A Real Estate Market Update

Here is what the latest numbers show for our Albuquerque market.

Want to Buy a Home? Search All Homes
Want to Sell a Home?  Get a Home Value Report

 

Today we’ll be going over the numbers we’ve just received from November. What kind of market does the data show we’re experiencing? Let’s find out.

For your convenience, we’ve included timestamps of each section of the video above. Feel free to navigate to the section(s) you’re most interested in viewing:

(0:24) — Is our market shifting?
(0:50) — Closed sales numbers for November
(1:15) — A deeper look at overall sales
(1:25) — Data for homes under $200,000
(1:50) — Data for homes between $200,000 and $399,999
(1:58) — Data for homes between $400,000 and $599,999, and homes above $600,000
(2:15) — Pending sales data
(3:07) — Data for average price per square foot
(4:47) — Trends for active, pending, and sold homes
(6:30) — If you’re looking to sell soon, preparation is key
(7:17) — Data for the supply of inventory
(7:30) — When should you buy or sell?
(8:23) — How to access the data we covered today

If you’d like to view the charts, graphs, and data from the video, visit WelcomeHomeABQ.com. If you have any questions about our real estate market or need more information, reach out to us. We look forward to hearing from you.

How to Know Whether to Sell or Remodel

It can be hard to leave your home, but it’s even harder to invest money in remodeling a lost cause. Find out when it’s time to move, and when it’s time to stay.

Want to Buy a Home? Search All Homes
Want to Sell a Home?  Get a Home Value Report

 

In our most recent Facebook Live interview, we discussed a pretty common question: Should you stay in your home and remodel, or should you move and forget about it? There’s an entire show dedicated to this dilemma on HGTV, and today we’ll be sharing our insights on the topic and answering questions about it.

For your convenience, we’ve recorded timestamps for each part of our chat. Feel free to navigate to the section(s) you’re most interested in learning more about.

“

Should you stay in your home and remodel
or should you move and forget about it?

”

0:56 - What questions should you ask yourself to decide?
1:35 - What are your long-term housing goals?
1:58 - Can you find a house in your preferred neighborhood?
2:08 - How much will it cost to make your house what you want?
2:28 - Will your repairs be supported by the neighborhood?
2:45 - How will remodeling disrupt your family’s lives?
3:15 - What is the remodeling process like?
4:52 - What return will I see on upgrades?
5:13 - Do you have the funds to remodel?
5:40 - What should I consider when deciding to move?
6:29 - When is moving an easier solution than remodeling?
6:51 - What if my dream home needs changes?

If you’re wanting to buy or sell a home, have any questions, or would like some more information, feel free to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Why Invest in Short Term and Executive Rentals?

For this edition of our bi-weekly Facebook Live discussion on real estate, we’re talking short-term rental opportunities available to you in the Albuquerque area.

Want to Buy a Home? Search All Homes
Want to Sell a Home?  Get a Home Value Report

 

Vacation rentals are typically for periods no longer than six months or a year, and people are often curious about whether or not they’re worth it. Today we’ll be answering a few key questions about them so you can make an informed decision about making such an investment.

1. Who are the ideal investors?

The ideal short-term rental investor can be just about anybody. Although the property may be vacant 50% of the time, your return is going to be much higher and could generate nearly double the income. Of course, there will be a lot more maintenance that comes with keeping your rental in good condition.

2. Does the part of town matter?

In the Albuquerque area, many of these rental properties are located all over, like a cabin in the East Mountains, a room in a house downtown, a suburban spot in the Northeast Heights, or perhaps in the more popular vacation spots around Albuquerque Old Town. If you look online, you’ll see a huge variety of locations, prices, and types of properties. I once saw 1,900 such properties available in our market. One was for a house for $1,000 per night with room for 16 people. It was mostly used for corporate retreats, family getaways, weddings, and so on. Five hotel rooms might run for about the same price or more, depending.

3. Is there a true market for short-term rentals in the area?

If you’re a person who owns a property to be rented or you’re thinking of buying a rental property, the income could be double the usual amount. You average 3-bedroom, 2-bath house in Northeast Heights would be around $1,200 to $1,300 a month for a standard one-year lease. On that same house, you might get $150 a night, though you have to take vacancies into account, along with the costs of cleaning it and listing it on sites like VRBO and Airbnb.

In general, people tend to do pretty well with them, especially if they don’t mind doing the maintenance and cleaning themselves; if you’re paying a management company to do it for you, it could cost around $1,000 a month.

“

Although the property may be vacant 50%
of the time, your return is going to be much higher and could generate nearly double the income.

”

4. Are there opportunities for executive rentals?

An executive rental is a property that someone might stay in for around a month that has all the comforts of staying in a home as opposed to a hotel. They are indeed in high demand.
Right now, we have a shortage of executive rental properties, but with many of the properties listed on VRBO and Airbnb, people can rent by the month. Depending on the time, there may be people who have rented a property for a few days at a time, so finding a month-long window could be challenging.

We’ve looked at some of the properties that have sold in the last year as well as what’s on our MLS for sale right now, and there are many opportunities in the area. We’ve seen a cute little house in the downtown area close to the zoo for $139,900 that has been completely remodeled. There are about 70 listings just in the MLS that would be great Airbnb or vacation rentals, or they already have established clientele as a rental property.

If you’re interested in purchasing a short-term or vacation rental property, please reach out to us. Additionally, if you're interested investing in long-term rentals, you can start your search on Mashvisor. We’d be happy to help you analyze what’s out there and what would be a good fit for you.

What’s Going on in Our Albuquerque Real Estate Market?

Contrary to popular belief, the Albuquerque real estate market isn’t slowing down one bit. Here’s what you need to know about current conditions.

Want to Buy a Home? Search All Homes
Want to Sell a Home?  Get a Home Value Report

 

We recently participated in an interview where we talked about how the real estate market is doing around this time of the year. 

From what we see, the market is still very healthy. In August, our total number of sales was up from the previous year. Although there are some news reports out there saying things have slowed down, it doesn’t mean we aren’t still an active market. We’ve just slowed down from the frenetic pace we saw this spring and summer.

If you look at the charts for closed sales and homes for sale, which show a 10-year trend of closed sales and a 10-year trend of homes for sale, we see that the market consistently peaks during the summer months. For example, in May and June of last year, we saw over 1,300 homes sell each month. This year, we peaked out in May with about 1,360 homes. This chart also shows that we see this happen every year, hitting our low months in January and February, then steadily rising through the spring and summer.

What we’re seeing year over year is a trend of more homes selling overall since the market bottomed out in 2011. The slowdown we’re seeing is typical of this time of year.

“

Sales are still up 7% from last year
and show no signs of slowing down.

”

For homeowners who are in the market to sell, it’s important to know that homes are still selling and buyers still need to buy homes. If you need to sell as we head into the fall season, we can help get your home staged, marketed, and presented in its best light to the buyer pool that’s out there. People will still continue to buy all through the winter months as well.

As far as homebuyers are concerned, it’s important that you know what’s important to you, what your needs are, and what your financial picture looks like. Then we can discuss your options before we start looking at houses. It’s important to have that conversation so you can best meet your goals.

Finally, we just wanted to make sure we mentioned that although you might be hearing that the market is slowing down, if you look at the data you can see that it’s not. Sales are still up 7% from last year and things don’t seem to be slowing down at all.

If you have any questions in the meantime about the market or about anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

What Should You Know About Zillow’s Zestimates?

Are Zestimates really the best way to find your home’s value? We recently discussed the topic on Facebook Live.

Want to Buy a Home? Search All Homes
Want to Sell a Home?  Get a Home Value Report

 

We recently participated in a great Q&A on Facebook Live where we talked about online home estimates, specifically Zillow’s Zestimates, and how accurate they are here in Albuquerque. We had a wide-ranging discussion on the topic. Here’s an outline of what we talked about, with timestamps so that you can skip ahead to the section(s) that interest you most:

0:50 - Are Zillow’s Zestimates accurate in New Mexico?
2:20 - How much are Zestimates off by on average in different areas of the country?
3:45 - The origins of online estimates and their mathematical shortcomings when it comes to valuing homes.
6:00 - A few examples of some real New Mexico homes and the discrepancies between their actual home values and their online Zestimates.
6:30 - When are Zestimates useful? Are they useful at all?
7:45 - Why New Mexico’s county records aren’t a good indication of a home’s true value.

If you have any other questions for us about Zillow, Zestimates, or anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

The Key to Starting Your Own Custom Build on the Right Foot

If you are looking to build a custom home, make sure you interview builders while you look for land to purchase. Do not wait until one is done before you do the other.

Want to Buy a Home? Search All Homes
Want to Sell a Home?  Get a Home Value Report

 

If you are thinking about building your own custom home, getting started might seem a little daunting, but we have some advice that will help you get started on the right foot.

Many times, people who want to build their own dream home start by buying land before they choose a builder. Our suggestion is to interview builders while you look at land to buy.

When people look at land to buy, it is tempting to want to buy the cheapest lot, but make sure you look at the full infrastructure cost. What utilities would be available? What about the soils—would you need to add engineered field dirt to build your foundation?

“

Finding a great piece of land and a great builder will ensure that you start things off right.

”

While you look for builders, it helps if you have an idea of what floor plan you want because builders need to know how much land you need and what its dimensions should be to accommodate the home you envision.

From that point, there will be plenty more plans to be made and decisions to consider, but finding a great piece of land and a great builder will ensure that you start things off right.

If you have any other questions about building a custom home or you have any other real estate needs, please feel free to reach out to us. We would be happy to help you.

A Quick Update on the Albuquerque Real Estate Market

As spring kicks into full gear, the market around Albuquerque is heating up. Here’s what’s going on right now.

Want to buy a home? Search all homes for sale
Want to sell your home?  Get a FREE home value report

We’re back with a market update for you that covers the Albuquerque real estate market through March.

Home sales have been really hot, which is what I want to talk about first. As you can see in the video above, the big story has continued to be our lack of inventory. Especially under $200,000, we have 38% fewer homes available than we did last year.

Another good thing to look at is our supply of inventory, which is measured in months. If you look at the $200,000-and-under range, we only have 1.6 months of inventory. This puts us in a strong seller’s market for most price points. However, in the higher price points ($450,000 and above), we’re seeing more of a balanced market.

Low inventory continues to dominate most of the market.

 Finally, let’s take a look at home sale prices. The average sale price right now is around $234,000, the highest we’ve seen in a long time. We continue to see a good amount of steady appreciation for homes. We can really see this in the average price per square foot, which is up 8% for all price ranges.

I hope this update has given you some good information. If you need more or if you just have any questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.