- Mar 27

How's The Market?

Last week’s headlines were telling us the housing industry is suffering because, nationally, the median home sales price is down. Here is some context.

Year over year basis median home sales price dropped by 0.2%
Median home price does not represent appreciation - it's the middle of all homes sold, and, because there was more activity/ sales in lower priced ranges the number fell
Actual appreciation is up 8.4% year over year according FHFA and 5.8% according to Case Shiller

A few facts about the national market:

Homes remained on the market on average for 34 days
57% of homes were on the market for less than 30 days
First time home buyers accounted for 27% of sales, down from 31%
Cash buyers accounted for 28% of sales, down from 29%
Investors made up 18% of sales, up from 16%
Investors made up roughly one of every five transactions, they clearly are seeing the opportunity in housing right now

Now for the local recap. Montecito had 5 New Listings last week, the most we have seen in quite some time. There were 6 Closed Sales, 2 of which were over $1OM. Although we may feel a little slow down due to Spring Break and Tax Season, overall the market remains steady.