Market Update – August 2015

Here’s my monthly analysis of single-family homes in Nevada County, as reported through our local Nevada County Multiple Listing.

High Buyer Demand Continues:  With 134 new escrows, August proved that buyers are still out in force. We haven’t seen this many buyers and escrows in over ten years.

New Listings Decline:  146 new listings hit the market in August, down 18% from July and down 26% from the peak listing month of March for 2015. We expect this seasonal decline from here on out as many sellers wait (unnecessarily so) to list their homes in Spring and early Summer.

Prices Continue to Appreciate:  The average sold price for August 2015 was $362,000. Our 12 month rolling average of sold, single-family homes is 8% higher than the previous 12 months. That appreciation is the simple result of supply and demand forces clearly at work in our market. We currently have only 3.4 months of inventory (based on both pending sales and closed sales), which is solidly a seller’s market.

Homes Priced Right Sell Quickly and for 98% of the List Price: Whereas the average sold listing was marketed for 60 days until an offer was accepted, 22% of all sold listings were on the market for only 7 days or less and 48% were on the market for up to 30 days. On average, the properties were sold for 95% of the original asking price and 98% of the final list price.

Takeaways:

• Homeowners who have been waiting to sell their home need not wait any longer. Buyers are still out in force, and a correctly priced listing should sell quickly, even in these fall months. These owners probably have more equity in the home than they realize.
• We do not need to worry about another bubble forming at this point. We’re seeing appreciation due to supply and demand forces, but the high demand has not been artificially created now as it was in the last cycle by lending standards that were too unhealthily low and unreasonably lax.
• Buyers who have been on the fence need to realize that prices are staying up. Interest rates remain at historic lows. Prolonged waiting could result in some buyers realizing they’ve been priced out of the market.