Freakish price growth? Yes. That’s exactly what we’ve been seeing. Here we are again with what feels like a carbon copy of last year, which was our most aggressive market ever. In short, 2022 is doing its best to crush 2021. Let’s talk stats and perspective. I’d love to hear your take.
UPCOMING PUBLIC SPEAKING GIGS:
- 3/15/2022 NARPM Luncheon (details)
- 3/22/2022 SAFE Credit Union market update (details)
- 4/28/2022 SAR Think Like an Appraiser (details)
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Buyers are essentially running to the market to get in before rates spike more. On one hand affordability has declined as rates have risen substantially lately, but so far this has only created a frenzy to buy. At some point theoretically we’d expect to see demand soften due to rate increases, but we haven’t hit any sort of inflection point yet where buyers are backing off the market. That’s something to watch though with the number of purchase mortgage applications, pending contracts, and sales.
FREAKISH PRICE GROWTH:
Below I’d like to show a few examples of what price growth looks like in the Sacramento region right now. I suspect many markets across the country look something like this too.
A QUICK RECAP:
Some quick stats. Feel free to share some of these images on your social channels too. But please see my sharing policy. Thanks.
1) MASSIVE MEDIAN PRICE GROWTH:
This visual shows the median price in February in black, and this year is so far above others. It’s normal to see prices rise in February, but this is massive growth – especially in the eleventh year of this price cycle.
2) RECORD-BREAKING DOLLAR GROWTH:
This year the median price ticked up $31,000 from January to February. This is essentially the largest dollar gain we’ve seen in the Sacramento area between these two months. From a percentage standpoint this was a 5.56% increase. This isn’t the highest percentage ever, but it’s the second-highest percentage gain from 2004 (2015 saw a larger gain).
3) WEEKLY PRICE GROWTH HAS STARTED TO RAGE:
Check out the black line. That’s 2022, and it’s been raging higher. Until the last week of February it looked like the median price for the month was going to be strong, but nothing too crazy. But then stats starting coming in, and we see a much different trend. Remember, closed sales from last week really represent the market from about a month ago when these properties got into contract.
4) BUYERS PAID WAY ABOVE NORMAL:
On average buyers paid nearly $16,000 over the asking price last month. This is far above a normal February where buyers tend to pay closer to $10,000 BELOW the list price. It’s important to note February 2022 was about twice as much as February 2021. Keep in mind this is the average of every single escrow. This number doesn’t perfectly describe every single transaction. In other words, some buyers went way above this number and some went lower. The takeaway here is to know how disconnected this number is from normal rather than offer $15,764 above list price thinking that is the winning number. It might have to be way more. Or in some cases it could be less.
5) FEWER MULTIPLE OFFERS TECHNICALLY
This month there were fewer multiple offers compared to last year at the same time, but we’re actually seeing a more aggressive market today. On one hand this stat suggests the market is slightly cooler in temperature, but it doesn’t feel cooler because the offers that are being made are higher.
6) BUYERS MADE MORE AGGRESSIVE OFFERS:
This month there were fewer multiple offers compared to last year, BUT the market was more aggressive since buyers offered higher amounts above the list price to secure properties. This speaks to buyers having a fear of missing out on low mortgage rates (and anemic supply of course).
7) MORE INVENTORY IS COMING
We are seeing more listings hit the market. Typically, the market really starts to hit more of a stride in March with listings coming, so stay tuned. We won’t have enough listings, but more is better.
YEAR OVER YEAR:
Year over year stats are important to digest, but don’t forget to look at month to month stats to understand what the market is doing right now. Also, not every location and price range are going to have the same stats.
MONTH TO MONTH:
Year over year stats are important to digest, but don’t forget to look at month to month stats to understand what the market is doing right now. Keep in mind Placer County has a limited number of sales too, so I would take Placer with a grain of salt from month to month.
OTHER VISUALS:
As if anyone really wanted more…
MARKET STATS: I’ll have lots of market stats out this week on my social channels, so watch Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Thanks for being here.
SHARING POLICY: I welcome you to share some of these images on your social channels or in a newsletter. In case it helps, here are 6 ways to share my content (not copy verbatim). Thanks.
Questions: What are you seeing out there in the market?
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