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Local real estate market experts, Market Watch LLC, have just released their May 2020 Desert Housing Report. Some of the highlights:
The Coachella Valley detached home median price in May was $440,000 (an increase of 2.3% year-over-year).
The Coachella Valley attached home median price in May was $289,500 (a decrease of 2.5% year-over-year). Market Watch noted that looking back over 10 years, May has always been the start of a four-or-five month period of declines in attached home median prices. This appears to be the case again this year. Market Watch did comment that the decline in median price year-over-year doesn't appear to be caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
On a city by city basis, the detached home median prices increased in 6 Coachella Valley cities (increasing by more than 10% in Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs and Coachella). Palm Springs’ detached home median price of $705,000 is now 17% higher than the previous peaks reached in 2006-2007. Attached home median prices increased or stayed flat in Palm Springs (up 5% year-over-year), Indio (up 3.3% year-over-year and Palm Desert (with no change). Rancho Mirage showed a decrease in attached home median prices of 17.7% year-over-year).
In looking at the 3-month moving average sales numbers, Market Watch noted that the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic is beginning to show. Year-over year, total home sales are now averaging 679 units a month down 32% from the average monthly sales of 995 units a year ago. Sales of detached homes (averaging 489 units per month) decreased by 25% year-over-year and sales of attached homes (averaging 190 units per month) decreased by 44% year-over-year.
Looking at home sales per month by city, Market Watch noted that sales decreased year-over year in every Coachella Valley city, with declines of 39% in Rancho Mirage, 36% in Palm Desert and 35% in Palm Springs. Market Watch noted that this is due to the fact that these three cities have the largest condominium markets, which have been more heavily affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Home sales by price range revealed that the largest declines in sales were for homes priced under $500,000. Market Watch felt that this was due to the fact that attached homes generally fall into these lower price ranges.
On June 1st inventory, Coachella Valley housing stood at 2,790 units (640 units less than at the same time last year). Current inventory is the lowest June 1st reading since 2015.
On June 1st, the months of sales ratio was 3.7 months (0.6 months less than the 4.3 months of sale ratio on June 1st 2019). This ratio is calculated by taking inventory and dividing it by the average sales rate over the last 12 months. Market Watch explained that while home sales have declined because of the quarantine, inventory has declined even more, thereby producing this lower ratio. The median value of days in the market is 54 days, which Market Watch noted is one of the lowest readings in the last five years.
In looking at months of sales by price range, Market Watch pointed out that month of sales ratio year-over-year decreased in all the price ranges from $200,000 to over a million dollars. The ratio continues to be considerably lower in every price bracket year-over-year, but especially so in the million-dollar plus price range.
The May median value for sale price discount from list was -2.0% (0.2% less than a year ago). This implies that an average home in the Coachella Valley offered at $400,000 sold for $392,000.
