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Number Of Homes Sold Rises While Values Remain Steady

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Sonora, CA – Despite or perhaps due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local home sales are up by five percent for the first half of this year.

Total sales through the second quarter at the end of June were 436 versus 415 homes that were sold through Q2 in 2019. However, home values are virtually unchanged as the median sales price and the average sales price barely moved.

In fact, the median price remained at $295,000 while the average sales price through Q2 2020 at $327,256 was $1,644 less than for the same period last year. Note that the median sales price is the value separating the higher half of the data from the lower half while the average sales price is the total of all sales divided by the number of sales.

Through June of this year, the total number of residential sales was 98 percent private (429 houses) with the remaining two percent (seven homes) sold as bank foreclosures. Last year, at this time, the total sales were 97 percent private (402 homes) with the remaining three percent either REO (12 houses) or short-sale (one home).

About 13 percent or 52 of the Q2 2020 home sales were at the $200,000 and below price-point. For Q2 2019 that segment made up about 15 percent (at 61 homes sold) of sales.

TCAR officials note that viable housing inventory at this price-point remains very difficult to find and suitable housing inventory in the $300,000-$500,000 range is becoming harder to find as well.

The average days on the market increased by five days or four percent through Q2 this year to 132 days versus 127 days over the same period in 2019. The average rate of almost 73 sales per month indicates just over a five-month inventory with 378 active listings as of TCAR’s current market snapshot taken July 13.

Statewide Numbers Affected By Mix Of Sales

The California Association of Realtors (CAR), in its latest report covering June 2020, indicates the statewide median home price came in at $626,170, up 6.5 percent from May and up 2.5 percent from June 2019.

State officials maintain a change in the mix of sales was one primary factor that pushed the median price higher in June, as sales of higher-priced properties bounced back stronger than lower-priced homes.

Existing, single-family home sales totaled 339,910 in June on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, up 42.4 percent from May and down 12.8 percent from June 2019. Year-to-date statewide home sales were down 12.9 percent in June.

Homes priced below $500,000, which made up 48 percent of total sales in the California market in May 2020, only comprised 44 percent of all sales in June 2020. The median number of days it took to sell a California single-family home was unchanged from a year ago at 19 days in June.

CAR’s statewide sales-price-to-list-price ratio was 99.5 percent in June 2020, up slightly from 99.2 in June 2019. The statewide average price per square foot for an existing single-family home was $293 in June 2020 and $291 the previous June.

The 30-year, fixed-mortgage interest rate averaged 3.16 percent last month, down from 3.80 percent from June 2019, according to Freddie Mac. The five-year, adjustable mortgage interest rate was an average of 3.09 percent, compared to 3.48 percent in June 2019.

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