It’s not so much that there were 334 homes for sales in western Nevada County last month.
It’s that the market hit that number in March, building the largest inventory of homes locals have seen this early since the pandemic-era sales frenzy.
And with the slowest first quarter of sales since 2009, it would appear that stock of listings is about to continue stacking up in western Nevada County.
There were 81 homes sold locally last month, which was a 30.6% bump from the 62 sold in February. Still, according to Multiple Listing Service data, that brought the total to 211 homes sold in the first three months of 2025, down 7% from the same stretch one year earlier.
First-quarter home sales are typically the lowest in volume as the market enters early spring, although the past two years got off to an even slower start than normal. To avoid becoming the worst opening quarter in the past 15 years, western Nevada County needed to see 91 homes sell in March. It fell 10 homes short.
The 334 homes listed for sale in March was 24.6% more than the same month last year.
As sales have been slow out of the gate, western Nevada County is seeing its largest volume of homes for sale, at least this early in the year, since 2020.
That year saw 370 homes listed in March, and the prior year had 375 homes on the market that same month. Not since the pandemic-fueled sales frenzy depleted the number of local listings has inventory climbed this high this early. In fact, the most homes on the market at month’s end since the pandemic was the 460 for sale in August of 2024.
For perspective, the aforementioned inventory of 375 listings in March 2019 eventually grew 72.5% to 647 homes on the market, just three months later to open the third quarter.
Buyers have been shouldering the load of higher prices, higher interest rates and higher insurance costs for several years, all of which have combined to slow sales to the plodding pace western Nevada County has seen since 2023. Adding on the sudden uncertainty of the stock market, and recent losses in investments, only seems to increase that burden on buyers.
And with fewer buyers, as well as more listings on the market, sellers will need their homes to stand out among the rest — whether in quality of construction, features and amenities or the price of sale.
Prices spiked during the pandemic sales frenzy, reaching a record median price of $592,500 in April 2022, and have been propped up by lower than normal inventory since. The median price of a home sold in March 2020 — the last time inventory was so high so early — was $425,000, or 22.4% lower than the $520,000 recorded last month.
The median days on market for a home sold in March was 22 days, down 24.1% from February. The price paid per square foot was $298, slightly down from prior month.
There were 126 pending sales at month’s end, which represents a 5.9% increase from February.
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 br***@be***********.com or visit www.BetsyHamilton.com for more information.
BY THE NUMBERS
March home sales in western Nevada County:
$520,000 — Median price (2025)
$520,000 — Median price (2024)
22 – Days on market (2025)
37 – Days on market (2024)
81 – Homes sold (2025)
79 – Homes sold (2024)
334 – Homes for sale (2025)
268 – Homes for sale (2024)
