Monthly home sales in western Nevada County topped triple digits for the first time in May 2024, as 104 properties closed escrow by month’s end.
Those closed transactions reflect a 22.3% increase in sales over the 85 sold in April, as well as a 13% more sold than the same month one year ago. The bump in sales is typical for this time of year, as the local market heats up in early summer months.
May sales saw the third consecutive month of growth in volume sold, but it remains to be seen whether total transactions will continue to trend upward as the market saw in the shift from second to third quarter of 2023.
Though it proved to be the slowest sales year in any of the previous five in terms of total volume, 2023 did see a significant spike in sales this time one year ago.
In fact, of the 1,146 homes sold locally in 2023, 459 of those (or 40.1%) were sold in the four-month stretch of June through September.
After another sluggish start to the year, similar to how things got started in 2023, local home sales climbed considerably in May, up 22.3% over April and 13% higher than May 2023.
GROWING INVENTORY, PRICE REDUCTIONS
The month of May closed with the most homes listed for sale locally in any single month in nearly two years, as active listings climbed above the 400-unit mark for the first time since August 2022.
Western county has struggled to build inventory back to pre-pandemic norms, and have yet to fully return to such a normal pool of homes on the market, but has seen significant growth in listings recently. The 403 homes listed for sale marks a 14.5% increase over April inventory and 19.2% more than the 338 listed at the same time last year.
Prior to the pandemic-fueled sales frenzy of 2020-2022, which left inventory languishing well below norms, there were 546 homes for sale in May 2019. In July of the same year, there were 647 active homes on the market.
The median days on market, the number of days until an offer is accepted, increased from 12 in April to 15 days in May. That’s also up slightly from May 2023, when the median days on market was 13 days.
As inventory grows, and some unsold homes sit on the market longer, sellers already on the market are making price reductions. Over the past two weeks, there have been 98 price reductions and 80 new listings come onto the local market. With just over 400 homes listed for sale, that’s nearly a quarter of the inventory recorded in May making reductions.
Whether inventory continues to climb, and whether those reductions continue at a similar pace, will largely determine whether western county will continue to see a decrease in median price of homes sold locally. May’s median price of $547,500 was down 4.8% from the $575,000 recorded in April.
In March, the median price was at $520,000, the lowest of any single month in 2024, so far. The last time the median price of a home sold locally dipped below the half-million mark was February 2023, when the median price was $469,500.
BY THE NUMBERS
May home sales in western Nevada County:
$547,500 — Median price (2024)
$534,500— Median price (2023)
15 – Days on market (2024
12 – Days on market (2023)
104 – Homes sold (2024)
92 – Homes sold (2023)
403 – Homes for sale (2024)
338 – Homes for sale (2023
Brian Hamilton is a Realtor (DRE #02149112) for the Betsy Hamilton Real Estate Team at RE/MAX Gold (DRE #01949144) in Grass Valley. Email him at Brian@BetsyHamilton.com or visit www.BetsyHamilton.com for more information.