A couple of years ago I was honored to represent CVEP as a speaker at the quarterly Market Watch Seminar series sponsored by Palm Springs Life. This seminar series presents a thorough examination of the residential real estate market. I would encourage readers to attend. Even if you are not a realtor, you will learn so much about housing trends and get a historical perspective on the local real estate market.
After enduring one whole year of COVID and its unimaginable alteration of everyday life, who could have imagined it would also result in a historic rise in housing prices for the Coachella Valley? The tables here from the March Market Match MLS report show the astonishing year-over-year rise in prices. Every city but Coachella saw double-digit increases in the median home price. The median price for a valley detached home in March was $549,000, 27.3% above last year. And in many cities, we have seen a doubling of the median house price since the post-Great Recession lows of 2011. In five cities median prices have exceeded historic highs. Total sales are 39% above last year. The inventory for homes for sale is at record lows and continues to decline, with “month of sales” figures now below one month, meaning that it would take less than one month to sell all the homes on the market.
Source: Market Watch, LLC, Palm Springs Regional Association of Realtors, California Desert Association of Realtors
As in most things, there is good news and bad news in this report. There is anecdotal evidence that remote worker professionals are moving to Greater Palm Springs, looking to relocate from crowded and expensive coastal enclaves. Sales of larger, $1M+ homes are leading the sales numbers. a reflection of the COVID-era market for homes with room for families and home offices and gyms. CVEP is actively reaching out to the remote worker community to further encourage this trend. And of course, rising home values are advantageous to those already in this hot market. But rapidly rising home values make housing affordability for local residents and first-time homebuyers less and less attainable. Housing starts significantly lags demand, and the regulatory and fee structure for building new housing is an ongoing impediment.
Source: Market Watch, LLC, Palm Springs Regional Association of Realtors, California Desert Association of Realtors
