Loading ...Let’s see. I am beginning to feel like Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day”. Alarm goes off, I get out of bed, and the everything looks eerily similar. For the Pleasanton CA real estate market, the month of June looked a lot like the month of May. Sales were steady but not spectacular, the economic and national real estate news was troubling, and an air of uncertainty hung over the real estate market like…. well like smoke from dozens of wild fires. Wait, that was smoke from dozens of wild fires.
It’s not that all of the news is bad. There are some mixed signals in the market, or at least the real estate market. As long as you don’t have your life savings invested in GM stock, things are doing pretty well, all things considered. We continue to see signs that some of the depressed markets in outlying areas are turning the corner, with sales activity up substantially in the previously decimated markets of Brentwood, Tracy, Antioch, and Stockton for example. And the continued sluggish market is creating some excellent deals on homes that would have had multiple offers back when Howie Mandell actually had hair.
For all of Pleasanton in June, the inventory of available single family homes ended the month at 243, which is actually down slightly from 245 at the end of May. Pending sales for the month of June were 49, down slightly from 53 pending sales in May. Basically a 5 month supply of homes on the market given the sales rate in June, which is not great, but not bad. (click on graph to enlarge).
For the under $1 million price range in Pleasanton, inventory was down from May, with 120 available single family homes at the end of June (as compared with 132 at the end of May). Pending sales were up, with 32 sales in the month of June as compared with 30 in May. Some neighborhoods are moving more than others, and there is still an emphasis on value in the market, but if priced right, you can still sell your home quickly in this price range. (Click on graph to enlarge).
For the $1 million to $2 million market, inventory was up slightly, with 81 available homes at the end of June, compared with 71 at the end of May. Pending sales were down some in this bracket, with 14 sales in June as opposed to 20 in April and May. Financing has remained problematic in this price bracket, with delays and hyper-stringent underwriting making transactions difficult and fraying the nerves of all parties to the transaction. (Click on graph to enlarge).
In the luxury home segment over $2 million, things remained unchanged in June. There were 42 available homes on the market at the end of both May and June, and 3 pending sales in both months. Activity in this price segment remains sluggish, and there continues to be downward pressure on prices here. (Click on graph to enlarge)
As we enter the prime summer months, all eyes remain on the Fed, who is walking the tight rope between lowering rates and increasing liquidity to shore up the battered banking system on the one hand, and taking steps to shore up the dollar to fight runaway oil prices and inflation on the other hand. How this battle takes shape in the coming months will go a long way in determining the state of the real estate market towards year end. And just to further confuse the waters, it is an election year, so anything goes. One thing is for sure… we live in interesting times.
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Pleasanton Market Update - Same Old Tune