I just posted some Joshua Tree figures, which includes average days on market on my blog: http://joshuatreeagent.wordpress.com/. I will be posting Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley soon. If you want to know specific properties, just let me know.

Don't be afraid to ask a real estate agent in your area for this information. Part of being a real estate agent is building relationship with potential clients. We know that when you need a real estate agent, you are more apt to call someone you know. Good luck.

I would ask your agent, if you don't know one, just be up front with them and let them know you're just after some infomation. I send that type of information out to my clients about once a month so it should be readily available from any angent that works your area and most of them should be willing to share.

You're right, that's hard to do correctly if you are not Realtor. You can pop-by one of the sales offices for a new home builder and they can give you some oral information. However, the most valid way is to call a Realtor and have them search the MLS, which is the "Standard-setting" program that keeps tack of such information. Personally, I live in Rialto and can give you that information. Just let me know.

Be prepared to pay 90 cents or more on the dollar for that home that needs rehab. The formula is like this: Rehabbed Sales Price = original fixer Purchase Price plus acquisiton costs, plus carrying costs during repair, plus repair costs plus miscellaneous costs, plus carrying costs during the marketing period plus selling costs + Your profit. The smallest number in that math formula will be your profit. You will be competing with professionals who do so many of these rehabs that if they make a $5,000 profit on each one, they are happy enough. Since a pro might be doing 30 or 40 rehabs a year they are keeping their crews busy, between customer ordered remodels and earning 100 to 200 K a year for a side business. The pros bid up the prices on fixers because they are contractors and need to stay busy. They dont overpay often, but they do keep those fixers between 90 and 95% of value! Many Escrow and Title companies have these statistics available, which have been gleaned from MLS and other sources. So will most RE agents have statistics for their zip codes or ML areas. Just ask directly. However I think it is a statistic only useful in pointing out to stubborn sellers why they should price correctly rather than at some astronomic value they think it should have shot up to. Average Days on Market is a indicator only for a small portion of the homes that have been offered for sale. . Why? because Average DOM of sold homes is an average number of days that the final Realtor had the listing on the MLS. The # of DOM does not include previous listing numbers by earlier agents and brokers whose listing expired, was withdrawn or even relisted with a new # in order to make the listing appear fresh. So sometimes you will see an area with 2000 listings, 100 sales a month - which is a 20 month inventory reported as having 75 or 80 days on market. Truth is the correctly priced homes sell quickly when priced cheaply enough. Very few of the overpriced homes sell until they have been re listed a few times. Never list with the "highest bidder" unless you want to enjoy being inventory for endless months.

The answer to both of your questions is joshua tree and yucca valley area, however if i wnated to plan to purchase a home and rehab it for selling in other areas does anyone know of a good resouce for this gauge?

What specific area was that? If you are in San Diego, the average time on the market is about 3-4 months, if not a bit longer now. Many factors determine the outcome of a sale, or no sale.

Are you looking to sell and then upgrade? Are you considering renting it out, too?

You can make your house appealing to homebuyers by staging etc and pricing your house competitively and avoid paying full 6% commission, but yet still get full exposure for your home.

Yes, contact an agent in your area most will be pleased to assit you. If you cannot find one that is give us a call and we will find someone for you. I believe Zillow.com gives days on market and you can always call a local title company and/or appraiser as they will usually help you as well. If you need more help let us know.
Good Luck.
Jeff Fox, CPA

Which area? Let me know... I might be able to pull it for you.