Despite that groundhog back East saying we’re headed for six more weeks of winter, western Nevada County home sales seem to be warming up after cooling off the past several months.
Some area agents are anecdotally talking of a bump in business in January, particularly with homes that have been on the market for several months.
Whether or not that’s just talk or if it translates to a strong start to 2023’s home sales remains to be seen — we’ll review all of January’s sales stats in next week’s Nevada County Real Estate Update — one thing is for sure, our low local inventory of homes has all listings getting a good look.
Sellers planning to soon put their homes on the market might want to pick up the pace a bit to take advantage of the simple law of supply and demand.
Western county closed out 2022 with 234 homes listed for sale in December. According to the Multiple Listing Service, there were 181 homes on the local market this morning, about 23% fewer than one month ago.
For perspective, one year ago, there were 151 homes listed for sale in January.
However, in recent history, western Nevada County has normally seen a significantly higher number of homes for sale at this time of year.
In the five years prior to the pandemic, there were an average of 316 homes on the market in the first month of the year. In 2019, there were 388 homes listed in January. And, just a few months ahead of the shutdown, there were 360 homes for sale in January 2020.
The record home sales frenzy that came months later sold deep into the pool of listings, leaving inventory lagging lower than normal for consecutive years.
Brian Hamilton is a Realtor and member of the Betsy Hamilton Real Estate Team. Contact him at brian@betsyhamilton.com or 530-263-0261.
