With a new year, will we see a new real estate market?
Let’s see how 2024 ended so we can prepare for 2025.
Fast Value:
The winter market didn’t lower prices as much as most people (myself) expected
Sellers kept their homes off the market because of how slow the market became
Available inventory dropped from 4700 in Summer to 3,100 in Winter (this kept prices higher)
New Listings
Very low last month. No surprise, and there was hardly any difference over what we’ve seen the last few years. There were just over 1,000 new listings that hit the market in OC in December to finish the year. However, if you’re looking in the market right now, you’re seeing a TON of new inventory.
Available Listings
Not up as high as we would have expected. This winter didn’t leave very many homes on the market. A mix of a really slow November and December for sales and the holidays kept sellers off the market. Still up 10% over what we were at least year, which is going in the right direction
Closed Sales
1,634 sales closed last month, which is a huge increase from the same time last year. A 24% increase in the number of homes that sold. This mostly shows how slow the last two years were because this is still way below the normal.
Days on Market
Going straight up at a 42% increase over last year. That is a bit deceiving for two different reasons.
The number is calculated by sold homes. This doesn’t factor in the homes sitting on the market not selling
a 42% increase sounds massive, and it is, but Days on Market has gone up from a low of 9 to the now 20
We will likely continue to see this number rise as the homes that have been sitting will start selling with the new year.
Price
$1.134m was the median price for December 2024. This means the year ended with prices up 6% for the year. Prices didn’t drop nearly as much as I expected this winter season. They came down a bit, but we still saw above-average appreciation in 2024.
Interest Rates
Interest rates have been all over the place. They’ve also been all over the news. With all the talks of rate cuts, most people had expected rates to drop more. It’s good that they didn’t . The housing market has an opportunity to return to a healthy market. Rates will continue to trend downward, just not as fast as most people wanted them to.
Conclusion
December was slow. Rates stayed high. Sellers stayed off market. Prices only came down slightly.
The start of 2025 has already been an explosion of activity. In the first 7 days of the year, we’ve already had…
Coming soon = 69
New Listings = 276
Back on Market = 146
Price changes = 187
Homes that came off the market that will likely return
Expired = 264
Removed = 185
If you’re looking to get ahead of the herd, I’d recommend getting in the market sooner than later. Schedule a strategy session today.