The real estate business here in Palm Springs on our “Main Street” continues to move along, despite of all of the negativity in the news during the last few weeks about the stock market and financial system. Despite the seriousness of that message, our day to day business for qualified buyers is good, and well-valued properties are selling quickly.
Contrary to all of the noise coming out of Washington, our clients are successfully making offers on foreclosed properties and getting them accepted by the banks. We are also working successfully with banks on “short sales” to enable our clients to buy from home owners who are financially stressed and wanting to avoid foreclosure. And we are finding that mortgage loans for qualified buyers continue to be available at historically attractive interest rates.
The increased number of foreclosures (bank owned homes) over the past year has resulted in significant downward pressures on home prices. We are experiencing a big jump in home sales. In fact, according to our local Desert Sun newspaper, August sales in several communities were “more then double what they were in August of 2007”, i.e., a year ago. See August Home Sales for more information on our sales trends.
Having said all that, I believe that if you are thinking about buying Palm Springs real estate, now is an excellent time to do so. Give me a call or drop me a line at dick@dicksakowicz.com to explore your options.