

Stefan West, Broker for Menifee Real Estate and Temecula Homes for Sale!

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving was great this year with my loved ones being able to see tons of great people over the holiday weekend.  My kids greatly enjoyed an entire week off from school!  I remember when I was young we only had Thursday and Friday off from school, what's going on with that?!  But I digress. Sorry this update is later on in the month but I was stuck on the sofa attempting to work off all the food.

With next month right around the corner, let's see how the Temecula Real Estate market is doing:

• Total Number of Actively Listed on the Market - 352
• Average Home Listed Price - $ 347,567
• Number of Temecula Valley Houses Sold in October - 140
• Avg. Sold Temecula Home Price - $ 295,891
• Avg. Days on Market Before Sale - 81 Days

Wow, there isn't a whole lot of difference to evaluate at all!  Overall, it is quite a mixed bag of the same statistics from the previous month.  The active homes on the market dropped from 363 to 352, a minimal bump down.  Additionally, the average Temecula Valley property list cost came down just over $7,000 from $354,700 to $347,567. So not a large difference when taking into consideration it is an average of all the houses listed.

Now we will get into the sold info and for the very first time I am seeing back to back months (September and October 2011) having sold the same amount of Temecula Valley real estate at 140 single family houses.  Bear in mind, I pull a particular set of criteria because I think it best represents the fundamental real estate market. So we didn't see a difference at all in the quantity of Temecula homes sold.  However, we did see an additional delay of 6 more days on the average days on market, which means they are spending a little longer time to sell.

Overall, a fairly vanilla report however also a good one given that we are not looking at a slowdown at this time.  I did look at November closings and we are really close once again at 128.  I am curious to see if we go past 140 in the next two days with the month closing.

Well, this is your November monthly trends report for Temecula real estate.  I hope you all had an amazing Turkey day and you will be hearing from me once again in December!

I will get my updates for Temecula and Menifee real estate up next week. But today is Veteran's day and I want to wish all the military familes out there a huge Thank You!

As a Temecula real estate guy, I see a lot more of what you and your familes go through than most. I have helped clients and families move when a spouse is out on a lengthy rotation, skyped with clients across the world, and watched how tough it is to keep a family together through all of it.

I often see how you are transferred to North Carolina, Virginia, overseas, Hawaii, Arizona, and other states after you are settled in here and the kids are enrolled. You guys really put up with A LOT of things that most people never think about.

So please know that my family and I thank you very much. I have been very blessed to work with so many military over the last decade and it is inspiring to see such wonderful people and families at work.

Absolutely have a great Veteran's day - you seriously deserve it!

Sincerely,

Stefan West - Temecula Real Estate Facebook Page!

I scream BOOOOO to you! 

It is the end of October and Halloween is in less than 7 days!  Kids are excited for sweets and costumes, and adults are thinking - why is Halloween on a weekday?!  The holidays are around the corner and we all scratch our head and start wondering, where did the past year go?

Well I can't answer that, but I can answer where Menifee CA real estate was in the month of October!  As we head into the holiday months, we will normally see a slow down begin in October.  I know we saw that come about in Temecula when I created my October 2011 Temecula Real Estate Trend Report.  That displayed an 18% drop in property closes month over month!  Please keep in mind that although this is my October report, the sales amounts trail by a month and are for September closes while the actives are for October. With that said, here are the figures:

Menifee Real Estate Houses Sold and Active Listings Update - October 2011

• Total # of Active Homes Listed - 300
• Average Active List Price - $ 218,344
• Menifee CA Properties Sold in September - 95
• Avg. September Sales Price - $ 206,602
• Avg. Sold Days on Market - 73

It looks like Menifee is still keeping a pretty constant pace as we move into Autumn.  There has been small alterations in the Menifee real estate market.  Total active listings has increased by just 14 houses from the previous month, a 5.6% increase.  However the normal asking price is virtually dead even with the previous month.  You can compare last month's market report here - Menifee CA Real Estate Report 9/2011.

And, as opposed to the Temecula real estate market, Menifee real estate in fact only slightly dropped in property closes from 99 in August to 95 in September which is a 4% decrease.  In terms of prices sold at we decreased just 1.36%.  That is quite marginal and Days on Market variable in fact progressed to 73 days from 80 days!  That is very intriguing and exhibits that these cities do not follow each other.

In my business I have witnessed a lot more buyers looking for Menifee real estate lately.  The price levels are very good and a lot of renters feel their best bang for the buck in Menifee.  So overall, we lost just a couple of closes but have stayed steady.  However I do expect these amounts to fall as we gear up for the holiday season.  That is a pretty steady trend.  Nonetheless, with rates so uncommonly small, it is pushing far more first time purchasers into the real estate market.

On a side note, yesterday President Obama expanded the Making Home Affordable structure and I foresee that lowering short sales a tiny bit as MANY more people who are upside down more than 125% will be able to refinance if their financial loans are with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.  That should affect the market as early as December 2011 but most banks won't transition until January 2012.

I hope this Menifee Real Estate update discovers you and your relatives healthy and looking toward a great holiday season!

It is starting to look like Fall! 

The weather has gotten wonderfully cooler and honestly, this is my favorite time of the year.  Halloween is almost here and the bedroom community of Temecula Valley has a lot of kids (mine included) who are eager for costumes, chocolate, and mean fathers who like to terrify their kids.  Ok, perhaps that is just my situation but my 5 year old has triple dared me to scare him!

I hope this update discovers you and your family in good health and getting ready for the holiday.  As we get into fall, I anticipate the amount of Temecula Valley houses sold to go lower as opposed to the Summer season. Although we do not have the serious decrease connected with colder climates, we do see a seasonal decrease usually beginning in the Fall and going through to Spring when we kick back into high gear.  Let's see if the numbers display this:

• Total Amount of Actively Listed on the Market - 363
• Average Home Listed Cost - $ 354,700
• Number of Temecula Properties Sold in September - 140
• Avg. Sold Temecula Home Price - $ 287,760
• Avg. Days on Market Before Sale - 75 Days

It appears we are seeing some decline from Temecula Valley home sales in August 2011.  The total amount of active listings stayed just about the same however the average listed selling price slipped from $362,800 to $354,700.  That is a decline of $8,100 or a 2.2% change. 

More importantly we saw a larger decrease in number of Temecula Valley homes sold from 171 in August to 140 in September, an 18% decrease in the amount of Temecula Valley houses sold month over month. Moreover we also see a decrease in actual sales cost from $303,100 in August to $287,700 in September, with a decline in sold house prices of approximately 5.1%.  That is abig move and might display significantly decreasing demand from buyers. Again, this isn't too unusual however I am a bit stunned by the 18% drop in Temecula home closes.  It is more than I anticipated and I am interested to see if it is imitated when I do both my Murrieta and Menifee Market Reports later on today. 

One thing I have certainly noticed is a significant increase in individuals refinancing. One advantage of doing this update today is that earlier this morning President Obama introduced an extention on the current limits of the Making Home Affordable Act.  That is going to generate even more refinances when it begins in the upcoming week or two.  More refinances indicates less short sales and less supply.  Having interest rates this low, we might see a serious spike in buying activity following the New Year.

And that concludes my October 2011 Temecula Real Estate Trends Report.  As usual, if you have inquiries, feel free to send over an email.  Please have a fantastic month of October and a great Halloween!

It is that time once again to give you the quick and most recent news for Temecula Valley real estate!  As of late September, the news coming from the Fed has really affected real estate loans, dropping interest rates on FHA under 4%. 

I see men and women obtaining new loans for 3.75 fixed!  I envision this will very likely help several people meet the criteria for greater quantities and genuinely boost  an already busy real estate market.

I am going to get right into the numbers and not waste too much time.  Remember these figures are for Temecula properties that are active right now and the sales come from August of 2011.  All houses must be in Temecula, single family homes, and under one million dollars in cost.

• Total Number of Actively Listed on the Market - 370
• Average Home Listed Price - $ 362,885
• Number of Temecula Homes Sold in August - 171
• Avg. Sold Temecula Property Cost - $ 303,114
• Avg. Days on Market Prior To Sale - 73 Days

When comparing the August 2011 report with September, we don't see much in the way of adjustments except in two primary parts - 1) Number of Temecula Valley homes sold and 2) Average Days on Market just before sale.  We did see a powerful increase in sales which have risen from 148 Temecula homes sold in July to 171 homes sold in August.  That is an increase of 15.5%.

However, we also see an increase in Days on Market which typically signifies the market is slowing down a little bit.  In July, the average was just 57 days compared to 73 in August,  a change of 28%.  That is a contrast of information there with almost all things remaining almost the same.

I am going to presume that is the impact of short sales regarding Days on Market. The more powerful indicator is the amount of homes closing as a market pattern in my opinion.  Short sale delays are incredibly typical and also the Days on Market is effected if a short sale becomes a foreclosure, thus adding to that amount somewhat incorrectly.

That finishes off your speedy September 2011 Temecula Real Estate Market Update.  Please let me know if I can answer any concerns for you by merely emailing me.  My contact info is on the right and I will be pleased to help!