The small Mojave Desert town of Newberry Springs, Calif., which is on Route 66, has suddenly become a hot spot for real-estate speculators, reports Mike Anton of the Los Angeles Times.
Last year, $15.6 million in real estate sold in the ZIP Code encompassing much of Newberry Springs, nearly seven times [my emphasis] the amount in 2000, according to DataQuick Information Systems in La Jolla. Figures through July are on pace with last year.
Buyers run the gamut, and include small developers betting that urban refugees will buy luxury homes on private man-made lakes, and a dentist whose license revocation and bankruptcy inspired him to put a down payment on a chunk of desolation. There Boulos Maksemous, who’s licensed to practice dentistry again, intends to build the Dream Pyramid, a hotel modeled after Las Vegas’ Luxor resort.
But Anton cautions that speculators have been burned before by investing money in desert land in Southern California.
I’m skeptical, too. The real-estate bubble is about to burst in many markets, and rising interest rates also is dampening property-buying.
Newberry Springs is best-known for the Bagdad Cafe, a pistachio farm and a big mountain on the west side of town. I don’t see it becoming a new Valhalla in the Mojave.