Amgen Tour of California in Palm Springs

May 14, 2013 by Dick Sakowicz Leave a Comment

Palm Springs experienced the thrill of hosting the Amgen Tour of California – one of the world’s top cycling races yesterday. In what has become the largest cycling race in America, riders raced right through downtown Palm Springs, ultimately finishing the second stage of the race by climbing 2500 feet up to the base station of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. In all, the Tour covers a total of almost 750 miles along some of California’s most scenic roadways.

Palm Springs is one of 13 cities hosting the eight-day cycling race, which features elite professional teams and athletes from around the world. Amgen sponsors the event, in connection with the Breakaway from Cancer initiative, in addition to sponsoring its own team of cyclists. The Amgen Tour of California is one of only two American races listed as a UCI 2.HC event on the international professional cycling calendar. As such, it awards important world-ranking points to the top finishers.

With lots of police leading the way to ensure the racers path was clear, 116 professional bikers raced up Palm Canyon Drive, with 120 chase vehicles behind, all heading for the finish line at the Tram station. It’s a really fast but exciting event to see. Hopefully this will become an annual event for Palm Springs. And hopefully next year it will be a little cooler! For the eighth consecutive year, the Amgen Tour of California is bringing the drama and excitement of professional cycling to California.

To see a video, go to Amgen Race in Palm Springs.

Palm Springs will host Canada Fest

September 26, 2012 by Dick Sakowicz Leave a Comment

Palm Springs will host Canada Fest 2012, the first event of its kind in Palm Springs, to celebrate our special relationship with our Canadian neighbors. The other desert cities will join with us in welcoming Canadians and Californians at Canada Fest 2012, to be held on December 8-9, 2012 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Canada Fest will be both a celebration of our area’s close relationship with Canada and a big expression of our profound appreciation for their part in helping Palm Springs grow into the world class winter vacation destination it is today. After all, with so many Canadians choosing to buy Palm Springs real estate for their winter homes and many more visiting here from October through March, the valley’s population more than doubles in winter. This Canadian presence brings much vitality and energy to our desert cities.

Canada Fest is going to be a big deal! Canadian Ambassador to the United States Gary Doer and the mayors of Vancouver and Montreal will attend. There will be a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, hosted by one of our own mounted police officers, and we’ll have our own Politicos present including California Senator Barbara Boxer, and our local House Representative Mary Bono Mack. The event will offer a wide array of vendors, with more than 200 booths (including ours!), filling the Palm Springs Convention Center, and even spilling out into the courtyard and beyond. There will be food, music and entertainers, lots of prizes, fashion shows and furs, face painting for the children and much more. If you like pretty girls, you’ll enjoy being greeted at the door by Miss Universe Canada who represents all of the Provinces of Canada and Miss Greater Palm Springs who will represent our cities in the valley. Attendance is expected to be around 20,000 over the two day period, drawing attendees from throughout Southern California.

Yes, one of the booths at the Palm Springs Canada Fest will be our own Dick Sakowicz -RE/MAX Real Estate booth with lots of information on Palm Springs properties for sale. Frances and I will be there to greet you! So mark your calendar for the weekend of December 8 and 9, 2012, bring your friends and we’ll see you there! For more info, go to Canada Fest 2012.

For Canadians Buying a Home in Palm Springs, the Stars are Again Aligned

September 11, 2012 by Dick Sakowicz Leave a Comment

Recently, in preparing to leave Palm Springs for a brief vacation in Canada, I stopped by my local bank to buy some CAD. As I paid $438.91 US for $415.00 CA, it was again made clear to me what an advantage this strong currency offers a Canadian buyer each time the Loonie reaches parity with our Greenback. Yes, bank transaction fees drove up my costs a little, but still it’s clear that for Canadians buying a home in Palm Springs, the strong Loonie buys them more than what you get with the US dollar.

I blogged last October 2011 about Canadians buying a home in Palm Springs, stating that the Canadian dollar was again over parity with the US dollar. Since then, the Loonie has had quite a ride; it hit a low of 96 cents against the USD on May 12, 2012 and has been generally rising since then. The Loonie crossed parity again on August 5, 2012 and so far hasn’t fallen back, closing at $1.03 today, September 11, 2012. According to Reuters, “the Canadian dollar spiked to a 13 month high against the US dollar” today.

Palm Springs for Canadians

The Palm Springs real estate market, as far as pricing is concerned, is much as it was last year with prices still at about 2003 levels. The one noticeable difference is that inventories in many locations are down significantly. In fact, the total valley wide inventory of all unsold properties last month was down about 40%, just since last October.

So, if you’re considering being amongst those Canadians buying a home in Palm Springs as your getaway for the snowy winter months, this might be the year to do it. There was a larger selection of homes last season, but with our low prices, it’s still a buyers’ market. Here’s the caveat – unless our inventory increases substantially in the next few months, we might be saying good-bye to the buyers’ market enjoyed since 2006/07 and begin seeing a sellers’ market which would mean higher prices on the horizon. Those buying Palm Springs real estate now will find our prices are still low. The unsold inventory is shrinking, but prices are still at reasonable levels, and importantly for Canadians – the Loonie is strong against the US dollar. I encourage you to take advantage of the Loonie’s current strength and buy this season. Remember, timing really is everything.

Palm Springs Real Estate – Market Trends

August 14, 2012 by Dick Sakowicz Leave a Comment

Today, with the launch of our new website, I’m offering a perspective of local Palm Springs real estate market trends here in the greater Palm Springs area. As I’ve commented before, “local” market trends are really the only relevant market information for any buyer or seller of real estate. Pricing trends for the country, other states, or even out of region communities are of little value in your Palm Springs real estate buying or selling decision. Do you really care about what is happening in LA or Phoenix?

A recent article in Forbes trumpeted Housing Market Turns Corner, the data being drawn from a second quarter analysis by Zillow. The Zillow HVI (Home Value Index) was based an average of 167 metro areas throughout the country. It showed the price of the average home in the US as $149,300, an increase of 2.1% from first to second quarter in 2012, hence the headline. So again, I ask so what? The HVI may be an interesting trend to a casual observer of the national real estate market, but it does not help you with decisions on buying and/or selling in Palm Springs. My goal is to offer regular Palm Springs real estate market trend updates here to rectify that.

To start, let’s go back to my blog on October 27, 2011 about inventory trends. A look at our local valley real estate market then showed a shrinking inventory of unsold single family homes and condos. At that time, the total valley inventory of homes and condos had shrunk 22% in one year from September 2010 to October 2011 to the level of about 4418 total units. Presently as of the end of June 2012, the inventory is down further to 3177 unsold properties, which is a total reduction of about 42% since September 2010. Of course, as inventory in the valley goes down, you’d expect that average prices would trend up. Well, that is exactly what is happening. The average price per sq. ft. in the valley is now up about 14% from prices in September of 2010.

But again, if you are looking for price trends in a specific community, let’s say Twin Palms, that data is of marginal value. Even though it’s local, it’s not unique to Twin Palms. So it’s not helpful to your needs. If you research the trend in Twin Palms, you will find that the June 2012 inventory is down 75% from September 2010 and down 50% from September just last year. As you would expect with a reduction in inventory that significant, the average prices as a result have gone up almost 27% in 2 years to $308 per sq. ft., since September 2010. Now this is relevant information because it’s focused locally, in this case, on our example neighborhood of Twin Palms.

So, I invite you to watch this space for periodic updates. I’ll be identifying the emerging trends that are relevant to our Palm Springs Real Estate market. If you are planning to buy or sell in Palm Springs and have a specific question relating to local market trends, drop me a line. We’ll be glad to help you. You can email me at [email protected] or call direct at 760 861-0952.

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