Market update

The real estate market locally has cooled considerably from a year ago. And it has cooled even more in the last six months. The combination of the interest rate hikes, the return to “normal” work with fewer remote options, the continued war in Ukraine, and now the bank failures have all had an impact. Locally, the prolonged winter weather has also slowed things down, with fewer people venturing out to look at properties for sale when it is pouring rain or even snowing.

The information below 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 Fashauer or North Country Real Estate.

First, the County, for the past year. For residential property only, in March of 2022 there were 290 homes for sale vs. 203 in February, 2023. There were 57 home sales vs. 28 and there were 78 homes put into contract (pended) vs. 38 in February, 2023. The number of homes for sale is less, but the significant change is close to 50% fewer sales and homes put into contract. For land property only, there were 207 pieces of land for sale in March, 2022 vs. 172 in February, 2023. There were 15 sales and 12 pending in March, 2022, vs. 6 sales and 6 pending in February, 2023. Again, we see nearly a 50% drop in the last year.

When I look at the County residential sales in the past six months, the number of homes for sale was 305 in September, 2022, the number of sales was 57 and the number of homes put into contract was 48. For land sales, the numbers in September, 2022, were 205, 14 and 10.

Anderson Valley never has a huge number of sales, but it is worth taking a look to see what is happening at the local level. In March, 2022, there were 18 homes for sale and just one sale and one pended. In February, 2023, there were just 12 homes for sale, but there were four homes sold and three pended, which makes this year look pretty good. Six months ago, September, 2022, those numbers were 12, two and one. Land sales, however, don’t look as rosy. There were 12 properties for sale in March, 2022, with no sales and three properties put into contract for sale. Six months later, September, 2022, there were ten listings, no sales and one pended. In comparison, in February, 2023, there were 11 properties listed, with no sales and no pending.

It will be worth looking at these numbers again in three months, as, hopefully, the weather turns nicer, and we start to see more folks looking at the listings for sale. In my opinion, the thing that is missing the most is a variety of property for sale. Right now there are 17 residential properties for sale, but only seven of these are listed for under $1,000,000 and of these, only one is listed for less than $500,000. There are seven land listings currently, with all but one (a vineyard) priced under $700,000.