How’s the market performing? Will the market pick up and flush out high levels of inventory?
Hello… I hope you’re enjoying the lifestyle our beautiful desert offers. I think so many locals take this for granted because it’s so easy to live here. I can tell you visitors from the North West as well as many other areas of the world are so happy to be here enjoying our warm dry sunny climate.
Our recent weather has certainly been hotter, though from everything I can see with a few price segment exceptions, the market continues to remain cool but steady. Knowing there is a plethora of inventory in most price segments, it is clearly a buyers’ market. Even though we’ve lost most Canadian buyers for the time being, and overall less homes have sold year over year, the market continues to remain somewhat steady. Today buyers are picky because they can be, and sellers who have attempted to do the sloppy quick flip in other words “put lipstick on a pig” can be sitting unsold until they step into reality with their expectations. The opposite side – quality homes priced right sell. Over the past 2 years in many situations sellers have had to lower their expectations to get their homes sold. It’s all about value in the eyes of the buyer, as I have reiterated previously, buyers have hundreds of internet portals to log-in to these days with more information than you can imagine, not to mention great images enabling them to pre-qualify homes ready to purchase before they even see them, or check them off the preview list.
Below please find a breakdown of both homes Sold and Price segments in the Cities of Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells and La Quinta.
The $250,000 -$500,000 price segment took a big dip in sales numbers year over year with 134 SOLDs in Feb 2015 and only 79 SOLDs in Feb 2016. An average of the 4 Cities; RM, PD, IW & LQ – Sold median prices dipped significantly in February from $392,875 in 2015 down to $338,250 this year.
Sales in the $500,000 – $750,000 price segment rose slightly 36 homes sold in Feb 2015 to 40 homes sold in 2016 though sales prices were somewhat flat with the exception of La Quinta enjoying a significant rise in median Sold price from $560,000 in 2015 up to $647,000 in 2016
Sales in the $750,000 – $1M price segment dipped from 22 SOLDS in Feb 2015 to 15 SOLDS in 2016, though the median sales price rose slightly
Sales in the $1M – $1.25M price segment rose from 9 SOLDs in 2015 to 12 SOLDs in 2016. The median SOLD price dipped in both RM & PD, but rose slightly in both IW & LQ
Sales in the $1.25M – $1.5M price segment rose from 5 SOLDs in 2015 – 6 SOLDs this year. The median SOLD price dipped in all cities except La Quinta taking a very slight gain.
Sales in the $1.5M – $2M price segment were par with 13 SOLD in Feb 2015 and 13 SOLD this February. This has been the most consistent performing price segment year over year.
Sales in the $2M-$2.5M price segment dipped from 3 sales in Feb 2015 to 2 this February… SLOW
Sales in the $2.5M – $3M price segment dipped from 3 SOLDs in Feb 2015 to 2 this February… SLOW
Sales $3M and above were par year over year with 3 SOLDS in Feb 2015 and 3 this February… SLOW
Click Here to see a year over year chart of sales and prices covering my areas of expertise; Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, and La Quinta
Will the market pick up and flush out high levels of inventory? The stock market is looking better and oil prices are rising, two important factors that influence confidence levels in prospective buyers. What I do know from my many years as a desert native, as well as the desert being a resort community, election years can cause buyers to be somewhat skeptical and slower to pull the trigger with a purchase. Nobody can take away the fact that our beautiful desert is and always will be a desirable and wonderful place to call home, whether part time or year around, people will continue to buy and sell. We have experienced some drastic positive changes in the market over the past few years and I am confident the market will eventually improve. Let’s see what happens this season. March, April and May are usually very GOOD seasonal sales months, and we’re all hoping for a strong season ahead. Positive thoughts as we move forward.