REAL ESTATE: The Riley Report

Hello From Pagosa Country!

We just celebrated our country’s 246th birthday. Hooray, hooray!

This is always the busiest week of the year in Pagosa Country, with all sorts of attractions going on. We are fortunate enough this year to have half of our family in town. We have my daughter Heather, her husband John, and their two kids Grant and Gannon – ages seven and nine. Saturday night was rodeo time. Sunday was Spongebob the Musical at Thingamajig Theatre. Monday was the 4th of July Parade and the Arts & Crafts Show. Then we came home for a barbecue. There were no fireworks this year due to the drought, and no carnival. I think COVID killed the carnival for the foreseeable future.

This morning I’m taking the boys fishing at Echo Lake early, before it rains this afternoon.

After two months of almost no rain, the monsoons kicked in early a couple of weeks ago, and we are very green again. The town will stay busy welcoming visitors from around the country for the next several months. We love to see the dollars roll in, but hate the extra traffic that comes with it.

Now for the latest real estate news. The market has a taken a reverse course. March was the peak with no inventory, outrageous prices, and multiple offers. It was definitely a sellers market. Today, the market has changed due to upheaval in the worldwide economy – interest rates have doubled, inflation is out of control, the stock market is tanking, there’s a war overseas, gas prices are out of sight, and consumer confidence is dwindling.

Back in March, we only had 35 homes and 2 condos available on the market. Today we have 169 homes and 31 condos. It’s a buyer’s market now.

Sellers, with the help of their Realtors, have priced their properties at March prices, and now they are scrambling to get ahead of the curve. This means price reductions, one after another. If you are selling a cherry, you can always get top dollar. But if you are middle of the road, and you need to sell soon, you’d better start pricing aggressively. Unless we start seeing some good news in the economy, prices will likely continue to adjust back to normal.

If I needed to sell something soon, I would price below market value to encourage multiple offers.

Here are the latest numbers. Totals sales are down 33%. Home sales are down 16%. Condos are down 2%. Vacant land is down 46%. Make sure you check out this month’s stats and graphs.

If you are a buyer, the good news is you have more choices and lower prices. But if you need to get a loan, waiting may not be a good strategy, as the Fed is about to raise rates again and again to fight inflation. Over the last week or so, we’ve seen rates take a little bit of a dip. Today a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is at 5.875% and a 15-year is at 4.875%.

I hope you take some time to enjoy the summer with your friends and loved ones,