If a new home is on your wish-list this Christmas, asking Santa
may be your best bet to get one.
Hollister – If a new home is on your wish-list this Christmas, asking Santa may be your best bet to get one.
The number of homes for sale in San Benito County has dwindled over the past year, creating a seller’s market and causing frustration for local real-estate agents and high prices for home-buyers. Last month, median prices in Hollister shot up to $529,000, which Hollister real-estate broker Jack Markle said is the highest they’ve ever been.
“The prices have been going up quite a bit lately, and I think the main reason is lack of inventory. When you have a lot of buyers and not many sellers, like we do now, the sellers can demand more money for their homes,” said David Baumgartner, a Hollister real-estate broker and agent.
Hollister real-estate broker Ray Pierce said he is also seeing a smaller market after the January to June quarter of this year. During those months, the median home price in San Benito County was $469,000 and the average was over $507,000. In spite of the rising prices, 464 homes were sold in the county during the Jan. – Jun. quarter last year.
“After that, prices seemed to stabilize, but there’s a little bit of a thing (price increase) going on right now because of the drop in inventory,” Pierce said.
In the current quarter, statistics show only 88 homes have been sold so far, spending an average of 31 days each on the market. The “lower-priced” homes, or those under $600,000, are spending only about zero to six days on the market this year, Markle said.
In 2003, homes in the area spent an average of 65 days on market, according to statistics.
In previous years, there have been hundreds of homes for sale at any given time, according to Baumgartner. But right now there are only 70 homes listed for sale in San Benito County, and none of them are going for under $400,000, he said. Most are over $500,000, he added, and Markle said 28 of these were asking over $1 million.
“About a year ago I can remember the average price being about $350 – $360,000. But the least expensive home listed right now is $427,000, and it’s a 62-year-old home. It used to be that you could get a very nice piece of property for $427,000,” said Baumgartner.
Baumgartner, Pierce and Markle are only a few of about 200 real-estate agents and brokers in the county who are competing for the sparse listings. It’s gotten to the point where sellers are even interviewing slews of brokers and real-estate agents before choosing one to sell their home, Baumgartner said.
“I got an e-mail the other day from a woman saying, ‘Congratulations, Mr. Baumgartner, you’re a finalist.’ It’s gotten to the point where it’s almost sort of cut-throat; where you go in there and say ‘I’ll sell your house and I’ll do your laundry,'” Baumgartner said. “If you have one listing, you’re above average.”
And unfortunately, once you put your house up for sale, you become a buyer in a seller’s market.
“The thing is, prices are up, so people should be in a position to sell their house. But once they sell their house what are they going to do? They’re usually looking to upgrade, but there aren’t enough homes on the market and they are too expensive,” Baumgartner said.
Markle said this phenomenon could be attributed to the State-imposed sewer moratorium, which is not scheduled to lift until at least Oct. 2005.
“With the moratorium, we have lost a very substantial portion of our market,” Markle said. “Previously there were developers like KB Homes building new product, and people were selling their houses to move into new homes. Now supply and demand is still alive and well, but the supply isn’t as high as the demand.”
The California Association of Realtors is predicting another hot year for the state’s home values, with about a 15 percent predicted price increase state-wide, Markle said. While he estimated San Benito County will be in the middle of this percentage next year, Markle said he believed this year there had been about a 15 percent increase here.
“In a normal market, which we haven’t had now in several years, we would look at single-digit increases, typically five percent or less,” he said.
Jessica Quandt covers politics for the Free Lance. Reach her at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or at jq*****@fr***********.com.
