This should be great.  If you are in town, go by to see some of the fabulous fiber arts.

Woven connections: Artists from ‘Beyond the Fringe’ explore nontraditional use of fiber

When reverence for artistic tradition meets raw passion, courageous innovation is born. “Beyond the Fringe,” a fine fiber art exhibition featuring 13 local artists, is a celebration of this journey.

Curated by Merce Mitchell, the show opens with a reception Friday (April 3) from 5-7 p.m. at the Stables Gallery of the Taos Center for the Arts, 133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte.

It includes works by Mitchell, Abigail Z, Twilight, Nina Silfverberg, Carolyn Hinske, Kimberly Hamill, Lizzie Gulick, Faith Welsh, Connie Fernández, Mary K. Lyon, Pat Dozier, Noel Anderson and Violette Alby.

14 residential listings sold in February

in the following price ranges:

 $100,000 to $200,000    4 homes sold

$200,000 to $300,000  4 homes sold

$300,000 to $400,000  5 homes sold

$500,000 to $600,000 1 home sold

No other homes in any price range sold

Many times a buyer will want to seek out distressed properties to really get a bottom price.  Buyers need to be carefull here because these types of properties offer several challenges. 

 With foreclosures, attention must fo to how long the property has been empty, how well it was maintained before and after eviction—as there may be several “hidden” concerns that will cost big dollars down the line to correct.

Short sale properties require comprehensive paperwork and a good deal of patience.  Some short sales can take months to close which will adversely affect the buyer’s tax credit.   The last short sale we did took a full year to close.

Regular Maintenance

1. Clean gutters in spring and fall
2. Check for damaged roofing twice a year
3. 3.  Service furnace or boiler yearly
4. 4Check furnace filters, humidifiers and any eletronic air cleaners monthly
5. Check bathtub and shower caulking
6. Shut off outdoor water faucets in the fall
7. Cut back trees and shrubs from the house walls, and roof.

Interesting article about who is investing in real estate in our current markets.

Among Buyers, Who Will Step Up?

Feb 15, 2010 10:37 AM, By Ben Johnson, special to NREI from OKCREiew

Across the buying landscape, there does seem to be at least one consistent theme – a frustration at the lack of product. This is most evident when quality assets hit the market. They are quickly bid up by the pool of salivating buyers.
Among buying groups, foreign investors have yet to create a surge in buying activity. Equity funds targeting distressed assets also have raised enough capital to have a serious impact on the market, but their high return expectations are dampening real activity.

According to RCA, prospective investors are increasingly divided between two camps: core and opportunistic, and although they all are looking for bargains, few are finding them.

Core buyers complain that there are few suitable, quality assets on the market and competition for those that are available is steep, pushing pricing to surprisingly strong levels. Opportunistic buyers have been denied the expected tsunami of distressed sales and are now realizing RTC-like returns will be unlikely. Some may have to alter their initial investment strategies or lower their return expectations.

Just 10.8% of all sales in 2009 were associated with distress, but the composition of those buyers differs from non-distressed sales in some meaningful ways, especially within each property type. Overall, players from all sectors, except the public and private REITs, are active in the distressed space. Surprisingly, institutional investors are buying a significantly greater share of distressed sales than of non-distressed, and foreign buyers have been equally active in both arenas. Equity funds have been buying a slightly greater share of distressed than non-distressed properties.

Without decisive moves from REITs, foreign buyers or equity funds, the buyers in the market have largely been private and mostly local. Users, including corporations and governmental and educational entities, have also stepped up to become the second most active buyers of commercial property. As the market recovers, a shift away from private local buyers and users to national and international investors is expected.

The Taos Market is different than many markets, but some general trends are true everywhere.  You should price your home to sell in the current market which means your list price must be in a range that lures buyers to your property.  There are lots of choices even in our market and buyers are looking for the best buy they can get.  The article below is a snapshot of what is happening in most real estate markets in the USA.

 Home sales tumble surprise 16.7 percent

December’s drop is largest in more than 40 years

The Associated Press
updated 12:39 p.m. ET Jan. 25, 2010

WASHINGTON – Sales of previously occupied homes took their largest drop in more than 40 years last month yet managed to end 2009 with the first annual gain in four years.
Still, prices plunged by more than 12 percent last year — the sharpest fall since the Great Depression. The price drop for 2009 — to a median of $173,500 — showed the housing market remains too weak to help fuel a sustained economic recovery. Total sales for 2009 were nearly 5.2 million, up about 5 percent from 2008.
Last month’s worse-than-expected showing underscores concerns that the housing market could weaken further after March 31, when the Federal Reserve is set to end its program to buy mortgage securities to keep home loan rates low. Once that program ends, mortgage rates could rise. Adding to the worries, a newly extended homebuyer tax credit is scheduled to run out at the end of April.
The numbers “clearly indicate that the rebound in housing demand observed so far has been largely supported by government programs,” Anna Piretti, senior economist at BNP Paribas, wrote in a research note Monday.
The poor December showing occurred after Congress extended the tax credit, easing pressure on buyers to act quickly. The credit of up to $8,000 for first-time homeowners had been due to expire Nov. 30. But Congress extended the deadline and expanded it with a new $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who move.
December’s sales fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million, from an unchanged pace of 6.54 million in November, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. Sales had been expected to fall by about 10 percent, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
The report “places a large question mark over whether the recovery can be sustained when the extended tax credit expires,” wrote Paul Dales, U.S. economist with Capital Economics.
The median sales price for December was $178,300, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier and the first yearly gain since August 2007. But some of that increase could be due to a drop-off in purchases from first-time buyers who tend to buy less expensive homes.
Recovery needs healthy housing market
Sales are now up 21 percent from the bottom a year ago. But they’re down 25 percent from the peak more than four years ago.
A healthy real estate market is needed to help the economy continue recovering from recession.
Last year, first-time buyers were the main driver of the housing market. But their role is shrinking. They accounted for 43 percent of purchases in December, down from about half in November, the Realtors group said.
The inventory of unsold homes on the market fell about 7 percent to 3.3 million. That’s a 7.2 month supply at the current sales pace, close to a healthy level of about six months.
Lawrence Yun, the Realtors’ chief economist, cautioned that the recovery will depend on whether the economy starts adding jobs in the second half of the year.
Total sales for 2009 closed out the year at 5.16 million, up about 5 percent from a year earlier. And some real estate agents say they feel encouraged. More buyers are shopping around this month than in a typical January, said Kevin O’Shea, an agent with Homes of Westchester Inc. in White Plains, N.Y.
“There are indications that the economy is coming back, and that makes buyers feel more secure to purchase,” he said.
But many analysts project that home prices, which started to rise last summer, will fall again over the winter. That’s because foreclosures make up a larger proportion of sales during the winter months, when fewer sellers choose to put their homes on the market.
Despite fears that home prices are starting to fall again, some analysts still say the worst is over.
“We do not believe it is fair to consider this a double dip in the housing market,” Michelle Meyer, an economist with Barclays Capital, wrote last week. “The recovery is still under way but hitting some bumps in the road.”

If you are thinking of remodeling before you sell your home, read this.

If you want someone to buy your house, sell them the kitchen.

That was an oft-repeated message here recently at the International Builders Show, which is the annual convention of the National Association of Home Builders. The trade show featured literally hundreds of seminars on all aspects of housing, including numerous presentations on how to deck out a kitchen in order to make the whole house a more saleable thing.

The economy and just plain consumer fickleness have conspired to make kitchen “desirability” a moving target — a slow-moving target, but moving, nonetheless, and consumers need to pay attention, because kitchen design trends translate into dollar signs, they said.