On a year-over-year basis, it is clear that we are seeing considerable improvement on a broad basis across the Lamorinda real estate market.
The “devil is in the detail”, and that saying certainly applies to our current real estate market. Let’s look at the subsegments, beginning with the most active segment of under $1 million:
- Inventory is down approximately 20% from Feb 2009.
- Closed escrows are more than double Feb 2009.
- And, the leading edge of the market, pending sales are well over double last year’s performance.
If we look at the “upper end” of the Lamorinda market — $1.5+ million, we see a much different story:
- The actual market performance stats for Dec 2008 – Feb 2009 were better than for Dec 2009 – Feb 2010.
- Based upon closed sales in Feb, we have approximately 15 months of inventory in the Lamorinda real estate market over $1.5M.
- Although no home is “average”; the average price per square foot for homes in this segment has bounced around because of the scarcity of sales, however it is averaging around $475 per square foot.
Inventory levels by price segment:
- $1M – $1.5M: 10 months of inventory based upon closed sales.
- $1.5M – $2M: 10 months of inventory based upon closed sales.
- $2M – $3M: 12 months of inventory based upon closed sales.
- $3M+ : 14+ months of inventory based upon NO closed sales in Dec 2009 – Feb 2010. There are two homes presently pending in escrow.
Conclusions:
- Our market has improved over 2009.
- Homes priced correctly to the market under $1M are moving with considerable velocity.
- As we move up market, pricing sensitivity becomes more acute as buyers have far more options.
- The upper end market remains very soft and inventory levels appear to be growing significantly.
