The July 2022 Almaden Valley real estate market is showing signs of normalizing after two years of dramatic imbalance that strongly favored sellers and sent home prices on an upward trajectory. Inventory has increased significantly, assisting in the transition of the market to buyer-driven. On a national level, buyers seem to be hesitating home purchases due to mortgage rates and other economic factors. With the number of pending and sold single family homes retracting from what we were seeing over a year ago despite the increase in inventory, it is likely that our real estate market is reacting in a similar manner. Although we usually see a cooling happening the end of summer, the graph below demonstrates that we are indeed seeing a healthy increase in homes for sale.

Where we are seeing strong evidence that the seller’s market is retreating is in the average price per square foot. It went from $1027/sqft in June to $898 in August. Much of this can be due to the afore-mentioned seasonal fluctuation we see this time of year. However, we are seeing over double the months’ worth of inventory (up to 2.9 months in July versus 1.2 months in June) plus an increase in days on market from 11 days in July 2021 to 24 days in July 2022.

All this points to a more normal real estate market. Although there are plenty of buyers in the market for homes, the increasing number of sellers mean there is more choice and buyers are less likely to get into bidding wars for available homes. This means that sellers will need to do more to differentiate their homes from others on the market and capture the attention and interest of buyers. If you are thinking of selling your home in our changing market, contact me and let me show you how to can make YOUR home stand out from the others.