It’s not super rare around the Kenai, but a home sale of a million dollars does get ones’ attention. That tidbit came up during our semi-regular talk with Marti Pepper, an independent agent with Redoubt Realty, who dropped by the studios to go over the first quarter of 2019.
“Okay, so what's interesting in the first quarter, which is January through March, the central Peninsula, the average sales price of a home went up by about $12,000. in Anchorage, it went down. And in the lower Kenai, Seward, Homer it went down.
“It did go up slightly in MatSu, but not as much as it did here.
“And the number of sales that that did not go up for our area. But I think the interesting thing is we did have in that quarter, January through March, which is not a real super busy time for real estate, we did have a million dollar sale. So and that's it. You know, we don't see a lot of million dollar sales on the peninsula.
“And then the, in the last year, like a year back from today, we had a several closes that were close to a million, which also is not super common. Those slowed down, but they're starting to pick up.
“So I wouldn't really say a boom, but maybe an uptick and a little bit of an uptick in the upper end home sales and in the second homes, you know, the recreational homes and whatnot. So those are picking up a little bit.
“Well, in my opinion, I think that says that things are going well in the lower 48. Because those people tend to invest in the second homes up here. Although we do have quite a few people from Anchorage, that come down here and have have recreational properties.
“In 2018, there were a little over 500 sales in the Central Peninsula. That number has been above 500 since 2014. But keep in mind in 2009, it was down to 300 sales on the Kenai Peninsula, you know in our area. Days on the market is something we watch the days on the market, were about 100 days on the market for 2018. And then just under 100 for the last couple years. But then back in 2012 it was like 150 days on the market. So you know that's stressful for sellers. And then the average sales price we watch that as well. Does get affected when you just have $1 million sale. But in 2018, the average sales price was about $237,000, up just about $5,000 from 2017.”
Our number this week is three-point-two million. That is how much sales of agriculture amounted to in dollars on the Kenai Peninsula in 2017, the latest figures available. Alasha Britto had some facts and figures for the Kenai City Council this week.
“I'm a member of the Kenai Local Food Connection which will be talking to you tonight. So just a little information about local food on the on the peninsula well food makes a significant and growing contribution to the economy.
“The 2017 Census of Agriculture was just released this last Thursday, and then have great news for the Kenai Peninsula.
“The USDA defines a farm as any operation that has sales or potential for sales of agricultural products valued at $1,000 or more. Kenai Peninsula farms are typically small, under about five acres, but they're very productive. We've made great strides since 2007. In 2017, the total sales of farm products on the peninsula was $3.2 million. That's excluding Aqua culture. If you were to add optical true to that, you could add another $2.2 million."
