Coastal Real Estate and Lifestyles

Market activity and consumer feelings are consistent with my last morsel on 3/26/08.  Half Moon Bay March inventory was 7.6 months - pretty much on par with February.  While volume continues to be suppressed, HMB’s total sales volume was about double that of January 08.

In the last morsel, I mentioned that we were trending toward a balanced market with January’s 8.4 and February’s 7.2.  With 3 months of data to work with now, that ’s not the case to date.  April’s final numbers to come, are 7.5 months of inventory, incorporating 12 new HMB listings in April.  That said, not all listings are affected, the right combination of property/buyer/seller will put a home into contract within the first week.

For Half Moon Bay:
March - 22 new listings; 10 accepted contracts from total inventory - 2 within first week.
April - 12 new listings; 7 accepted contracts from total inventory - 2 within first week.

For El Granada:
March - 8 new listings; 2 accepted contracts from total inventory - 1 within first week.
April - 11 new listings; 3 accepted contracts from total inventory - 1 within first week.

A new trend is working to keep the property in contract.  While buyers and sellers both want to move forward, the new lending guidelines are catching some people off guard.  Some loan programs continue to be attractive - if the buyer comes to the table prepared; however, with the financial market’s pendulum now swinging heavily toward conservative investments, some loans take longer to go through than many buyers might expect.