Median home prices in Stanislaus increased last year. Here’s how your city stacks up
Median home prices in Stanislaus County have increased over 10% in the past year, despite effects on the market from the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to data from Core Logic, which provides financial, property and consumer information analytics, home prices in Stanislaus County increased 14.1% from December 2019 to December 2020. This represents a median price increase from $320,000 to $365,000 based on 634 sales.
In Modesto, prices also increased by 14.1%, from $311,250 to $355,000.
Other counties saw more modest increases. Home prices in San Joaquin County rose 6%, with a 36.2% increase in Escalon and a 4.5% uptick in Ripon. Ripon’s home prices topped the half-million mark, increasing from $495,000 to $517,500.
In Merced County, the increase was 14.7%, while Tuolumne County saw a price bump of 16.8%. Home values in San Francisco, meanwhile, increased by only 5.3%, and San Jose saw an 8.5% rise.
Daniel Del Real, a broker associate at PMZ Real Estate and the Del Real Group, said these numbers are indicative of the local housing market over the past year. As a result of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates and buyers could subsequently afford homes previously out of their price ranges.
“It increased everybody’s purchasing power by 15%,” he said. “Some of the same buyers that were buying at the median price point of $300,000 now were able to buy up to $360,000.”
Before the pandemic, Del Real said, Modesto was “poised and positioned” in one of its healthiest markets. There were two months’ worth of inventory available, and sales were going well. The market felt the early effects of the pandemic: in April and May, buyers pulled out of sales, and sellers took their houses off the market.
But within a few months, Del Real said, the market adapted and largely recovered. Still, supply issues continue to loom large.
Coming from a comparatively low-inventory market pre-pandemic, the last year “just slammed the inventory down” even further. Del Real said the market is operating with half the inventory it had a year ago.
According to TrendVision data, there were 543 homes for sale in Stanislaus County in December 2019. Just a year later, that number decreased to 266. Home values, meanwhile, have continued to increase.
“Right now, the sales have dropped down simply because there’s not enough inventory,” he said. “That pressure ... the sellers have benefited from that and then buyers are a little more pressed to make offers.”
Prices depend on sales, turnaround
There are some exceptions to this trend, however. In Newman, home values are down 23.4%, from $362,500 to $277,000. Del Real said stagnancy has caused this decrease.
Like other Stanislaus County cities, it has low inventory, but it’s not a result of many high-speed sales happening, like in Modesto. Rather, the same houses sit on the market for a longer period of time and begin to depreciate.
“As there’s a lack of inventory, there’s a lack of sales, and you start seeing this decrease in prices,” he said.
As economic recovery from the pandemic continues, interest rates are slowly rising. But Del Real said it will take a while for anyone in the Central Valley to feel the market slow down again.
There’s too much pent-up demand for the market to adjust immediately, Del Real added, and prices will continue to remain high.
“What we’re going to see is an increase in sales, because there’s so many buyers standing in the line to be able to purchase that can’t find anything,” Del Real said. “As you see properties come up on the market, they’re just going to be absorbed really quickly.”
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.
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This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
