Market picking up
January hit five-year low, but picked up in February
Date Published: March 2006
Real Estate
The Conference Board's "Consumer Confidence Index" released for January placed consumer confidence at its highest level in more than three years. The index stands at 106.3, up from 103.8 in December. The real estate market has a long history of tracking with consumer confidence, but is that true now?
Word out of the Bay Area is that January home sales hit a five-year low in January while inventory and days on market are increasing. Agents report that the market is nowhere as competitive as it was a year ago and are advising sellers not to put homes on the market and expect "multiple offer bidding" to drive the price up. Could it be that buyers cannot bear rising prices anymore? The next couple of months will be telling.
In Placer County we have experienced the expected January inventory increase.
New listings (778), are up 51 percent compared to January 2005, when 514 sellers entered the market. Listing inventory stands at 1,853, a 115 percent increase when compared to 861 a year ago. In the county, 248 sellers found buyers, a 47 percent increase over December when only 168 homes sold. January's sales were essentially the same as last October and November, a slowing period. The median sales price in January was $462,000, a 9.7 percent decrease from the 2005 median sales price high ($517,000) reached last August.
The January Granite Bay resale market has started to stir when compared to a dead December. Thirteen sellers found buyers when only five homes sold in December. That's an increase of 160 percent, but still well below January 2005 when 24 homes sold.
Inventory has increased slightly to 142 homes for sale in January and is well above the 83 homes on the market in January 2005. The Granite Bay January 2006 Home Sale chart shows a decrease in median price, but remember our sample size is statistically very small.
Word out of the Bay Area is that January home sales hit a five-year low in January while inventory and days on market are increasing. Agents report that the market is nowhere as competitive as it was a year ago and are advising sellers not to put homes on the market and expect "multiple offer bidding" to drive the price up. Could it be that buyers cannot bear rising prices anymore? The next couple of months will be telling.
In Placer County we have experienced the expected January inventory increase.
New listings (778), are up 51 percent compared to January 2005, when 514 sellers entered the market. Listing inventory stands at 1,853, a 115 percent increase when compared to 861 a year ago. In the county, 248 sellers found buyers, a 47 percent increase over December when only 168 homes sold. January's sales were essentially the same as last October and November, a slowing period. The median sales price in January was $462,000, a 9.7 percent decrease from the 2005 median sales price high ($517,000) reached last August.
The January Granite Bay resale market has started to stir when compared to a dead December. Thirteen sellers found buyers when only five homes sold in December. That's an increase of 160 percent, but still well below January 2005 when 24 homes sold.
Inventory has increased slightly to 142 homes for sale in January and is well above the 83 homes on the market in January 2005. The Granite Bay January 2006 Home Sale chart shows a decrease in median price, but remember our sample size is statistically very small.
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The Current Granite Bay Housing Inventory chart depicts Granite Bay market activity as of Feb. 15 and is intended to provide a near "real-time sense" of the market. Seventeen sellers found buyers in the first 15 days of February, which is significantly more than the first 15 days of January when only two homes sold. This is great news and if sustained during the remainder of February, would approach the robust market experienced in early 2005.
Glen Walder has been a Granite Bay resident since 1977 and a Realtor since 1992. He can be reached at glen.walder@prurealty.com.
