These are very interesting times in the Coachella Valley Real Estate Market.  It seems that the seller's opinion is that the market has fully recovered and is back to top dollar pricing. On the other hand there are the buyers that still think that they can buy at last year's prices. I think we are somewhere in between. If you look at the sales over the past six month or comparables and this is what an appraiser will do, you will find the average price per square foot in almost every area that is about 20-30% below the average current asking prices. So far what is moving in the market are the more correctly priced homes, a little above last years values.  In many cases these aggressively priced homes are receiving multiple offers with bidding wars.

It is yet to be seen if the buyers sitting on the sidelines will jump in at these higher asking prices or if the seller's will get more realistic about the asking prices. One thing for sure, it is going to be a fun interesting and busy year and a challenging job to bring buyers and sellers together.

The market is in a healing cycle and we won't jump back to where we were 4 years ago but will heal over time.

Take a look at what the experts predict.

"There is independent data that suggests that the housing recovery is in well underway.  Veros Real Estate Solutions  (VRES) is a real estate data firm and it recently announced  its recent analyses of the twelve month period ending December 1, 2012 as well as its forecast for the 12-month period ending December 1, 2013. VRES indicates that “the national real estate market has hit bottom and is now in a full recovery”.  Veros Report. The analysis and forecast factor in 975 counties, 335 metro areas, and 13,586 zip codes. The statistics are updated on a quarterly basis. Veros predicts that the nation’s top 100 metro areas can “expect 1.2 percent appreciation over the next 12 months.”

Zillow recently mirrored the same conclusion as VRES.  Perhaps this is a start of a Happy New Year for all of those in the real estate profession. Zillow actually went so far as to predict that home prices would increase by 3.1 percent in 2013 and reported that overall, 2012 prices would end with a 4.6 percent gain. Zillow report The numbers were apparently based upon a survey of 105 “economists and industry experts.” The chief economist of Zillow reported that “an organic recovery in the housing market really took hold in the latter half of 2012” and predicted that the market is “well-positioned for continued growth, albeit slightly slower, in 2013 and beyond.”