With the Holidays just behind us now, the numbers for Monterey, California are a bit on the sluggish side, which is to be expected. The number of sales in January reflects just how little was going on here in Monterey in the month of December. With jumbo loans still very difficult to get, and with the over abundance of lower priced investment opportunities in the surrounding areas, it is no surprise we only had 3 closed transactions for the month. But as you can see, there were only 5 sales last year in 2008 for the month of January. Historically the month of January is slow for Monterey and the rest of the Peninsula as tourism is slow, the weather is sometimes a challenge, and the locals are not making any significant moves over the holidays.
The real difference can be seen in the number of pending properties and in the average and median prices when compared year over year. January of 2008 saw 14 properties pending at the end of January while this year there are only 6! That represents a significant slowing in buyer activity. The average price is down 30% from a year ago to $455,000 and the median price fell 34% to $430,000.
Buyers are very particular right now and are looking for a deal. Foreclosures are starting to impact non distressed sales and buyers are becoming more bold with their offers and sellers are realizing they may not get a better offer than the first one. This can be seen in the sales price being 14% less than the asking price on average.
Sales in Monterey were rising steadily the second half of the year as many first time home buyers are taking advantage of the lower prices available to them and I would expect them to pick back up where they left off once winter ends.
Days of inventory hit a 2 year low in December. This was partially due to a strong month of sales and many sellers taking their homes off the market for the holidays.
Prices on the Monterey Peninsula rarely go down like they have in recent months! This is a great time to take advantage of the lower prices and the historically low interest rates to finally own a piece of Monterey real estate.
The real estate market is very hard to generalize. It is a market made up of many micro markets. For complete information on a particular neighborhood or property, call me or send me an email.
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