September homes sales in western Nevada County slid by 10.8% from the prior month, with pending sales down 19.1% and the median price of a home sold 6.9% lower than from August sales.
And with inventory down 3.2% and price per square foot down 3.1%, seemingly the only metric on the rise in September was days on market, up 14.3% at 40 days.
The market has made a full shift from the pandemic-fueled sales frenzy of 2020-21, but sales have not slowed locally to the point of falling below pre-pandemic norms of 2018-2019.
Year-to-date through September, western Nevada County home sales were down 10.4% from 2021, with total sales off 0.5% from 2020.Although September sales data has not yet been released by the California Association of Realtors, year-to-date statewide home sales were down 14.9% in August.
Countywide sales last month were 2.2% higher than August 2021, as Nevada County was just one of four counties statewide to see increase of sales year-over-year, according to the association. The other counties seeing an increase were Plumas (43.3%), Siskiyou (11.9%) and Del Norte (9.1%).
“Of the 47 counties that experienced a year-over-year sales decline, 30 counties suffered a plunge of more than 20%,” CAR reported. “For the first eight months of 2022, sales in San Benito had the sharpest decline at -31.2%, while Yuba (8.4%) continued to post the best sales performance of all counties compared to last year.”
A WIDER VIEW
Year-over-year, home sales in western Nevada County were up 5.3% over September 2021, though total third-quarter sales dropped 13.6% from the third quarter of 2021 and were down 8.2% from the second quarter of this year.
Taking a wider view over the past five years, total sales in the third quarter of 2022 (414) were down 30.4% from 2020’s breakneck pace, but were 2.5% higher than 2019 (404) and 17.2% above 2018 (353).
Year to date, compared with sales in the years prior to the pandemic, 2022 has outpaced local market sales in both 2018 (1,017) and 2019 (1,090).
The first nine months of 2022 saw a total of 1,211 homes sold, which is 19.1% higher than 2018’s 1,017 homes sold and 11.1% higher than 2019’s 1,090 year-to-date sales.
The median price of a home sold in western Nevada County in September was $525,00, which is 6.9% lower than August and down 3.1% from the $542,000 median price of September 2021.
The median number of days it took for a homeowner to receive an accepted offer in western Nevada County in September was 40 days, up from 35 in August and up from an average of 12 days on market in September 2021.
At the end of September, there were 127 home sales pending, down 19.1% from 157 reported pending in August. According to Multiple Listing Service statistics, that’s the lowest number of pending sales recorded in a single month since there were 133 sales pending in March of 2020.
Brian Hamilton is a Realtor (Lic.# 02149112) and assistant to the regional manager for the Betsy Hamilton Real Estate Team (Lic.# 01936209) at RE/MAX Gold (Lic#: 01949144) in Grass Valley. For more information, contact him at Brian@BetsyHamilton.com.
BY THE NUMBERS
September home sales in western Nevada County:
$525,000 — Median price (2022)
$542,000 — Median price (2021)
40 – Days on market (2022)
12 – Days on market (2021)
139 – Homes sold (2022)
132– Homes sold (2021)
389 – Homes for sale (2022)
292 – Homes for sale (2021)