Escalating Prices, Expanded Inventory Part of Real Estate & Land Use lnstitute Findings
A record number of new home sales were reported for the first quarter of 2004 in the Fresno and Clovis area representing the largest increase in new home sales ever reported here, according to the current issue of the Fresno/Clovis Quarterly Housing Report 2004 released by the Real Estate & Land Use Institute of California State University, Fresno.
More than 1,069 newly constructed single family homes were sold in the greater Fresno/Clovis metropolitan area during the first quarter of 2004, exceeding the previous quarterly sales record of 838 units set in the third quarter of 2003 by 28 percent.
The Real Estate & Land Use Institute, operating within the Craig School of Business at Fresno State, monitors local housing markets throughout the year and releases their findings on new home construction in four issues of the Fresno/Clovis Quarterly Housing Report 2004.
The First Quarter issue is now available through the University Business Center at (559) 278-2352.
The first quarter 2004 edition reports many significant findings, most notable are the record home sales as well as escalating prices and expanding inventory, said John Mahoney, director of the Institute and a Fresno State real estate professor who co-authored the report with Dr. Garo Kalfayan, Ann Bierbower and Don Lopez.
Kalafayan, theorizing on the expanding inventory findings, said if new home sales continue at the same pace over the next 12 months and no new subdivisions are introduced to the market place, existing subdivisions would be sold out within nine months.
“However, a significant number of new subdivisions are being processed in the greater Fresno/Clovis metropolitan area and supply is progressively increasing over time,” Kalfayan said. “This should eventually stabilize new home prices while expanding the market place.”
The report says that during the current 12-month period (second quarter 2003 through first quarter 2004), two Fresno submarket areas, the “West of Freeway 99 Area” (north of McKinley, south of Shaw)
and the “Fresno Southeast Area” (south of Kings Canyon, north of Jensen, east of Willow) have become major new housing locations.
Sales for the current 12 months in the West of Freeway 99 Area doubled to 435 homes from the prior 12-month period. Sales nearly quadrupled in the Fresno Southeast Area with 404 homes sold during the prior 12 month period.
But escalating prices were also a part of the Institute’s findings, Mahoney said.
“The average price of newly constructed single family homes sold in the greater Fresno/Clovis metropolitan area during the first quarter of 2004 increased 12 percent from $262,060 to $292,615,” Mahoney said. “Equally notable, entry level pricing for new home construction continues to escalate, with only seven of the 53 actively marketed subdivisions offering homes priced under $200,000 and no subdivisions offering homes priced under $180,000 during the first quarter of 2004.”
For more information, call 278-4990 or 278-2482.
