NORTH BAY
real estate trends for April 2021
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EAR OVER YEAR COMPARISONS In mid-March 2020, the COVID19 pandemic was declared and all parties were told to “Shelter in Place”. This basically shut down the residential real estate industry through the month of April 2020. The market then accelerated rapidly in May through GERRETT SNEDAKER October. Year over year statistical comparisons are therefore going to be skewed by these market aberrations. NORTH BAY REAL ESTATE TRENDS FOR APRIL 2021 For all of the areas covered 20 | DISTINCTIVE PROPERTIES
GERRETT SNEDAKER, CRB by our Multiple Listing Service (BAREIS), which includes Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties, there is an inventory of 1,615 homes and condominiums for sale at the end of April. Inventory is 41% below that of a year ago (2,759) and it is 13% ahead of the inventory last month (1,450). At times, the inventory has exceeded 10,000 homes in the BAREIS region. There were 1,829 sales for the month of April. This number is 119% above a year ago (836) and slightly below the pace of last month (1,852). My financial adviser (John Engstrom with Fidelity Investments) used the term “frothy” to describe the North Bay real estate market in his eyes. It is bubbling and percolating at a rapid rate. I have been following a
data point I call the “Price Reduction Ratio”. Across the country, one might expect that 30 to 35% of the homes put into the MLS to sell will have a price reduction before they eventually sell. For April 2021, of all closed homes in Napa County, the ratio was 17.5%. Conversely, the ratio of homes selling in excess of Original List Price was 54%. When one sees over 50% of the homes selling in excess of original list price – that is an intriguing statistic. Napa County: The inventory of homes and condominiums available for sale in Napa County at the end of April (228) is 35% below the inventory in April 2020 (348) and it is 10% above the inventory last month (208). Sixty-five percent of the inventory in Napa County (149 properties)
is priced at $1,000,000 or above. New sales (165) are 120% ahead of the pace of last year (75) and are 4% below the 172 sales last month. There is a 1.4 months supply of inventory based on the current sales pace. The Days on Market for homes closing in Napa County is currently 49 days. For the purpose of our MLS (BAREIS) “Days on Market” represents the time from when the property is first listed in the MLS to the date the property goes into “pending” (all conditions removed) status. On average, it can take anywhere from 0 to 30 additional days for properties to close after going pending. The median price of the 159 homes closed in April in Napa County ($895,000) is 25% ahead of the median Please see Trends, Page 22 MAY 2021
