February home sales followed right the stumbling footsteps of January, leaving western Nevada County’s real estate market on the precipice of its slowest first quarter since 2009.
Of course, that was on the heels of a historic economic downturn that saw a real estate bubble burst to the point that only 140 homes in total were sold through the first three months of the year, according to Multiple Listing Service data.
Western Nevada County homes sales have slogged along the past two years, following the frenzied sales of the pandemic, which left little inventory and record home prices in its wake. Last December closed out 2024 by barely beating the total units sold in 2023, which was the worst sales year by volume among the past 15 years.
So how do the first two months of 2025 stack up in comparison? Western Nevada County will need to see a total of 91 homes sold in March to close out the quarter ahead of that plodding pace.
High prices, high insurance costs and, relatively speaking, higher interest rates than the past five years have all combined to begin the new year behind the past two in terms of total sales production in the first two months of the first quarter.
Not since 2009, when the United States housing market was still deep in recovery from the its bubble bursting, has western Nevada County seen such few sales in the first two months of the year. Sixty two homes sold locally in February, down from 68 in January, to total 130 homes sold thus far.
Though that’s still a far cry form the 95 total homes sold in the first two months of 2009 — or the 89 sold in the same stretch of 2008 — it appears the local market is languishing behind the sales pace of the past two years.
And though there were 119 sales pending at the end of February, March will need to see the sale of 91 homes close by month’s end in order to avoid becoming the worst first quarter in the past 15 years.
While the pace of sales has been historically slow, price points continue to hover near the record prices pushed forward during the pandemic. The median price of a home sold in western Nevada County in February was $543,000. In comparison, in 2009 — when just 140 homes sold in the first quarter — the median price of a local home sold was a whopping $280,000, according to MLS statistics.
It took a median 29 days on market for a seller to accept an offer on a sold property in February, which was down from 64 days in January but nearly right on the mark with the 27 days on market recorded one year ago.
Meanwhile, as sales have been slow out of the gate, the number of homes listed for sale in February (293) was 29% more than the 212 on the market last February, but right on pace of the 290 listed in January.
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.
