We just had the pleasure of finding Kevin and Lisa their new desert dream home, overlooking the 4th and 6th Fairways of the Arroyo Course in Indian Ridge Country Club. Exquisitely remodeled and decorated, this 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom Bougainvillea 1 model home features an open floor plan, grey tile floors in the main living areas and plush stylish carpet in the bedrooms, crown moldings, custom built-ins, new granite counters, a lavish redesigned master bathroom, decorator paint and newer furnishings, accessories and artwork. Out back, a pool. spa, firepit and outdoor kitchen provide a haven to enjoy stunning south Santa Rosa Mountain view and experience the seamless indoor-outdoor winter living that the desert is famous for. We enjoyed working with Kevin and Lisa, the sellers, James and Kathy, and their agent (and fellow Compass agent), Terri, all the very best in the days ahead.

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The 50th edition of the ANA Inspiration, the first LPGA Major of the year, will take place April 1 – 4 at Rancho Mirage’s Mission Hills Country Club. The field of this historic Major, which has had 38 different champions over its 49-year history, will feature defending champion, Mirim Lee, and 2020 Women’s British Amateur Champion, Aline Krautner, in addition to what organizers hope will be a full field of the world’s best professional women golfers.

As with last year’s tournament, rescheduled from April to September, and the recent The America Express PGA Golf Tournament in January in La Quinta, this year’s special 50th Anniversary edition will be held without spectators due to Covid-19 related restrictions. Tournament organizers have taken this unique opportunity to play the famous 18th island green surrounded by the famous Poppie’s Pond in its purest state. As far as the records show, the world’s best golfers will be approaching the 18th green just as the competitors would have encountered it in its inaugural edition in 1972, clear of any hospitality units or branding.

For you trivia buffs out there, the ANA Inspiration is one of the five Major championships of professional women’s golf on the LPGA Tour and is held yearly at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.

The official name of the trophy is “The Dinah Shore Trophy,” named in honor of the late television, film and recording star Dinah Shore. Probably the single greatest influence in helping the Ladies Professional Golf Association achieve the prestige it enjoys today, Dinah Shore is the first and to date the only honorary member to be inducted into the prestigious LPGA Hall of Fame. The trophy was designed and crafted in the early 1980’s by English firm Greene Silversmiths, under the direction of then Tournament Director, Dave Marr. The trophy took approximately six months to create and cost more than $25,000. The trophy was presented to the winner of the tournament each year by Dinah Shore herself, until her death in 1994. Made of 100 percent sterling silver, the trophy is approximately 18 inches high and weighs roughly 25 pounds. The trophy is displayed in the clubhouse at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, and an exact miniature replica is crafted and presented to the winner each year. It takes about 30-45 days to create the replica.

The Tournament has been named the ANA Inspiration since ANA (All Nippon Airways) became the lead sponsor in 2015.  Prior to that, the tournament was known as the Colgate Dinah Shore from 1972 to 1981, the Nabisco Dinah Shore from 1982 to 1999, the Nabisco Championship from 2000 to 2001 and the Kraft Nabisco Championship from 2002 to 2014.

Fans will be able to watch the ANA Inspiration around the world, including on Golf Channel and Sky Sports, and follow along for enhanced content on social @ANAinspiration and the tournament website: ANAinspiration.com

To read more: please read the release on the ANA Inspiration website at: https://www.anainspiration.com/news/first-major-of-2021-celebrates-50th-anniversary/?utm_source=ANAInspiration&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=celebrate50

The Desert Sun’s Andrew John just provided an update on the Coachella Valley Arena Project. The new arena, which will serve as the home of the new NHL Seattle Kraken’s minor league affiliate team, will be located on 43.35 acres of unincorporated land near Palm Desert, between Interstate 10 and the Classic Club golf course & clubhouse just west of Cook Street.  Nestled in a grove of palm trees, the site will include more than 3,000 parking spaces, a pedestrian promenade, shade structures, indoor and outdoor concession areas, and an attached practice rink. Inside, seating is projected at 9,918 for hockey, 10,815 for basketball and 11,679 for concerts. The interior of the arena will also include 20 suites that can seat 20 people each, a private club that can seat 145 people, a pair of VIP clubs than can seat 80 people each and a premium concourse club that can seat 590 people. The interior design took inspiration from older mid-century Palm Springs, with murals of mountains, palm trees and swimming pools and giant windows in the bars and concession areas showcasing the mountain views.

The arena is being built by Los Angeles based Oak View Group and partners Live Nation Entertainment and the H. N. & Francis C. Berger Foundation, a local non-profit that owns the land. Total cost is projected at $250 million with ground-breaking scheduled for May 2021 and completion projected for the fourth quarter of 2022.

To read the Andrew John's original Desert Sun article, including 20 renderings, courtesy of The Desert Sun, please visit: https://www.desertsun.com/in-depth/sports/2021/02/15/250-million-palm-springs-area-arena-design-have-desert-unique-features/4391637001/

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The Desert Sun’s Brian Blueskye reports that the outdoor biennial art exhibition, Desert X, has been rescheduled from February 6th to April 11th to now run from March 12th to May 16th. Organizers will release their list of participating artists on their website (https://desertx.org/) on February 16th. 

Desert X is a site-specific biennial art exhibition that first took place in the Coachella Valley in the spring of 2017 and again in the spring of 2019. Artists from different parts of the world were invited to make work in response to the unique conditions of the Coachella Valley, with the desert as a blank canvas upon which the artists can project their vision and create from the extraordinary natural objects around them. 

Desert X will offer digital and in-person opportunities to view work across 40 miles of the Coachella Valley. While other major outdoor events like the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, Stagecoach Country Music  and BNPO Paribas Tennis Tournament scheduled for this spring have been cancelled, organizers of Desert X will proceed with a number of safety protocols to ensure visitor safety, including hand sanitizer and masks at each installation, health ambassadors to ensure regulations for social distancing are observed, timed ticketing to restrict the number of visitors at some installations and specific paths or directions from cars to the installations not only for COVID-19 reasons but for environmental reasons as well. 

To Read Brian Blueskye’s original article, courtesy of The Desert Sun, please visit: https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/2021/02/09/desert-x-announces-new-art-exhibition-dates-palm-springs-area/4452405001/

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We recently had the pleasure of working with Mort to find him his new desert dream home. This beautiful home, located in the guard-gated Mira Vista at Mission Hills community, overlooks the first fairway of Mission Hills’ Gary Player Signature Course and offers stunning mountain and golf course views. The impressive 4,057 square feet of living space features 3-bedroom suites, 3.5 bathrooms, an oversized home office and media room, an expansive great room with a designer wet bar, stone faced fireplace, unique circular sitting room and large dining area and an open kitchen with newly finished stylish cabinetry, built-in stainless-steel refrigerator, center island with eating bar and timeless stone counter tops and backsplash. The rear yard offers endless enjoyment with an expansive covered patio with built-in gas heaters and misting system, a large pebble texture pool & spa framed by the stacked stone privacy wall, and beautiful scenery. It provides a very welcoming outdoor retreat to experience the winter outdoor living the Desert is famous for. We enjoyed working with Mort, the sellers, Dennis and Pamela, and their agents Robert and Tracy and wish all of them the very best.

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(Please click on the image above to view our short YouTube video)

If you’d like to know some of what’s happening in the Greater Palm Springs area in February, then check out The Guide Magazine, published by Palm Springs Life Magazine. Here’s a peak at what’s inside:

·         The Guide | Best of the Best:  Palm Springs Life Magazine readers voted on their favorite attractions, accommodations, restaurants and experiences in Palm Desert. Their picks include The Chateau at Lake La Quinta as one of four best Boutique Hotels, Jackalope Ranch in Indio as one of five best continental food and drink establishments, Revivals in Palm Desert and Palm Springs as one of the two best shops for vintage housewares and Bear Creek Canyon Trail in La Quinta as one of four best hiking trails.

·         The Guide | Wheel Fun: Some advice on Palm Springs bike paths, lanes, routes and bike repair stations, where to take a break from biking for lunch and the neighborhood with a huge concentrations of midcentury modern and old movies star homes.

·         The Guide | Q & A | Cut To The Chase:  Palm Desert barber Matthew Sam shares his creative ways to keep the Coachella Valley looking tight, information about his own organic product line and the pandemic hair disasters he’s had to fix.

·         The Guide | Taste | Date Apps:  A look at some tantalizing appetizers starring the Coachella Valley’s most adored fruit, the date. With takeout and now that outdoor dining is back, you might want to try the Maine Lobster Claw Spring Roll at 533 Viet Fusion in Palm Springs, the Crispy Brussels Sprouts at Jake’s in Palm Springs and the Local Date Plate at the Cork & Fork Wine Bar in La Quinta.

·         The Guide | Discover | Steam On:  With Modernism Week releasing dozens of tours, talks, films and more, The Guide Editor Derrik J Lang shares The Guide’s top picks, including The Architectural Driving Tour, Mod With A Twist, Signature Home Tour and Hollywood Revisited.

·         The Guide | 20 Things to Do Right Now: Suggestions for things you can do now safely include Modernism Week’s Online Experience, grabbing locally grown goodies at the Coachella Valley Certified Farmers Markets, experiencing history at Cabot’s Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs, buying a handcrafted gift for a friend at Mojave Flea Trading Post in Palm Springs and getting some insights into what’s in store for you in 2021 at the Psychic & Healing Arts Fair each weekend at Crystal Fantasy in Palm Springs.  

·         The Guide | Concierge: Your guide to restaurants, arts, attractions, events, nightlife, etc. in the Greater Palm Springs area.

·         The Guide | Map: Our favorite map of the Coachella Valley showing why you can’t just take any west running road from let’s say Palm Desert to Palms Springs (because of the mountains that run along the south and west sides of the Coachella Valley cities).

·         The Guide | Lasting Impression: Some of the history on Rancho Mirage’s Rancho Super Car Wash, also known as the elephant car wash because of its large vintage neon sign. The sign dates back to Seattle in 1951 when brothers Dean, Arche and Eldon Anderson opened the first hands-free, automated car washes, complete with splashy pink elephant signs to attract attention. And now you know.

The February 2021 edition of The Guide Magazine is now available free of charge, in print at select locations across the Coachella Valley, and online at: https://digital-palmspringslife.com/guide/2021-february/

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Our local real estate market experts, Market Watch LLC, have just released their January 2021 Desert Housing Report (and discontinued their Covid-19 Real Estate Report looking at the impact of Coronavirus pandemic on our local market). Some highlights:

The Coachella Valley detached home median price in January was $525,000 (an increase of 22% year-over-year from $431,000 in January 2020). Market Watch commented that it appears that the sales surge and the resulting home price increases that began mid-summer are showing signs of easing (based on the detached home median price hovering around $525,000 for the last three months). It should be noted that the detached home median price is above the previous highs (around $425,000) set in 2006 and 2007.

The Coachella Valley attached home median price in January was $335,500 (an increase of 19.8% from $280,000 in January 2020). Market Watch noted that the attached home median price has not yet reached the previous highs (around $375,000) set in 2006 and 2007.

Detached home median prices are up over 25% year-over-year in Indian Wells, Palm Springs and La Quinta. Additionally, detached home median prices are above the previous highs set in 2006 and 2007 in Palm Springs (up 40%), Cathedral City (up 6.3%) and Indio (up 2.5%). Attached home median prices are up over 23% year-over-year in Indian Wells and La Quinta. None of the Coachella Valley cities have an attached home median price that is equal to or above the previous highs set in 2006 and 2007.

Total homes sales averaged 1,045 homes per month in January (an increase of 46% year-over-year from 716 homes per month in January 2020). Market Watch pointed out that home sales have been at all-time highs from October to December breaking what had been a seasonal pattern of home sales reaching lows in October and highs in May. Market Watch predicted that home sales would stay near current levels into the spring.

The largest increases in home sales were in Indian Wells (up 138% year-over-year), La Quinta (up 65% year-over-year), Palm Desert (up 60% year-over-year) and Rancho Mirage (up 54% year-over-year). Market Watch noted that the home sales increases were the largest in the second-home resort cities as opposed to those cities primarily housing working families (Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Coachella, and Indio.

The largest increases in home sales were in the $400,000 to $500,000 price range (up 105.9% year-over-year), the $500,000 to $600,000 price range (up 68.1% year-over-year) and in homes priced over one million dollars (up 146.2% year-over-year).

As anyone looking to purchase a home in the Coachella Valley can attest, Coachella Valley housing inventory continues to decline. On February 1^st, the Coachella Valley housing inventory was 1,283 homes (a decrease of 60% from 3,202 homes on February 1^st, 2020). Market Watch noted that this degree of inventory decline is abnormal, but mirrors what is happening in many other California regions. Market Watch felt that this inventory decline was more the result of homeowners’ reluctance to list their homes and open them to strangers during a pandemic rather than a decrease in the number of people wanting to sell their homes. They expect housing inventory to return to normal or higher levels once the vaccines have been widely distributed and people feel safe to open their homes to others.

The months of sales ratio measures how many months it would take to sell the entire housing inventory at the current sales rate. The months of sales ratio on February 1^st was an all-time low 1.4 months. Market Watch stated that housing inventory could increase by 300% and the months of sales ratio would be 4 months (considered to be an acceptable months of sales ratio). The median value of days in the market in January was 39 days compared to 51 days one year ago.

The months of sales ratio declined significantly year-over-year in every price range. Market Watch highlighted the exceptionally low months of sales ratios in the higher price ranges. Because the number of potential home buyers who can afford higher priced homes is smaller, months of sales ratios for higher priced homes are typically much higher. But this is not the case during this pandemic.

On February 1st, the months of sales ratio was below 3 months in all of the Coachella Valley’s eleven cities studies (and was below 2 months in nine of the Coachella Valley cities studied). Market Watch explained that this lack of supply has been putting a strong, upward pressure on home prices in the Coachella Valley (but again expected housing inventory levels to increase once the vaccines have been widely distributed).

The January median value for sale price discount from list was -0.8% (improving from -1.9% in January 2020). This implies that an average house listed at $500,000 would have sold for $496,000.  

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We recently had the pleasure of working with John and Jackie to sell their beautiful La Quinta PGA West home. This home overlooks the third fairway of the PGA West Stadium golf course, the host course of The American Express PGA Golf Tournament. This 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom home is light and bright, with soaring high ceilings, a beautiful marble floor in the foyer and wood plank-look tile floors in the bedrooms, bathrooms and living room. A large flagstone patio, with an automatic retractable awning and BBQ island provides a very welcoming outdoor retreat to experience the winter outdoor living the Desert is famous for. We enjoyed working with John and Jackie, the buyers, Ken and Linda, and their agent Nicholas and wish them all the very best.

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The Desert Sun reports that both the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival planned for April have been canceled, according to Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser, based on COVID-19 concerns.   

The 2020 versions of the two music festivals were initially pushed from April 2020 to October 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. A few months later, they were postponed again to April 2021. It’s a huge economic blow for the Coachella Valley since the two music festivals are believed to generate at least $400 million in local economic impact. This is in addition to the cancellation of a number of other big events. Joe Wallace, CEO and chief innovation officer at the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, has estimated the economic impact of the pandemic locally to be at least $3 billion and perhaps as much as $10 billion. Other events cancelled include the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the International Tamale Festival, a two-day event in December that draws over 150,000 people to the city of Indio, the Riverside County Fair and Date Festival and the BNP Paribas Tennis Tournament. Although The American Express PGA and the ANA Inspiration LPGA events weren’t cancelled, they were staged without spectators. On the positive side, one major desert event in Palm Springs, Modernism Week has moved its in-person events from their usual February time slot to April 8 to April 18^th. 

To read the Desert Sun’s original article, please visit: https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/entertainment/music/coachella/2021/01/29/coachella-stagecoach-festivals-canceled-april/6531298002/

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 We recently had the pleasure of working with Jack and Pat in their purchase of their new desert dream home. This recently refreshed home features 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and stunning up-close views of the Santa Rosa mountains from the large backyard patio. It is located in the guard-gated Laguna De La Paz community in the heat of La Quinta. This community of 390 homes boasts a 7 acre lake with catch and release fishing, 15 community pools, 16 community spas, 5 tennis courts, a clubhouse with meeting room, gym and saunas and community walking trails. We enjoyed working with Jack and Pat, the sellers, Richard and Anita, and their agent, Randy, and wish them all the very best.

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