Actual Christmas Tree Lighting event to take place Saturday, November 30

Standing more than 17 feet tall at the corner of Florida Avenue on the east corner of Florida Avenue and Harvard St. a majestic Christmas tree now stands, donated by Matt McPherson, the McPherson family and the Farmers Market.

“This is our second year,” said Matt McPherson. “It came together last year when we realized that there wasn’t going to be a Christmas tree event downtown. We couldn’t let that happen. True Value stepped in with heavily discounted lights, and we and the Yepremians made it happen.”

Not only did everyone enjoy last year’s beautifully-lit tree…others enjoyed the um, free electricity. “I used to take my dog for a walk at three or four in the morning, just to admire the tree. Well, a couple of nights after we first lit it up, I saw a group of homeless teens nestled at the bottom of the tree, huddled together. I thought for a moment that they were sleeping there, until I realized that they were all charging their cell phones because each light-socket had a USB port!!! They said, “Hey man, we’re not vandalizing it…we’re just chargin’ our phones,” McPherson laughs, adding, “We’re hoping to out-do the five or six-thousand lights we had last year.”

And out-do it, they have. This year’s tree will cost a total of $7,500 including lights and permits.

You simply cannot miss the massive pine tree on the East corner of Florida, but as if that wasn’t enough…there is artwork a-plenty, supplied by local artist Amber Spikerman. “I’ve been doing this for some years, and I’m branching out to larger murals and works of art,” says Spikerman.

“I think what Amber is doing is beautiful, and I think what Matt is doing with this whole event is a good thing. When the community can celebrate an event like this-together, in this fashion-you can actually see and feel it bringing our community together. It’s good to see the community come together, even if it’s just once a year.  It would be nice if we could find other ways and other reasons to come together,” said Eddie George of Hemet Eye News.

George’s feelings were echoed by Hemet Eye News’ Laurie Cain. “This time of the year is the most beautiful part of the year for so many of us. I think it’s just the wonderful how Matt McPherson and his family have donated this Christmas tree as a symbol of solidarity for the whole community, young and old alike, so that we may come out every evening and stroll by this beautifully-lit Christmas tree and catch the spirit of the season. I especially love to see the glow of the little children with their happy faces, smiling when they see the tree and when they see Santa Claus.”

No amount of “inner Grinch” can steal the glow you’ll get by walking past a lit Christmas tree on a frosty holiday night while Christmas music plays in the background. Try it and see.

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Gene Wunderlich, the Vice President of Government Affairs for the Southwest Riverside County Association of Realtors, just released the midyear sales numbers for 2019. All over the South Western Riverside County area, Wunderlich says, “Sales continue at a pace of about 3 % behind last year, and it looks like they won’t be picking up much between now and the end of the year.” The prosperous recovery going back five years saw an annual appreciation of 6.5%, whereas this year the median sales price is increasing but at a much slower rate.

Wunderlich continued, “This year we’re only up 2% with every indication of further softening as inventory grows sales decline.” Some positive news indicates that as the market softens, it will diminish any long-term market pressure, which means any recession on the horizon will be more controlled. Again don’t get worried; currently, there is no sign of a recession in the near future. Wunderlich added, “Not sure if our housing market really is slow and steady, or just slowing steadily.”

A common theme among the real estate industry right now is “HOPE.” Hoping the interest rates don’t rise again. Hoping Millennials will get out and buy more homes. Hoping the market doesn’t slow any further. Statewide Realtors and developers are hoping Sacramento will address the current housing crisis.

Throughout the state restrictions and regulations have yielded nothing but local control concerns, committee opaqueness, along with non-profit and environmental lobbying.
The inventory or amount of homes for sale has remained steady and is now gradually climbing as the price increase is slowing down.

Gene Wunderlich warned, “Please, don’t decide this is the time to refi all the equity out of your home. This isn’t the time for that even though you probably have some equity built up. Your home is NOT your bank. It’s your home. Remember what happened last time. Don’t be that guy.”

Here in the San Jacinto Valley, we saw an increase of 5% from June 2018 to June 2019. The median home price in Hemet jumped from $265,000 last year to $279,450 currently whereas San Jacinto saw a June 2019 median price of $305,000 which is up from $290,250 just a year ago. One indicator the San Jacinto valley will continue to prosper are the amount of homes selling well above the list price.

For example, a beautiful corner lot single story three bedrooms 2 bath home I recently listed had four offers within one week. The CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) done on the property generated a median value of $283,000. My instinct and in-depth knowledge of the local market gave me a hunch, and we listed at $295,000. Of the four offers, two were above list price at $298,000, and after doing some research, I met the appraiser at the property and justified the $298,000 with some recent sales.

Well, my clients were elated that we were able to negotiate an additional 5% in value on top of what the projections calculated. This is just one example of many across the valley that tells me our particular real estate market will continue to flourish well into 2020 and beyond. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as I will be covering some future commercial developments on the horizon in Hemet and San Jacinto.

If you would like any of the charts or graphs to accompany this article, please contact me at McPhtown@gmail.com, or you can text me at 951-315-7914. Remember whenever listing or buying a property to use a local Realtor who is knowledgeable about the neighborhood market.

Matt McPherson
Coleman and Associates

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