Big Bear 2008 First Quarter Home Sales

This may be a little late but it is still informative to look at and compare the first quarter home sales for 2008 with that of the previous 5 years.

It is pretty well known that home sales in Big Bear have slowed down tremendously.  First quarter sales were off 48% from the first quarter of 2007 (and 2007 was the slowest year for the number of sales that we have seen in over 20 years) and 69% less than the first quarter of 2004, the best first quarter in the past 6 years.

Prices appear to be at the level they were in the first quarter of 2005, even with the limited amount of sales this year. This is an important reality to understand if you are considering selling or buying a property in the Big Bear area.

If you are thinking of selling, and you purchased the property around 2004/2005 or after that time frame, then you will need to be realistic on the pricing. There is a good chance that your property will sell for less than what you paid for it.  On some rare occasions, this may not be the case, but for the majority of properties in Big Bear, this is definitely the case. 

If you are looking to buy a property, finding out when the owner bought the property and how much they paid for it is important to know in this market.  While this will provide some good insight, it s not the only thing to consider however. 

There are a lot of other factors to find out, like improvements done to the property since the last purchase, the circumstances of the previous purchase (foreclosure, bank owned, Reo, short sale, got from parents, distressed sale, etc), the seller’s motivation, any other offers on the property, and how long it has been on the market are just a few others to consider.

The fact remains the recently sold comparables in the area are the best way to justify the current value of your home, no matter what was paid for it, what you need to get out of it or what you put into it.

* Information courtesy of the Big Bear MLS. This update includes MLS data from areas including Big Bear Lake, Big Bear City, Moonridge, Fox Farm, Sugarloaf, Erwin Lake, Fawnskin & Baldwin Lake. It does not include data from areas in the Big Bear MLS that are located outside of the Big Bear area. Information is deemed reliable but cannot be guaranteed.