The first third of 2019 has been better than expected. Sales are only 6% below the average for the last five years, and the median sales price hasn’t dropped much:
NSDCC Sales, January – April
| Year | ||||
| 2015 | ||||
| 2016 | ||||
| 2017 | ||||
| 2018 | ||||
| 2019 |
A few more listings this year, but no flood, and limiting sales somewhat just because of the lack of choice. The tight supply keeps everything in check – price swings aren’t as obvious either.
More data released today on pricing trends, and though San Diego didn’t make this chart, we’re probably in the normal range with Los Angeles because our Case-Shiller indicies have been similar (+1.8% vs +1.1% YoY in SD). Interesting that they call San Francisco ‘undervalued’.
Both the HPI and the Case-Shiller Index were the February readings. There is optimism that YoY pricing will pick up as the selling season rolls on, but they are predicting that prices will decline from March to April, which is unusual:
Looking ahead, after some initial moderation in early 2019, the CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates home prices will begin to pick up and increase by 4.8% on a year-over-year basis from March 2019 to March 2020. On a month-over-month basis, home prices are expected to decrease by 0.3% from March 2019 to April 2019. The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a projection of home prices calculated using the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state.
These guys don’t make their data public. Using the Case-Shiller Index instead, we see that the last time we had a drop between March and April was in 2009, at the bottom:
Zillow is predicting virtually-flat MoM results too.
Flat pricing during the prime selling season, and after we had six months of declines at the end of 2018? Could this be where we top out, exactly ten years later?
If you’re thinking of selling, contact me today!
Link to Press Release
There are more soundbites about sales and pricing being down overall, but the market for detached-homes between La Jolla and Carlsbad is hanging in there.
There was an extra business day this year, and there will be more sales reported over the next few days – if those two balance each other out, we’re only about 5% under last year’s sales count, and the pricing trend is higher:
| Year | ||||
| 2016 | ||||
| 2017 | ||||
| 2018 | ||||
| 2019 |
Angelo Mozilo said he never saw a soft landing, but if mortgage rates stay close to 4% and sellers can live with the same price as the last guy got, then this might be the first soft landing in history.
The selling season should hold its own, and it will be the off-season where we could see more dramatic swings due to less volume.
Rich’s latest data is up at www.piggington.com.
He mentioned the slightly-negative turn in pricing last month, but I like these two graphs above. The pricing trend is going to bounce around – as long as we have sales counts close to previous years, we’ll be fine.
This interactive graph shows how our monthly sales this year may be less than they were in 2018, but look great compared to previous years. June has been the peak month for sales in each of the last five years – it’s go time right now!
It looks like San Diego County is #1 among the higher-end locations!
We’re probably at the top of the Too-Nice-To-Leave list too, which helps – and should keep our market stable. If sellers can’t get their price this year, they will wait-and-see what next year will bring!
https://www.car.org/en/aboutus/mediacenter/newsreleases/2019releases/march2019sales
Ryan is seeing it in Sacramento about the same as we see it here. The market is active but statistically the pricing has been fairly flat – it could be worse!
Check out his latest blog post here:
http://sacramentoappraisalblog.com/2019/04/11/the-booming-flat-market-rate-addiction/
The NSDCC closed sales got off to a hot start in 2019!
But by March 4th, pendings had stalled and were 19% under last year’s total. Now that stall pattern is playing out in the March closings too:
NSDCC Detached-Home Sales, Year-Over-Year Changes:
| Year | |||
| January | |||
| February | |||
| March |
But the recent flurry of activity has us catching up. The pendings count today is only six behind the count on April 2nd of last year (340 vs 346).
The published March sales counts are going to be disappointing, even if we have a bunch of late-reporters. But the April/May sales should be healthier!
The first quarter report! Better than expected, and with rates dropping to 4% and under, the second quarter is shaping up nicely:
Mortgage rates have continued their slide, and lenders should be offering fixed-rate loans with rates starting in the threes again, with little or no points! The new pendings are flowing, but we still haven’t seen a flood of new listings:
NSDCC Detached-Home Listings and Sales in March
| Year | ||||
| 2015 | ||||
| 2016 | ||||
| 2017 | ||||
| 2018 | ||||
| 2019 |
The latest numbers are month-to-date, and will increase considerably with four business days to go. But the March sales will end up well under last year’s count, though the lower rates should help boost sales in April and May.
There are threes on the street:
For those who want to prepare for making an offer and would like to review our contracts, the California Association of Realtors have made available a sample copy with explanations:
https://www.car.org/riskmanagement/Consumer-RPA
Don’t be surprised if it’s a little clunky.
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home? Contact Jim the Realtor!
CA DRE #01991628, CA DRE #00873197
