Santa Cruz Real Estate Market Update: February 2022
Let’s take a look at the national real estate market as well as the local Santa Cruz real estate market. Where is the real estate market heading? What’s happening with mortgage interest rates? What’s going on with the Federal Reserve? What’s inflation doing? Gosh, there are just so many things to speculate on in today’s market. So let’s see what the experts have to say.
Hi, I’m Shemeika Fox, your Santa Cruz Real Estate Expert. The biggest factor to consider is that listings are hard to come by right now. According to realtor.com, the national average number of homes on the market we saw from December 2020 to December 2021 was almost 27% down year over year.
Even with these low inventory challenges, it has not slowed down the buyers. According to the ShowingTime monthly index, the number of showings that happened in November of 2021 is greater than the number in November of 2020. The President of ShowingTime says and I quote, “Showing traditionally lagged during the holiday season, but the data we’re seeing tells us that buyer demand remains strong. The fact that every region showed a year over year increase, indicates that buyers are undeterred and it speaks to their desire to keep searching for their next or first home.” These national real estate numbers are absolutely crushing the showing numbers from before the world went sideways.
Santa Cruz home buyers are out there and they are absolutely ready to buy. On a national average, homes have increased in value by $57,000 year over year. And in California, that number is $119,000 according to CoreLogic. Having that much equity in your home can give you a lot of options but it affects the market as well.
All of this equity going around has helped people climb out of forebearance and forebearance numbers have finally dropped below 1 million, according to Black Knight. With the status of banks fluctuating Fred Mac, Fannie Mae, MBA, and National Association of Realtors, all project interest rates to rise steadily through 2022, as high as four percent.
May Claire Bolton Smith, Senior Leader Research and Content Strategist of CoreLogic says this, “We may see a little bit of an uptick in the foreclosure rate in 2022. Just an uptick though. From an extraordinarily low level, we’re not expecting to see big increases.” But the consensus is that 2022 holds a housing market that remains strong. She goes on to say, “We expect delinquency rates overall on home mortgages to actually continue to remain quite, quite low.”
So how does this relate to how buyers and home sellers will relate to the market? We’ll make sure you know what the market looks like so that you know what to expect when you are deciding if now is the right time for you to buy or sell your Santa Cruz home.
Now for the local real estate market update and the numbers. The new year started the same way 2021 ended, with year over year inventory declines in all five MLS listings counties. Ranging from 7% in San Bernard County to 52% in Santa Clara County. San Mateo reported a 45% decrease while both Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties had 42% drops. All five counties also saw year over year median sale price gains with San Mateo at 25% leading the way. Followed by Santa Clara at 24%, San Benito 22%, Santa Cruz at 12%, and Monterey County at 3%.
In another indication of the buyer demand premiums IE, the percent paid over asking price, we are also up year over year in four of the five counties ranging from a hundred percent over the listing price paid in San Benito. A decline from 101 last year to 102 paid in Monterey, 104% in Santa Cruz, 110% in San Mateo, and 113% paid in Santa Clara. Half of the homes sounded Clara spent seven days or less on the market, a drop of one day from last month. The median days on market in San Mateo County was 10 days, three days less than last year, indicating continued strong demand. The median days on market in Monterey was 10 days, 12 days in San Benito, and 14 days in Santa Cruz County.
Finally, let’s do the number of closed sale transactions. Dropped in all counties compared to last January. The decline in sales was most acute in Santa Cruz County with a 32% drop followed by San Benito at 29%, Santa Clara at 24%, San Mateo at 18%, and Monterey reporting an 8% decline. And more specifically, let’s dive into this Santa Cruz numbers and real estate market.
In Santa Cruz County, the median single family home cost $1,250,000 and sold in 14 days for 104% of the list price. Based on 86 sales in January of 2022, inventory was up 30% from December but down 43% from January, 2021 with 125 homes available, compared to 219 homes last year. Average days on market was unchanged from December at 31 days. Median days increased two days from the month before. Number of new listings for the month of January increased a hundred percent over December and is down 10% from January of last year. Closed sales decreased 35% from December from 133 to 86 homes sold. This is down 32% from January, 2021.
In Santa Cruz County, the median residential common interest home costs $860,000 and sold in 10 days for 104% of the list price, based on 21 sales in January, 2022. Inventory was up 14% from December but is down 67% from January, 2021 with 24 homes available compared to 72 homes last year. Average days on market decreased one day from 25 to 24 or 4%. Median days on market increased by two days from the month before. Number of new listings for the month of January increased 47% over December but is down by 36% from January of last year. Closed sales dropped by 42% from December from 36 to 21 and was on 32% from January, 2021.
I hope this helps shed some light on the national and local real estate markets. If you would like to learn more about how this market will affect you and your real estate goals, feel free to reach out to me for a complimentary confidential consultation. I’m Shemeika Fox, your Santa Cruz Real Estate Expert and as always, I’m here to help. Make it a great day.
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