First Quarter Has Been Strong
It has been a very strong 1st quarter for the real estate market in Santa Cruz. Much better than last year at this time. The perception of the buyers is that the market has hit the bottom, and it is a good time to buy. The sellers seem to be more willing to negotiate prices.Interest rates remain stable, unemployment is down, & new housing Stats are down (which is good for us in the home resale market). We still have lots of second home buyers looking at Santa Cruz properties. And once again we in the Santa Cruz real estate are so different from most of the rest of the country let alone the state.
For all the talk of a housing slowdown, almost 97 percent of people who sold Bay Area homes in November, got more than they paid for their properties and almost half of those homeowners doubled their money a new report from First American Real Estate Solutions quoted. They are attempting to quantify the profit realized on home sales, not including any money the owners spent on improvements. The median estimated profit for the nine Bay Area counties plus Santa Cruz & Monterey was $315,000, or 88 percent, with a medium holding period of six years. That works out to an appreciation of 11.1% per year, well over the rate of inflation, which averaged 2.7% during the same period. That is good news, even though some sellers don’t feel it is enough as compared to a few years ago. Looking at the bigger picture shows that real estate continues to be a great investment.
Please call me if you have any real estate related questions.