Hi folks!

Average prices were all over the place last month because of a couple of very large properties that had been on the market for a very long time that finally sold.  One of these was the “Jeffries Mansion”, which was 11,150sqft and sold for $1.35M.  This property finally sold after 4 years of being on the market!  It was listed as a “lakeview property”, even though it was almost 2 miles from the lake (and I personally don’t remember any lakeviews from when I was there); but the fact that it was so large significantly brought down the $/sqft for the 6 lakeview properties that sold last month. There was also another large “lakeview” property that sold as a short sale in Ironwood and a large bank-owned property in Fox Farm that needed A LOT of work that added to the reduction in $/sqft in those areas.  As we’ve discussed with many of you in the past, $/sqft is most relevant when you are looking at an average-aged, average-sized home (if you take out the “Mansion”, the “average” home that sold in the city of Big Bear Lake (92315) last month was 1769sqft and built in 1974.  Typically, the smaller the home, the larger the $/sqft because the lot value comes more into play (for example, we sold a couple of very small homes in Big Bear Lake and Moonridge last month that came out to almost $300/sqft).  On the other hand, with a larger-than-average home, typically the $/sqft goes down because the lot value plays a lesser role and the construction cost of another 1000sqft on a very large home is relatively small compared to that of a small home (for example, at 11,150sqft and selling at $1.35M, the “Jeffries Mansion” technically sold at only $121.07/sqft – the same as Sugarloaf)!  Now that those properties are finally off the market, there are only 2 bank-owned properties left in 92315 (Big Bear Lake)!!!