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Published 16 June 2017
LAS CRUCES – The Las Cruces real estate market is on the move. The combined average sales price of $189,333 for the 686 new and existing homes, townhomes and condominiums sold during the first five months of this year represents a 9 percent increase over the $173,571 average sales price posted during the same period last year, according to the Las Cruces Association of Realtors as of June 12. Our market hasn’t enjoyed such a substantial annual rate of appreciation since the years 2004 and 2005, when home values increased by 17.2 percent and 18.4 percent, respectively.
Our local market has experienced a number of ups and downs over the past 20 years. Switching from the first five months of each year to annual statistics, the average combined sales price of the new and existing homes, townhomes and condominiums sold in 1997 was $105,831. The average price, which had already been on the rise for a few years, continued its upward trajectory until reaching its peak of $222,147 in 2007. Over the next five-years, prices spiraled downward, ultimately reaching a low of $173,385 in 2012. On a side note, the highest single-year rate of depreciation recorded over the past two decades occurred in 2009, when home prices dropped 12.3 percent.
Values appreciated at an average annual rate of 1.2 percent during 2013, 2014 and 2015, eventually reaching $179,670 in the latter year. Prices remained flat through 2016, which ended with an average sales price of $178,389. As we make our way through 2017, the statistics reveal some interesting facts. In addition to home prices appreciating by 9 percent in the year-over-year, first-five-months survey, they exceed 2016’s overall average price by $10,944, or 6.1 percent.
Not all neighborhoods or price ranges appreciate or depreciate at the same rate. A random sampling of some our area’s most popular neighborhoods provides a few clues as to how those areas are performing. Take the Picacho Hills area, for example, where the average sales price through the first five months of this year was $341,592. That number represents a $47,921, or 16.3 percent increase over the first five months of 2016, and a 10.5 percent, or $35,704, increase over 2016’s overall average price of $305,888.
The Sonoma Ranch area provides another good example. The average sales price of $234,452 posted through the first five months of this year represents a $23,881, or 11.5 percent, increase over first five months of last year, and a $16,345, or 7 percent, increase over the $218,107 average sales price reported for all of 2016.
Rounding out the survey is the Jornada-Las Colinas area, which is located roughly north of Highway 70, between just east of Rinconada Boulevard and both sides of North Jornada Road. This year’s average sales price of $179,626 is $12,232, or 7.3 percent, higher than the $167,394 average price posted through May of last year, and $12,462, or 7.5 percent, higher than the $167,164 average sales price recorded for all of 2016.
If there’s a message in the statistics, it is that buyers who are contemplating a purchase may want to consider purchasing now, before prices and mortgage rates rise any further. On the other hand, many homeowners who owe more on their homes than the homes are worth may soon be able to make that move they’ve been planning for the past few years.
See you at closing.
Gary Sandler is a full-time Realtor and president of Gary Sandler Inc., Realtors in Las Cruces. He can be reached at 575-642-2292 or Gary@GarySandler.com
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About Author
Gary Sandler
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