• Gary Sandler
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    Published 8 December 2017

    LAS CRUCES – After steadily declining over the past decade, the percentage of home sales closed at a price of $350,000 and above have finally begun to rise.

    According to a Dec. 3 report from the Las Cruces Association of Realtors, 123, or 7.9 percent, of the 1,589 new and existing free-standing, single-family homes sold through Nov. 30 of this year sold at or above the benchmark price.

    During the same period last year just 70, or 4.9 percent, of the 1,442 sales qualified for the high-end category. The difference represents a whopping increase of 75.7 percent.

    The share of high-end h­ome sales peaked at 13.1 percent during the pre-crash year of 2007 before ratcheting downward to 4.9 percent last year.

    The last time the percentage of high-end sales was in today’s range was in 2010, when 8 percent of the sales made it into the category.

    The numbers also revealed the differences between sales that took place within the city limits and those that closed throughout the remainder of the county. Here’s how the numbers shake out.

    City of Las Cruces: A total of 1,026 free-standing, single-family homes were sold in the city through Nov. 30 of this year; an increase of 11 units, or 1.1 percent, over the 1,015 sold during the same period in 2016. At the same time, the percentage of high-end sales rose by 30.4 percent.

    The $412,500 median sales price of high-end homes sold this year rose by 0.06 percent over the $410,000 median price posted one year ago. The median price is where half sold for more and half sold for less.

    Remainder of the county: The 563 sales booked outside the city limits of Las Cruces during the first 11 months of this year exceeded by 31.2 percent the 427 homes sold through November of 2016. The 93 high-end sales booked this year represented a 97.9 percent increase over the 47 high-end sales booked last year.

    This year’s high-end median price of $415,000 was $7,000, or 17.2 percent, higher than last year’s median price of $408,000.

    It is also interesting to note that free-standing, single-family homes made up just over 93 percent of all area home sales in 2017, with townhomes and condos rounding out the total.

    Now for a small correction to an error in last week’s column on the delinquent property tax auction scheduled for Dec. 15: The New Mexico statute covering an owner’s right of redemption after a foreclosure auction is Section 7-38-70 NMSA 1978.

    See you at closing.

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      Gary Sandler