SEDONA LAND

"Buy land. God ain't makin' anymore of it."

Will Rogers' famous quotation is especially true in the Sedona AZ real estate market.

Back in 1996, the median selling price of a Sedona residential lot was $86,250. Iit's now about $300,000. At one point in early 2006 it topped $500,000.  The current flat market is, in my opinion, merely a short-term pause in an eventual massive move up. Many local and national observers see Sedona's real estate situation as akin to Aspen's twenty or thirty years ago as we anticipate a virtual sell out of Sedona's vacant land within a decade or so, once the market recovers.

Right now, however, the market has not yet recovered and we are experiencing  a very sharp Buyer's Market with four times the inventory than we had three years ago and prices have dropped precipituously.

Many of our clients are buying property now as a hedge against what they know will be a dramatic run up in prices over the next few years. Some are buying second homes that they can use for vacations or rent out with long term leases or as short term vacation rentals. Others are opting to simply buy land to build on later. There is a longstanding debate over the virtues and hassles of building a home, but many people are willing to persevere to customize a home to their own tastes and there are several outstanding builders and architects in Sedona that I am happy to recommend.

It is possible, by the way, to spend well over three million dollars for a one acre lot at the new Seven Canyons Resort and Club. And, you'll need another $175,000 if you want a membership in the very upscale and exclusive private Golf Club. They have recently opened a world class, Tom Weiskopf course. When they first began marketing 20 lots at a million an acre six years ago, my thought was: "This is where Sedona is going in the future, but those prices are way premature." I was wrong. They sold most of those lots in six months. Next year they'll bring out their last ten lots along the ridge above the course at prices ranging from three million and up. There definitely is a sense in Sedona that , in spite of the current inventory, there will be relatively little Sedona vacant land left and once we're built out, prices like those at Seven Canyons will be the norm as they are in places like Aspen, Jackson Hole, and Carmel.

At the moment, though, a luxury building site, which may be a small envelope at Casa Contenta or a little under an acre at Back O' Beyond, or one acre plus at Cathedral Rock Ranch or two acres bordering National Forest at the new Cross Creek Ranch start at about $350,000 and can range up to well over two million dollars. What you can expect from them are stupendous views, gated privacy, and multi-million dollar homes in the neighborhood.

In any case, there remains, for the moment, an excellent,but finite supply of land in Sedona and prices have plummeted.

For more detail and current statistics, pop back to our Market Conditions Page at www.SedonaRealEstate.com/market_conditions.html or call us at :

(8000 282-2959