Market update, April 2022
What is happening in this real estate market? Is it still strong? Crazy? Are prices going up? Static? Falling? How much inventory is there? I’ll try to answer these questions in this article.
From where I sit, I am as busy as ever. My days are scheduled from when I wake up until when I go to bed, or at least it feels that way. What I have noticed that is different now than a year ago is that I am taking more listings on and that some of my business has been in looking at properties, doing market analyses for these properties and then getting them ready to put on the MLS (multiple listing service). When I ran a report from the Bay Area Real Estate Information Services site, one of the MLS I belong to, I found that I am not alone:
For sale vs sold in Anderson Valley for the last 14 months
As you can see in the chart, the average number of properties for sale held steady between 14 and 18 for most of the 14 month period; then, in February it went up to 20 and in March to 25. The number of sold properties has dropped as well, with no sales in January and February and only one in March. To be clear, this is for Anderson Valley only.
How quickly are properties moving? The next graph shows the number of days on market, meaning how many days it has been since a property was listed on the MLS until it was sold:
Graph shows days on market for properties in Anderson Valley from January 2021 to March 2022.
The number of days on market has been decreasing, meaning properties are selling faster than in the past 14 months. It will be interesting to look at this same chart in a few months and see what happens with all the new listings that have come on in the past couple of months - will they also be sold quickly? Or will they sit for longer?
Next, let’s see if I can answer whether or not prices are going up. This one is more difficult to answer in a graph because there isn’t a lot of data, however, this is what we have:
Graph shows sold prices vs. list prices in Anderson Valley from January 2021 to March 2022.
Other than a slight blip in the middle of last year, prices have held fairly steady. Most sales were within 90% of asking or thereabouts. We haven’t had a lot of sales yet this year to make many comparisons, so again, this will be interesting to return to in a few months.
Finally, what about inventory? As we have seen, there’s more properties for sale in Anderson Valley now than in the past 14 months. The following chart shows that inventory in terms of months:
This graph shows months of inventory over the past 14 months to March of 2022.
Right now the graph is showing that we have just over two years worth of inventory. Will that hold? A half year ago the graph shows 18 months of inventory, yet a few months after that there was only three months’ of inventory. Like so many of the other graphs, this one leaves us wondering what the next few months will hold. Are we at the beginning of a slow down? Or will another buying frenzy happen and gobble up all of the inventory? I’ll check in again in a few months and we can see what has transpired.
Disclaimer: This information is based on sales reported in Bay Area Real Estate Information Services, Inc. (BAREIS) and is not verified and is subject to change. Listings represented may not have been listed or sold by (Anne L. Fashauer/North Country Real Estate).