Seattle housing market continues to see low inventory and high competition making things hard for homebuyers. Even before the virus hit the region, it was quite evident that if the inventory crunches further, affordability will become a bigger issue in the Seattle real estate market in 2020, especially with homes in the lower tier.

Since then we've seen significantly lower numbers of active listings when compared to the same time last year. October 2020's housing report from Northwest Multiple Listings Service found King County had 3,806 active listings, a 20.84% drop from the same time last year when there were 4,808 active listings.

In Seattle itself, though, demand seems to be cooling off very slightly. Here, the median price of single-family homes fell 2% from September’s all-time high to $800,000, which was still a 3% increase over last year. It had 1,521 active listings in October, a 15.97% increase year-over-year.

Pending and closed sales in King County were both up as compared to the previous year. King County saw a 19.37% increase in pending sales over the same time last year. Closed sales were up by nearly 40% compared to October 2019.

In Seattle itself, it recorded an increase of 39.93% in closed sales and 19.21% in pending sales. Most homes on the market sell within a week, according to Redfin. Pending sales are outpacing new listings and inventory continues to shrink. There are far more buyers than there are available homes for sale.

To summarise the last month's statistics we can say that All King County & Seattle remains a seller's real estate market with only 0.99 months of inventory — still well below what is required to meet the volume of buyers right now. While we may see sales cool down over the coming months from an unusually hot fall season but things could be extraordinary hot in the spring of 2021.

[Read more…]

Home prices & sales are rising across the Southern California housing market and San Diego is no exception. The fallout from the pandemic led to a slump in sales in the spring and early summer buying season. But that has now led to a pent-up demand causing unusual sales growth in the fall season.

San Diego area is a strong seller’s real estate market. Mortgage interest rates are so low that buyers can afford more than they thought. Inventory is low, prices are rising, and pent-up demand alongside low mortgage rates has the San Diego housing market flooded with homebuyers.

The forecast for 2021 is that the shortage of supply and an increase in the demand for housing will push the prices higher in the next twelve months. For sellers, now is the opportune time to put their San Diego home up for sale. The pricing of homes is trending higher and is more attractive for sellers in the current phase.

In September 2020, sales of single-family homes in San Diego County increased by a whopping 32.8% y-o-y, affirming that there is a strong demand among homebuyers in the area. Closed sales also took a jump of 7.5% from August. Pending sales have also increased over the last 4 months. The median sales price increased by 15.4% YTY and 0.3% MTM.

[Read more…]

 

We will discuss the latest Los Angeles housing market prices and trends. Due to coronavirus home sales dropped over the past couple of months but prices remained high and in June, we saw the first rebound in home sales. In September, all the six counties of the Southern California houisng market saw an increase in sales as compared to the previous year, with Los Angeles county recording a YTY sales growth of 16.4%.

The Metro Los Angeles housing market posted a year-over-year increase of 23.2% in single-family home sales. Compared to August 2020, sales increased by 5.8%. The median home price of the Los Angeles metropolitan region rose to $630,000, up 15.6% from last year. Compared to August 2020, the median price increased by 2.4%.

The rise in home prices and sales have shifted the market conditions to a balanced one. The inventory still remains tight. The Unsold Inventory in Los Angeles Metro Area is 2.2 months.

The September 2020 report by Realtor.com also shows that Los Angeles is a balanced real estate market, which means there is a healthy balance of buyers and sellers in the market. The low inventory level seemed to have equaled the low buyer turnout keeping the market temperature neutral — Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 100%.

[Read more…]

The latest California housing market trends and forecast — all point to the fact — that the market will continue its recovery from the economic shock led by the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales are expected to continue to improve for the remainder of 2020 and increase modestly again in 2021. Interest rates will remain low, giving buyers purchasing power and home prices a boost. Buyer demand remains robust and that has already pushed California’s median price above $700,000. However, inventory is expected to remain a challenge that will keep sales growth in the single digits next year, as reported by C.A.R. 

CAR's latest weekly California housing data (October 11 – 19) shows that after remaining unseasonably strong through September, closed transactions continue to drop. An average of 785 daily closed transactions was reported in the past week. That is down 13.0% from the previous week and was led by double-digit declines in almost every part of the state.

[Read more…]

The Dallas housing market has recovered from the impact of the pandemic. Before this ongoing crisis, Dallas was a balanced real estate market. It was doing pretty well. But in May, residential sales in Dallas County had fallen 35 percent from their level in May 2019 and the median sales price was down 4 percent. The double-digit decline in April and May led to an overall decline year-to-date compared to 2019.

The recovery of sales began from July onwards when sales rose by 20% year over year. As of September 2020, the Dallas housing market is a seller’s market, which means there are roughly more buyers than there are active homes for sale. Mortgage rates have hit another record low putting many homebuyers in the buying mood.

Sellers are just not putting their homes on the market which has left the available houses for sale at a historically low level. The market is expected to remain hot for the remainder of 2020. Supply is tightest at the lower end of the pricing spectrum. That’s because there are more house hunters and buyers on the more affordable end as compared to the higher end.

In Septemberer, the median list price of homes in Dallas on Realtor.com was $418.5K — trending up 4.6% year-over-year. The median listing price per square foot was $215. On average, homes in Dallas, Texas sell after 58 days on the market. The trend for median days on market has gone up since last month, and slightly down since last year.

[Read more…]