SantaFe.com

Haciendas - A Parade of Homes is the largest Real Estate Event in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You're invited to take a self-guided tour of new and remodeled homes in every price, ranging from the affordable to the luxurious. Don't miss Santa Fe's best open house. This year, 40 homes will be on tour.

2008 dates and times are August 15-17 & 21-24 Friday, Saturday and Sundays from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm and from 11:00 to 9:00 pm on Thursday, August 21 when selected homes will remain open late. Come out and enjoy the Santa Fe sunset at selected homes that will be showcasing exterior lighting and evening...

According to the Santa Fe Association of Realtors, through the first week of August, total sales in Santa Fe (city and county), including commercial, land and residential, were 947 units with an aggregate price of $467,628,000.

Compare this to the same period in 2007—not as strong a year as 2006--when Santa Fe sales totaled 1,513 units for $703,968,000.

The approximately 37% decline in both unit sales and prices from 07 to 08, according to many local Realtors, will not stabilize for another 6 to 12 months, or begin to improve until sometime in 2010.

It’s no longer a secret this is one of...

Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 3:00 PM
by Susan Hadley and Michael French • Santa Fe Realty Group Inc. and SantaFe.com

With all of the turmoil in the mortgage market, there still seems to be a breath of hope in loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which makes funds available for purchases up to 106% of the purchase price with FICO scores as low as 585.

Mortgages that allow consumers to put little or no money down have largely disappeared and borrowers with less than sterling credit (FICO below 620) seem to have been left in the dust of the collapse of the subprime mortgage industry. Although it is raising concerns among those who blame the “no-money down” mortgages for the present...

Friday, August 1, 2008
by Andrew Hoffman • SantaFe.com

Just when it was looking like we might be able to issue a sigh of relief at the end of a year-long spate of bad news, we have been inundated by the woes of Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Assn) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp). For the last year, Fannie and Freddie have been the stalwarts in the market, providing an avenue for borrowers with good credit and solid income to purchase or refinance. And now, it appears that they have been sucked into the sinking ship of the credit markets.

I have gotten repeated calls from clients asking if their loans (both in place...

Friday, August 1, 2008
by Andrew Hoffman • SantaFe.com

Santa Fe city councilors are moving toward extending the city’s affordable housing rules to another piece of housing development —time-share or “fractional ownership” projects.

The city’s Finance Committee voted unanimously Monday to approve a resolution to amend the city’s affordable housing ordinance to include “vacation time-share projects” among the developments that must price nearly one-third of their units according to incomebased affordable housing guidelines.

“We’re not looking at it as being really controversial,” city housing and community development director Kathy McCormick...

Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 12:00 PM
by Kiera Hay • Journal Santa Fe

Let the battle begin.

The Santa Fe Association of Realtors threw a hard punch at the city of Santa Fe on Thursday when it filed a lawsuit challenging a proposed tax on high-end homes as “invalid, unlawful and unenforceable.”

“The recently adopted real estate transfer tax on residential property not only violates the prohibitions under New Mexico State Law, it unfairly and inequitably foists the financial costs of creating work-force housing and affordable housing upon land owners,” the association said in a press release issued late in the day.

The city ordinance, approved unanimously by...

Friday, July 25, 2008
by Kiera Hay • Journal Santa Fe

Some buyers had a look of stunned pleasure as they became owners of new Santa Fe condominiums Sunday.

“We totally didn’t expect this. We thought there would be a million more people,” said Grace Agnew, as she and Marty Dobyns waited on final paperwork for a 645-square-foot unit they bought partly as an investment, but mostly as a home for their 22-year-old son.

Trish Parker and Ben Coffey, a young couple who moved to Santa Fe less than a year ago, downplayed their chances of a winning bid before the auction started, noting that only 20 condos were on the sales list when they took their...

Monday, July 21, 2008
by Jackie Jadrnak • Journal Santa Fe

For decades, the exclusive Las Campanas subdivision has used millions of gallons of Albuquerque’s San Juan-Chama water rights to offset what it pumps from Santa Fe’s Buckman well field.

The 1986 agreement between Albuquerque and the Santa Fe subdivision, where model homes start at more than half a million dollars, expires in 2011.

Given the scarcity and rising value of water, it’s no surprise lawyers for Las Campanas would like to exercise an option to continue the arrangement.

And it’s no surprise the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority staff isn’t eager to do so.

Sunday, July 20, 2008
by Kiera Hay • Journal Santa Fe

When an auctioneer raises the gavel Sunday, it won’t be art, antiques or an evicted family’s possessions going up on the block. Instead, people will be bidding on their very own piece of the City Different.

With only about 30 of the 145 units at The Alameda condominium development in south Santa Fe sold so far, another 45 are going up for auction, a reflection of the current sluggish real estate market.

“I think it’s the first of its kind like this” in New Mexico, said David Barker of Barker Realty Inc. Some properties have been auctioned in the past, but usually only one or two at a...

Friday, July 18, 2008
by Jackie Jadrnak • Journal Santa Fe

Santa Fe’s real estate market is in a lull, according to quarterly numbers released Wednesday.

So far this year, fewer homes have been sold and their median price has been lower compared to last year. Houses are staying on the market longer and the inventory of unsold homes is up.

That might be bad news for people whose jobs depend on the real estate market, but good news for people looking to buy a house — assuming they can get a loan, according to local real estate experts.

“Buyers definitely have an edge. They have an incredible choice of properties now,” said Mary Schroeder,...

Thursday, July 10, 2008
by Jackie Jadrnak • Journal Santa Fe