What Has Happened in Hemet, During the Past Two Years?

What Has Happened in Hemet, During the Past Two Years?
A  Quick Look back to 2005 - A Place to Set the Bar
by John Occhi, Hemet REALTOR

As the year winds down and the final figures are on their way to "the books", it's time to take a close look at what has happened.

In order to fully look back at 2006 and the local Hemet Real Estate Market, I thought it was as important to look at 2005 as well.  After all, if I tell you we had 50 expired listings last month, what does that mean to you without having a place to compare.

So, as I wait for the last hours of December to tick away and for the last sales to be recorded and the time run out on the last expireds of the year, I have spent some time downloading and formatting the 2005 numbers straight from the Hemet-San Jacinto board of Realtors official MLS website, known as "Tempo".  This data does NOT include new construction homes sold by the builder or homes sold by individuals without using the MLS - otherwise known as FSBO's.

Now for the sake of this article and the next few I write as I look at different aspects of the market, I need to let you know that, unless I tell you differently, that all of my data is from the "Residential' class of properties.  This does not include commercial properties, business opportunities, raw land or mobile homes for the most part.

Now there are exceptions to the mobile home rule - not one I agree with, but one I must live with.  You see, when a mobile home has a permanent foundation and is on its own land, it qualifies for most purposes as a residential property.  The classification ‘mobile home' in the MLS is pretty much reserved for homes in mobile home parks - but again, there are exceptions.  I'll not belabor that argument here.

As I look at my data, I like to break it down by zip code.  So far, what I have downloaded has been exclusively from Hemet and the three zip codes of 92543, 92544 and 92545.   Just in case you don't know, 92543 is the original heart of Hemet.  92544 is the east end of town, much of it is in unincorporated East Hemet and Valle Vista while 92545 is the West End of town, where most of the new construction has taken place in the past few years. As some point in the near future, I'll provide a similar analysis for San Jacinto, since it is an important part of this valley.

For now, I am still in the early stages of working with the 2005 data.  What I'd like to point out here is some observations and differences between the three zip codes.  Once all of the data has been posted for 2006 - probably by the end of next week, I'll be able to dive in more completely to the 2006 information and make my comparisons between the two years.

In the meantime, look at what the data tells us about the 3 different parts of town.  For this analysis, I am using a relatively small sample of data - 355 listings that expired from the MLS listings in 2005.  Of these, 73 are in the 92543 zip code, 152 are from 92544, and 128 come from 92545.

The first tid-bit is the average year the homes were built.  Starting in 92543 the typical home was built in 1966 while those to the east were built in 1976 and those to the west were built in 1991.

Many believe that the east end of town is the nicest part of town.  Perhaps this next statistic can help add some value to this thought.  In 92543 the average square foot of a home is 1,365.  The west end. 92545 has an average living space of 1,732 square feet while those residing in the east average 1732 square feet.

So how about lot size?  I know the older homes have some very large lots.  Lets look at those numbers and see who has more ‘elbow room'.  Well, the ‘newer homes' in 92545 average 8,828 sq ft - which is actually a very nice size residential lot.  In town though, the older lots found in 92543 average over a quarter acre at 13,821 square feet.  The east scores again here with nearly an acre per home with 38,446 square feet per listing.  Now, I'll throw in a disclaimer here that there were some rather large parcels that got factored in to the mix, but all an all, the east does have much larger lots - that's why there are so many horses in East Hemet and Valle Vista.

As expected, the number of bathrooms and bedrooms directly corresponds to the living square footage of the home.  The smaller 92543 homes average 1.8 Bathrooms and 2.5 bedrooms.  92545 is up to 2.1 bathrooms and 3.1 bedrooms and as insignificant that the difference of 56 square feet can make in a home, those in 92545 have the same 2.1 bathrooms and only 3.2 bedrooms - very close to the west, but the east still wins out.

One of my favorite characteristics to look at when crunching numbers is who has a pool.  Well, when I checked, of the 73 properties in the 92543 zip code, 5 had in ground private pools - that's one in 14.6 homes.    The homes on the west end of town average a pool in 1 of 14.2 listings; or 9 out of the 128 properties reviewed.  Perhaps one the reason the homes in 92544 ask for so much more money is because so many more of them have their own private in ground pool - actually 1 out of 5.4 listings or 28 or the 152 listings that expired in 2005 have their own pool.

Perhaps the most significant comparison that can be made is the actual average sales price.  Now remember, these are 2005 prices.  Soon enough we'll look and see how they have changed, but lets set the bar.  So, the older homes as you would expect at the most affordable with an average ‘LIST" price (remember these listings EXPIRED and DID NOT SELL) in 92543 was $277,226.  The newer tract homes found in 92545 average asking price was $320,858.  The homeowners in 92544 thought there homes were so much nicer they asked for an average price of $362,691.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little look back on 2005 and look forward as much as I do to see the 2006 figures and how they compare to one year earlier.  I for one look forward to diving into the numbers and gaining the knowledge that is so important, as a REALTOR so that I can help my clients understand the market, regardless of where they find themselves in it.

If there is anything in particular that you would like to know, please let me know and I'll be happy to research it for you.  I can run my numbers on very specific neighborhoods, with very little inconvenience - it's just a matter of entering the right search parameters and then doing the analysis.  So let me know, I'm here to help.

In the meantime, Have a Blessed Day.

John Occhi, Hemet Realtor
http://www.johnocchi.com/