Living in Santa Fe Blog

2020 Q4 Market Report

What a year we had in real estate for 2020! We’re entering 2021 with record low inventories and our December average sales price was up a whopping 25% over where we started in January of last year. Construction costs have been increasing the past several years nationally by about 5% per year but local contractors will tell you it’s certainly more than that in Santa Fe. With little inventory of resale homes, we’re finally seeing a marked increase in new construction in both housing and apartments. That’s good because we need more options for buyers. Transactions of vacant residential land sales increased 77% between the 1st and 4th Quarters while the average price was up only 5.5% to $154,000.

There will be no diminishment of out of state buyers…

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Santa Fe Is for Chocolate Lovers

There’s something about the taste and aroma of chocolate that comforts the soul and satisfies the sweetest sweet tooth. Santa Fe winters are prime time for indulging in chocolate. For one thing, the colder temperatures mean we can eat chocolate without it melting on our fingers, not that it’s ever stopped us before. For another thing, we can savor seasonal treats like drinking chocolates and chile-spiced chocolate candies.

Chocolate has been a cherished New Mexican food for about a thousand years. In 2009, University of New Mexico anthropologist Patricia L. Crown discovered the first evidence of chocolate consumption in North America from pottery vessels excavated at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon in…

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Five Tips to Make Downsizing Easier

Downsizing is a goal many homeowners set at some point in their lives. When a house is too big for your needs, the impact can hit your wallet, your time, and even your health.

Housing is often our single biggest expense. Downsizing to a less expensive house can add to your savings and cut expenses needed for taxes, insurance, maintenance, and utility bills.

A larger home takes more time to clean, maintain, and repair. Delaying maintenance isn’t the answer. It only adds to the cost if you put off-line items like a new heating system or a new roof.

Finally, a large home with too many stairs can turn into an accident waiting to happen. According to the National Council on Aging, falls are the…

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Home Design Software Helps You Create Your Vision for Your Home

It can be a challenge for new home buyers to visualize home improvement projects of a newly purchased property. Estimating costs can also be daunting. Fortunately, there are several leading home design software solutions that can help a home buyer create a realistic vision of your new home. Home design software allows you to do things like build a floorplan, set wall colors, and even add furniture or experiment with design features.

Here are six home design software options according to a review by Kate Hornsby of Investopedia. The goal is to help you find easy options for realistic renderings of true-to-life designs of your own choosing.

Home Design Software Review by Investopedia

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You Can Still Be a Santa Fe Foodie This Fall

Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, locals treasure Santa Fe for its restaurant and cuisine scene. From 400+ restaurants, diners, and cafes to the bounty of an award-winning farmer’s market, Santa Fe’s culinary landscape is built on a foundation of tradition and innovation.

That said, we won’t pretend that the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t severely impacted Santa Fe restaurants, which shut down in the state’s effort to contain the virus. On August 29, however, the state’s emergency public health order was amended to allow many businesses and organizations to partially reopen.

Those changes included food and drink establishments, which have been allowed to reopen with indoor dining service at…

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2020 Q3 Market Report

2020 has proven to be the year of the unexpected and our real estate market is no exception. Where we feared a crash due to the pandemic, the opposite has proven true: sellers are enjoying competing offers and record-high prices, while buyers are needing to make quick decisions while also being patient. Typically the election would also play a factor by slowing the market down, but this is an atypical year and we do not expect these market conditions to change anytime soon.

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How Homebuyers Can Explore the Best of Santa Fe Online

Since March 2020 when the coronavirus disease arrived in the U.S., our brokers have been turning out virtual open houses and virtual tours to support our buyers and sellers.

Our virtual open houses and virtual tours combine top-quality photography and video with the listing broker’s commentary and description of the property. It’s one of the many ways we’re serving our clients while following all public health protocols and best practices to fight the spread of COVID-19.

And our data on our recently sold homes proves it—buying and selling Santa Fe real estate is continuing at a healthy rate.

But how can buyers explore Santa Fe when travel isn’t advised or possible?

Here’s our answer:…

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How to Support the Santa Fe Community During COVID-19

At Barker Realty, our mission is to help home buyers and sellers in Santa Fe and beyond achieve their real estate goals. Nearest and dearest to our hearts is the Santa Fe community we call home. While our brokers are fully up and running serving clients, we never stop thinking about how we can support the Santa Fe community as the country enters the sixth month of COVID-19.

There’s a lot we can to help our fellow Santa Feans during this challenging time, so we wanted to share our findings. For starters . . .

Follow CDC Guidelines and Wear a Mask

One thing we can do to protect others is to wear a face mask, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This CDC resource provides a…

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How COVID-19 May Shape What We Want from Our Homes

The coronavirus epidemic has touched every part of the country in the space of just four months, dominating the news and impacting our everyday lives in unprecedented ways. As we continue to serve our clients while following all safety protocols, we’ve been reading reports about how COVID-19 may shape what buyers may want from their homes.

Infectious diseases have permanently changed the way we live, even after the availability of vaccines to prevent them. Case in point: The 1918 flu epidemic brought us the powder room. University of Cincinnati professor Kelly Wright, who teaches American history, told Bloomberg’s CityLab that the addition of a half bathroom on the ground floor of a home gave delivery…

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Prep Your Home for Sale Without Leaving Your House

So you want to list your Santa Fe house for sale, but you need to follow statewide practices to protect yourself and others from COVID-19. What can you do to get your house ready to list when New Mexicans are advised to stay home as much as possible?

Plenty!

First of all, we’re doing everything we can to help all our buyers and sellers while following social distancing and wearing masks. More than ever, our agents are getting creative with open houses streamed via live video and video-recorded agent walkthroughs.

Second, you can prep your home for sale without leaving your house or at least with minimal trips to the hardware store. Our top 10 home prep tips resonate whether buyers are viewing…

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