Santa Fe Home Sales Slide to End 2006
The widespread housing market slowdown across the U.S. apparently reached Santa Fe late last year, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
Sales in both the city and county of Santa Fe in the fourth quarter of 2006 were well behind figures for the same period a year ago, continuing a trend that became apparent in the third quarter.
A softer real estate market and low New Mexico mortgage rates favor buyers for at least the time being, and more than likely mean real estate agents are having a harder time making a living.
But while the number of home sales in the city dropped from a late-2005 peak, the median price remained steady when compared with a year earlier.
“In looking at the entire year (of 2006), there’s no question there was a slowing down but not a going down,” said Wally Sargent of Santa Fe Properties, one of Santa Fe’s largest real estate agencies.
“We didn’t experience the type of drop they had in Phoenix, Las Vegas or some of the Southern California markets, but there was definitely a slowing down. There are more sellers than buyers, and properties are selling when sellers get realistic and don’t hold out for top dollar.”
The Santa Fe Association of Realtors reported a total of 221 homes in the city sold during the fourth quarter of 2006 - a 25 percent drop from the same period of 2005.
The median price was $375,000, which was close to the $379,500 figure reported for the final three months of 2005. The median price means as many homes sold for more than that price as sold for less.
It was a similar story outside city limits. County totals for the fourth quarter of 2006 show 177 homes sold - a 27 percent decline from a year earlier - while New Mexico home prices dropped by 4 percent to $442,000.
The association cautions that not all sales are reported to the local Multiple Listing Service. For all of 2006, business at Santa Fe Properties was about on par with last year, maybe slightly off, officials said, a statistic they say is most likely true for the city in general.
On the other hand, the high-end market - homes costing $1 million and more - “heated up quite a bit in the last year,” said Sargent, who anticipates 2007 being “a decent year but not a red-hot year like we had in 2004 and 2005.”
The drop in sales came at a time when the number of agents trying to sell real estate in the New Mexico housing market increased, which has meant less sales-commission money to go around.
“There’s an awful lot of people who have real estate licenses who do little or no business,” Sargent said. “A market like this tends to wring a lot of that out, which at the end of the day, for those who remain, is not bad.”
David Barker of Barker Realty agreed that there was some softness in sales in the third and fourth quarters, a slowdown that has led to an increase in inventory and foreclosure, as well as the number of days it takes to sell a house in Santa Fe.
“More properties are on the market, and fewer are selling,” Barker said, a situation that favors buyers at least temporarily. “It’s good for the balance of the market.”
But Barker said the softness was a “temporary aberration” that’s likely to result in a stronger market in 2007. The relative affordability of home mortgage loans in New Mexico, combined with a growing economy, makes the Land of Enchantment a good bet to rebound in the next 12 months.