Just when house hunters thought a San Benito County home
couldn’t cost any more, the median price of a house in Hollister
jumped nearly $100,000 in the past year and homes usually sold
within days.
Just when house hunters thought a San Benito County home couldn’t cost any more, the median price of a house in Hollister jumped nearly $100,000 in the past year and homes usually sold within days.
The median price of a single family home climbed from $388,000 in 2003 to $459,000 in January – then jumped to $474,000 this June. Broker Jack Markle said the high cost is directly linked to an elementary economic concept.
“We have a very high demand, and a very low supply here,” he said.
One cause of the low supply is the growth moratorium that was placed on the city of Hollister after the 2002 sewer spill. The moratorium halted all new building until a new sewer plant is completed in either late 2005 or early 2006. With no new houses being built, the city of Hollister, which has a large impact on the county’s market, is left with too little housing, and too many interested buyers, Markle said.
“The activity is lower than it has been in quite some time,” Markle said.
During a normal real estate year, San Benito County has between 250 to 300 homes on the market at one time, but Markle said right now there are only 127 up for sale.
“Just to give you an idea of how slow the activity is, there are only four active listings of condominiums and townhouses on the market right now,” he said.
Even though the number of available properties are limited, Coldwell Banker Realtor Ray Pierce said swarms of potential buyers continue to flock to San Benito County because it’s “cheaper.” The median price of a home in the nine-county region of the Bay Area is $545,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
“When you think about it, nearly 70 percent of the county’s population are commuters,” he said. “Here you can buy a brand new house on a big lot for much cheaper than you can in other areas around here.”
With such a small number of houses to chose from, Pierce said a property’s average stay on the market has been one or two days. When more homes are on the market, it takes longer because there is a larger selection to choose from, he said.
The combination of only 127 houses for sale in the entire county, and 13 pages in the phone book listing potential Realtors, makes the housing market in San Benito County a very competitive place, Pierce said.
“When you’re a brand new agent it’s extremely competitive, but some of us, who have been in the county for years, have established ourselves with our clients,” he said.
Although Hollister’s median price went up more than $100,000, other county cities and towns saw a drop in price from 2003.
The median cost for a home in Tres Piños dropped from $675,000 in 2003, to $530,000 in June, and in Aromas it dropped from $509,000 to $479,000.
