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Our local real estate experts, Market Watch LLC, have just released their October 2018 Desert Housing Report containing their opinion on the state of our local real estate market.  Some of the highlights:

The Coachella Valley detached home median price in October was $387,000 ($2,000 less than the detached home median price in September but $37,000 or 10.5% higher than the detached home median price in October 2017).

The Coachella Valley attached home median price in October was $265,000 ($5,000 more than the attached home median price in September and $30,000 or 12.8% more than the attached home median price in October 2017). Market Watch’s analysts noted that the usual June-October seasonal decline in attached home median price was much smaller than in previous years and predicted that the attached home median price could surpass $300,000 by May.

Detached home median prices increased in all 9 Coachella Valley cities, with year-over-year increases ranging from 31.4% in Indian Wells down to 4.1% for Cathedral City. Overall, detached home median prices remain below the 2006 high by over 20% in La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City.

Attached home median prices increased in all Coachella Valley cities except Cathedral City, where the year-over-year median price declined by 5.9%.  Increases in the attached home median price in the other cities ranged from 31.3% in Indio to 4.6% in Indian Wells. Overall, attached home median prices remain below the 2006 high by over 30% in La Quinta, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City.

The average 12 months sales of detached homes rose from 536 in October 2017 to 540 in October 2018 (an increase of 2%). The average 12 months sales of attached homes rose from 286 in October 2017 to 304 in October 2018 (an increase of 6%). Total average 12 months sales rose from 822 in October 2017 to 849 in October 2018 (an increase of 3%). Market Watch’s analysts noted that they expect long term sales to average around 850 units per month through most of 2019.

Three-month sales at the city level show three cities (Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and Desert Hot Springs) with higher sales year-over-year, two (Coachella and La Quinta) with the same sales year-over-year and six cities (Bermuda Dunes, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Indio, Palm Springs and Thousand palms) with lower sales.

Generally, sales continue to increase in higher price brackets and decline in lower brackets simply because more homes are moving into the higher brackets. As an example of this trend, three years ago 53% of sales were for homes priced under $300k versus 40% now. The largest numerical increase in sales is for homes priced from $600k to one million.

Coachella Valley Inventory was 3,173 units (an increase of 505 units from the 2,780 units available on October 1st)) . However, Market Watch’s analysts point out that this is a seasonal increase as the graph clearly shows large jumps between October 1st and November 1st every year. Compared to previous November 1st numbers, this is the lowest inventory of the last six years.

The months of supply ratio on November 1st was 3.7 months, up from 3.3 months on October 1st. Market Watch’s analysts point out that compared with the previous November 1st months of supply for the last six years, this is by far the lowest reading and is a sign the market in the desert continues to be a seller’s market. Days on the market on November 1st was 64 days, three days less than on November 1st, 2017.

The months of supply ratio continues to be lower across all price brackets compared to a year ago, showing that the market improvements over the last two years are across all price ranges.

Except for Thousand Palms, Indio and Coachella, the months of supply ratio was lower for every city in the Coachella Valley on November 1st compared to last year. Every city except Indian Wells has a months of supply ratio under six months. Market Watch analysts pointed out that Cathedral City, Palm Springs and Palm Desert all have months of supply ratios under 3.5 months.