SF home sales rise 7% to 1,757 in 2013

Home sales in the Santa Fe area saw a 7 percent uptick in 2013 and the total number of homes sold was the most in six years, but the market is still a long way away from where it was prior to the economic downturn. And it may take some time before the local home market fully recovers, says Alan Ball, a real estate broker with Keller Williams Realty in Santa Fe.

Ball keeps track of home sales in the city and county, and posts them Price Compare his blog, alanball2.wordpress.com. While he notes he is neither an economist nor an analyst, he suggests that growth will continue at a relatively slow pace in 2014.

"I don’t know if we’ll see a 7 percent increase this year," he said during a phone interview Monday. "There’s the saying that a higher tide lifts all boats, but not every piece of the economy is improving. As a result, we’ll be working through it painfully one house at a time."

Ball said other factors are likely to depress growth.

"There are some givens. All the so-called experts predict higher mortgage rates this year and that has to slow things down. With every quarter percent you go up, you eliminate people from the market," he said. "Interest rates climbing and more restrictive underwriting standards aren’t going to help either."

Still, a 7 percent increase in the number of homes sold is good news.

"A growth in home sales is a sign that some sellers are finally able to get beyond the burden of owning a home that they formerly could not sell," he writes on his blog. "And since very few new homes are being built, the inventory that did sell had a very high percentage of existing homes."

The increase occurred at the high and low ends of the market. Ball said it’s not unusual to see an increase at the bottom end of the market because those are the most affordable.

"They sell faster than any other price range," he said.

Ball said there were 97 homes priced at more than $1 million in 2013, up from 88 the previous two years, a 9.3 percent increase.

"That’s not a world record pace, but it’s significant," he said.

Also significant is that homes priced between $500,000 and $1 million declined, albeit only by five homes, from 348 to 343.

"It’s significant in that it’s going the wrong way," he said. "What isn’t growing is ‘quality’ inventory in that price range. There are hardly any new homes being built."

In all, 1,757 homes were sold in Santa Fe County, including the city of Santa Fe, during 2013. That’s the most since 1,830 homes were sold in 2007, but still a far cry from when the market peaked in 2005 when 2,798 homes were sold.

In fact, more than 2,200 homes were sold each year between 2002 and 2006 before a three-year decline bottomed out at 1,203 homes in 2009. Since then, sales have increased each year.

The total volume from sales - the amount spent on homes sold for the year - was up to $744 million. That’s the most since 2006.

The average price per home has remained relatively flat since then, as well. In 2013, the average price was $423,472, about $2,000 more than in 2012 and about $3,000 less than when sales peaked in 2005.