Happy Monday with Dean and Crystal…
It…is…Happy Monday for all of us ‘Market Watchers’… and Thanksgiving overeaters (yours included) …
Tid Bits…(or Leftovers) …:
Since we’re a little bit on the subject of food…did you know…
– The average consumer spends more than $1.2k on drive-thru food every year?
– Sad news for your neighbors who started putting up holiday lights as soon as the pumpkin pie cooled off: Christmas trees are expected to cost 30%more this season.
– The inflation situation…Consumer prices jumped the most in 31 years last month, but soaring prices haven’t stopped US consumers from splurging, and holiday spending is expected to hit a record $860B… cha-ching!
The Market:
– There are 375,000 single-family homes on the market at this moment. That is down 2.5% from last week. Again, there is no new surge of inventory on the horizon, and it is likely that we’ll end the year with less than 300,000 homes for sale at the end of the year.
– The question now becomes…are we in what appears to be a ‘new normal’ for our housing market: Low inventory, strong demand, and rising prices for 2022?
– We can see that demand is still strong in our tracking of the ‘immediate sales’. Last week, out of the 72,300 homes that came on the market last week, 20,206 sold within hours or days in that same period. Those ‘fast offers’, meaning buyers gobbling up the best homes almost immediately…continues unabated.
– As a result, home prices in the US are remaining robust. The median price of a single-family home came in at $379,900, which is a tick down from last week…and is very normal for this time of year. Now…get this…prices of single-family homes are down just 5% from the peak in May, which is less than seasonal norms. This is because we have stronger demand than normal and a critically low supply of homes, which is not normal.
– The price of New Listings ticked down this week to $349,000 and if we look back at the median price, which is higher, we see that the demand/supply issue is causing homes to continue to sell over the list price.
Let’s look at price reductions…the percentage of homes that have been on the market that have taken a reduction in price. Price reductions nationally normally run about one-third of the existing inventory. Currently, we’re at 27.4%, which again shows how strong demand continues to be.
Let’s Get Local………
– Castro Valley: This week the median list price is $1,200,000 which is up a bit from last week and the Market Action Index (MAI) is 89, up from last week, with average Days on Market (DOM) at 36 with the inventory at 21. While the MAI shows some signs of strengthening in the last few weeks, prices have not seemed to move from their plateau.
– San Lorenzo: This week the median list price is $839,000with the MAI at 90. This is an increase of last week’s market action index of 85. Inventory has bumped up to 9 and DOM is 22.
Home sales continue to outstrip supply and the MAI has been moving higher for several weeks. This is a seller’s market so watch for upward pricing pressure soon if the trend continues.
– San Leandro: This week the median list price is $822,500, which is down from last week’s $867,444. The MAI remains at 87 and inventory has decreased to 26 and DOM at 19. The San Leandro market has achieved a relative stasis point in terms of sales to inventory, however, inventory is sufficiently low to keep us in a strong seller’s market.
– Hayward: this week the median list price is $850,000, down from last week’s $898,000. the MAI is hovering around 86, inventory has decreased to 47 and DOM is at 43. I would repeat the same comments for Hayward that I used for San Leandro.
– Danville: this week the median list price is $2,800,000, down a bit from last week. The MAI is relatively unchanged at 90, inventory has remained flat at 21 and DOM is at 128. The Danville market appears to have begun to cool. It may take a few more weeks of slack demand for prices to reflect and begin to fall.
Our view of the market at this point in time is that there is still enough demand to warrant moving forward with your plans to sell even as we get into the holiday season. If you are worried about not having your new home secured while we sell yours, do not panic. This week, we helped another of our clients have their offer accepted on the first home they submitted an offer. We prevailed even though their offering price was not the highest price amongst the competitive offers. We negotiated their sale with a contingency allowing them to find a home to purchase, get an accepted offer and then move forward with both transactions concurrently.
There are also other workarounds with is the perfect segue to asking you to reach out to either one of us and let’s brainstorm the strategy that is right for you.
Happy trails to you…. until we meet again… (Theme song from the Roy Rogers Show 1951-57).
Warmly, Dean Souza
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Dean & Crystal Souza
Realtor | Broker Associate
Century 21 RE Alliance – Souza Team
homes@souzateam.com
510-881-1761
DRE 00967442 | 01448392
Focused on the Success of Your Move
This is not intended to solicit properties or persons under contract.
