Spring and summer rush, high prices hit Stanislaus County housing market
Property values in Stanislaus County have gone up more than 10% in 2022, new data shows.
End-of-April data from TrendVision has home values up 10.2%, with interest rates at 5.4%. There’s also been a slight increase in inventory levels from March, and a small decrease in sales. Daniel Del Real, a broker associate at PMZ Real Estate, said in a May video message that “the rush of springtime is there, same as last year,” which is impacting the local market.
Markets typically are busier in the spring and summer months, with a slowdown in the fall and into the winter.
“Buyers are still buying, but (increasing interest rates are) slowing it down,” he said.
Demand is still high across the county, and inventory rates are still low, but Del Real said that as affordability keeps dropping, buyers are going to be more cautious.
The median sale price for a home in Stanislaus County has remained steady at $485,000 in May, up from $471,000 in April. To compare, the median sale price in April 2021 was $419,000, up from $408,000 in March of that year. Countywide median active, or listing prices, have consistently been over $500,000.
Houses spent an average of 14 days on the market in April, down from 19 days in March.
Even though there’s been a 19.2% inventory increase, the county still has less than a month’s worth of housing stock — March and April both came in at 0.7 months — which is significantly lower than rates in a healthy market, where inventory rates will typically cover three to four months of demand.
Del Real said inventory is at a record low in the region, with 3 million fewer homes for sale in 2022 than in 2007, “yet we have 14 million new households chasing 3 million fewer properties.”
“The demand is still very high, but if you keep messing with affordability, buyers can’t afford to buy,” Del Real added.
This story was produced with financial support from the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative. The Modesto Bee maintains full editorial control of this work.
This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 12:03 PM.
