iTexas Realty Co. Blog: February 2010

It's the end of a long day, so I thought I might share with our friends a photos of where I WISH that I had been able to spend my day on a warm Saturday afternoon

- maybe relaxing on a blanket, sipping some wine and having a picnic with Steve. 

Maybe next week...

So, did your Saturday live up to it's potential? I hope that it did!

 

--Sara

 

This has been a busy business week and it's been wonderful.

Some very unusual (for San Antonio, Texas), but tiny snow flurries on Tuesday kept people at home and allowed my Buyer to have a little more time to consider the purchase of a new dream home for their family.  That made all of the frozen toes worthwhile.

But the frosty weather did make me think about our last visit to the Cayman Islands (usually, real estate conferences and seminars are located in Cleveland in the winter...), where even the trees are covered with beautiful, tropical flowers that perfume the warm ocean breeze. 

 

 

--Sara

We have missed chatting with all of out blog friends this week while we've been out of town at Mandatory Continuing Education. It's been great and we are ready to leap back in and show homes to Buyers on Monday. Our showings are scheduled, start and luncheon locations have been selected and we'll be ready to go; Except for one potential problem: Unfortunately, we're now trapped in the floating city (Voyager of the Seas), as the Port of Galveston is completely fogged in! Who knows how long we'll be here? To up the irony factor, of the agents who show for us when we are out of town; one is here with our group from the San Antonio Board of Realtors and the other is leaving tomorrow for a family reunion. Oh well, we'll call another agent to help if we're still stuck tomorrow. What's the longest time that the ship has been fogged in/out of the Galveston Port? We heard 2 days. At least there will be dining and dancing... --Sara

This evening, Steve and I are at a large hotel. We are doing our Mandatory Continuing Education. Despite the scintillating class that we attended today on Legal and Ethical issues, Steve is tired and hanging out in our room.

Being the independent woman that I am, I head off to listen to some music and have a glass of champagne. While standing at the elevator bank with a fellow traveling gal, I meet a young man, about 12 years old and all of four-foot-two, wearing a suit and tie.

He pauses in front of me - I assume to ask directions, but instead he queries "Are you taken, or could we go out sometime?" I gather my wits to politely respond "Thank you, but I'm taken."

The shocked woman next to me, who is also waiting for the elevator just laughed and pronounced it the cutest thing that she'd ever seen!  Me, too.  It's been almost 20 years since my son was that tender age.

I have to say, If we have this much fearless optimism in the market going forward, you can only imagine the home sales that we'll all be making!

--Sara

As the saying goes, "there's GOOD news and there's BAD news".  Let's get the "BAD" news out of the way first: The San Antonio market has started to reflect some of the national trends.  Hold it!  Not ALL of the national trends, and not NEARLY as "BAD". 

2008 Sales were 17,137 homes, vs 2009 sales of 16,887, a DECREASE of 1.5% (not bad)

The Average Sales price for 2008 was $183,989; for 2009 it was $177,710 DOWN 3.5%

Average Days on the Market went UP 23% to 131We have to add that in the neighborhoods we list and sell in, the stats are better than average.

Compared to the "doom and gloom" numbers from much of the rest of the country, these San Antonio stats are not terrible! These are Market-Wide numbers- for the areas that we list and sell in the stats are not as BAD!

2010 appears to be off to a good start, but the buyers are being 'picky'- looking for move-in ready homes priced "right".  Our experience with buyers has been that they THINK they want a bank-owned or short-sale property, but when they learn that there are VERY FEW they would actually LIVE in and that the process can take MONTHS, they move on to nice homes at fair prices.  -Steve

Despite glacial (40 degree days here ARE considered near-freezing in this part of Texas), temperatures today in San Antonio.  You can see it coming in the faint greening of the grass and the hint of new leaves in the trees.

Spring is headed our way here in San Antonio!

Soon there will be birds tweeting, crocuses blooming and fuzzy ducklings paddling.  I can't wait!

 

--Sara