The Hammond Real Estate Report

Like many American markets, the Santa Cruz real estate market has suffered its bouts of ups and downs throughout the past couple of years amid the larger financial crisis afflicting the U.S. The government’s stimulus program offering up to $8,000 in tax rebates to select home buyers helped the market regain some of its ground in the latter half of 2009.

Unfortunately some of the ground that was recovered at the end of the year seems to have slipped back in 2010. In January, the average price for a single-family residence sold in the Santa Cruz market was $569,544, down from over $603,000 in December 2009. Similarly, the median price in January was $480,000, down from $555,000 in December.

There were 94 homes sold in January, the first month sales figures fell below 100 since February 2009. The month saw a total inventory of 691 Santa Cruz homes for sale on the market, 208 of which were new. The condo market saw 22 total sales, the lowest figure since March 2009. In January, there were 212 condos on the market, 54 of which were new. Home inventory now sits at just 4.7 months worth, down from 11.9 months a year ago, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Condos and townhomes in the Santa Cruz market saw a drop in prices in January as well. The average price for a sold condo was about $359,000, down from over $378,500 in December 2009. The median price fell from $350,000 in December to just $313,500 in January.

Bainbridge homes for sale have seen a slight rise in popularity as federal government tax credits help to spur demand and increase interest, especially for first-time home buyers.  According to Rachel Pritchett of the Kitsap Sun on November 5, 2009, “the 380 pending home sales in October in Kitsap County were a substantive 59 percent jump over October 2008.  Experts say renewed interest is from buyers rushing to make the Nov. 30 deadline of a tax-credit program where they can save $8,000.”  Interestingly, while many properties in Western and Central Washington saw declines in value of up to seventeen percent, the article claims that Kitsap County, and especially real estate in Bainbridge, have been able to keep steady pricing despite the tough economic environment.

Another positive sign for the Bainbridge area was that “there were 1,795 homes for sale in Bainbridge Island in October, 27 percent fewer than a year ago. Sellers have pointed to a shrinking inventory as another sign of a market that is stabilizing.”  In what could be one of the slowest turnarounds in real estate history, both buyers and sellers are beginning to realize that they can only demand so much and must let uncontrollable factors do the rest.  On November 11, 2009, Pritchett followed up with another article about how well Kitsap County was doing compared to the rest of Washington state and the rest of the nation.  In terms of hard statistics, “eleven percent of all homes sold in Kitsap in September sold at a loss; nationally, it was 27 percent.  About 29 percent of homes saw increasing value over the past 12 months; nationally, it was 22 percent.”  These numbers are actually quite unusual for such a remote place like Kitsap County and Bainbridge Island.

Bainbridge Island real estate is definitely showing great improvement as the economy begins to move again and the recession begins to dry out.  Yahoo! Real Estate showed a 6 percent increase in the median home price between October and November to almost $160,000 while foreclosed homes jumped even higher, 6.9 percent, to over $80,000.