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Local real estate market experts, Market Watch LLC, have just release their June 2018 Desert Housing Report. Some of the highlights:
The Coachella Valley detached home median price rose for the eighth straight month to $416,500 in June (an increase of 9.6% from June 2017 and the largest consecutive gain since 2013).
The Coachella Valley attached home median price rose to $279,000 in June (an increase of 8.8% from June 2017). Market Watch noted that 2018 is the strongest year price wise for attached homes since 2014. They also expect some price give back from June to October.
The year over year changes in city median prices for both detached and attached homes are the strongest Market Watch has observed since 2013. All but two cities (Indio and La Quinta) show double digit increases for detached home median prices. Detached home median prices remain more than 20% below the 2006 high detached home median prices in Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs, Coachella and La Quinta. Attached home median prices remain more than 20% below the 2006 high attached home median prices in all 9 of the Coachella Valley cities covered in this chart and more than 30% below the 2006 high attached home median prices in Desert Hot Springs and La Quinta.
Total three month sales in June averaged 1,039 units a month (an increase of 3.6% from total sales of 1,003 units in June 2017). Detached home sales averaged 658 units a month (an increase of 3% year-over-year) and attached home sales averaged 381 units per month (an increase of 4.6% year-over-year). Market Watch forecast the normal seasonal decline should reduce total home sales to roughly 800 units per month by November.
In June, seven cities showed higher sales while four showed lower sales. The largest increase in home sales was in Palm Desert, with sales at 233 units (versus 215 sales in June 2017). Indio also showed a large increase, with June sales of 131 units (versus 114 sales in June 2017). Market Watch mentioned that of the four cities with lower sales, none showed a large decline (e.g., Palm Springs had 213 home sales per month, down five units from June 2017, and Indian Wells had 37 home sales per month, down four units from June 2017).
For homes priced under $300k, sales were off substantially, because there are so few homes selling under $300k. However, Market Watch saw a strong increase in sales of homes over $300k. For homes priced between $300k and $400k, sales were 239 units per month (versus 207 units per month a year ago). For homes priced between $400k and $500k sales were 128 units (up 15 units from last year). Sales of homes priced over $1M averaged 83 sales a month (up 19 units from last year).
The Coachella Valley’s housing inventory stood at 3,038 on July 1st (634 units less than July 1st, 2017 and the lowest July inventory since 2013). Market Watch noted that declining inventory is the prime reason for stronger home prices in the Coachella Valley.
With higher sales and lower inventory, Market Watch noted that the months of supply ratio has continued to decline to 3.6 months, as of July 1st. Market Watch felt that this was very positive and clearly indicated that the Coachella Valley’s housing market at this time is a “sellers’ market.” The median value for days on the market was 65 days (9 days less than at this time last year).
Market Watch observed large improvements in the months of supply ratio in all price brackets except the price bracket from $700k to $800k. They also commented that the months of supply ratio is below five months in all price brackets less than $700k.
Market Watch noted that on July 1st, every city had a months of supply ratio under five months except Indian Wells (at 6.2, but they also noted that this is a “below normal” ratio for a city with the fine, high priced homes that Indian Wells has). Every city except Coachella and Thousand Palms show improved ratios compared to a year ago.
The Desert Housing Report is produced for Coachella Valley real estate agents through the sponsorship and cooperation of the Palm Springs Regional Association of Realtors® (PSRAR) and the California Desert Association of Realtors® (CDAR) by Market Watch LLC.