The year 2013 was a breakout year for the Sedona Luxury Homes market. Its best showing since 2007. The thirty-one sales in 2013 were a 29% jump from 2012 and 82% from the luxury home market bottom in 2010. Some observers feared that this strong showing was an anomaly, not to be repeated in 2014. That fear turned out to be unwarranted. 2014’s sales matched 2013’s and even went it one better. Will that momentum carry over to 2015? Well, this year started off impressively with three million dollar homes sales just in January alone – plus there were a couple more sales in the high $900,000’s. Chances are that 2015 will be another banner year for Sedona luxury homes.
Interestingly enough, the 2014 luxury home sales figures look a lot like those of 2004, the year that was the prelude to the Luxury Sector boom years of 2005 – 2007. There were thirty-three million dollar homes sales in 2004 with an average price per square foot of $349. 2014’s thirty-two sales went for an average of $326, down from $345 in 2013.
93%
Average list to sales price
194
Average days on market
With the hefty price tags for luxury homes come longer selling times
The average sale-to-list price ratio was 93% in both years – meaning that, typically, luxury homes sold for 93% of their final list price. By the way, the highest ratio on record was 2005’s 95%. The lowest was 88% in 2009-2011. For Single Family Homes under a million, the ratio was 97% in 2014.
With the hefty price tags for luxury homes come longer selling times. On average in 2014 it took 364 days for million dollar homes to sell. That’s down 21% from 2013, when Cumulative-Days-On-Market for luxury sales was 476. The slowest year was 2011 when the average sale took 570 days. On the other end of the spectrum, in the boom years of 2005-2006, it still averaged 256 days.
Looking at Days-On-Market for all the Single Family Home sold under $1,000,000 in 2014, that figure was 194.
For all of the robustness we’re seeing in the Sedona Luxury Home Sector, strong sales numbers, increasing sale-to-list price ratios, and decreasing time-on-market, it’s rather surprising that prices in that sector have stayed rather moderate – even, as we’ve seen declined about 6% from last year.
For all of the robustness we’re seeing in the Sedona Luxury Home Sector, strong sales numbers, increasing sale-to-list price ratios, and decreasing time-on-market, it’s rather surprising that prices in that sector have stayed rather moderate – even, as we’ve seen declined about 6% from last year. The peak in Price-Per Square Foot was $440 in 2006 of course. But 2014’s $326 is barely above the bottom in 2010: $321. Since 2010 it’s bounced back and forth each year, with the highest figure coming in at $353 in 2011.
The Luxury Home Market’s increasing healthfulness is certainly a boon to sellers. And, for buyers, the relatively attractive price levels still leave plenty of opportunity for scoring bargains in that sector. Such a strong luxury market bodes well for the general real estate market as more and more financially sophisticated buyers lead the way in turning to homes and land as sound investments. Volatility in the stock market, especially after the bulls start to pull back, often portends a transfer of capital into real estate. Even in the best of times, one can’t live in stock certificate.