The local real estate gurus at Market Watch recently released their take on the Coachella Valley’s real estate market.  Some of their findings include:

  • The Coachella Valley’s median sales price for detached homes has bounced above and below 4% for the last 3 and a half years. However, for October 2016 the median sales price for detached homes reached $340,000, a year over year change of 6% from the Coachella Valley’s October 2015 median price of $320,000. The October median price of $239,000 for attached units in the Valley was higher than a year ago by $14,000 or 6.2% which parallels the 6% gain in detached homes;
  • Sales numbers continue to grow at a slow, steady pace, with average sales over the last three months of 683 units a month (10% above the 622 average in October 2015). The seasonal pattern is generally for three month sales to make lows around October, stabilize, and then slowly begin to rise in late winter and early spring. If this occurs again, Market Watch predicts that three month sales might possibly average close 950 to 1,000 units by next spring; 
  • For the first time in over a year inventory (4,350 units on Nov. 1, 2016) is less than it was the same time a year ago (4,545 units on Nov. 1, 2015). The combination of slowly rising sales and declining inventory is lowering the “months of sales” ratio for the first time in a number of years. On Nov. 1st the ratio was 6.1 months, which is lower than 6.4 months last Nov. 1st. The metric called “Median Days on the Market” that measures how fast homes are selling over the last 3 months, was 72 days compared to 89 days last October;
  • In looking at home sales by price range, Market Watch noted that sales under $200k are lower simply because fewer homes are selling in that range. Sales in the price bracket from $200k to $300k remain the highest but are only 8% higher than a year ago. Sales of homes priced from $300k to $500k are 15% higher. The big increase in sales is the 43% increase for homes priced from $500k and $600k. Finally, there is a 23% increase in sales of homes priced over $1M; and
  • The latest “Sale Price Discount from List” is at -2.4% exactly equal to the discount one year ago. As the graph clearly shows the discount has been slowly declining for eight months now. A -2.4% discount implies that the selling discount to a home listed for $300,000 was approximately $7,200.