March sales update for McCormick Ranch

February ended up being another extremely slow month by recent standards. This month, the drop off was primarily caused by low sales in single family and condos. Townhomes and patio home sales were in line with previous years.

February 2016: 47 sales

February 2017: 42 sales

February 2018: 40 sales

February 2019: 28 sales

So after a quiet end to 2018 and very slow start to 2019, should we be concerned? Not in my opinion!

February sales were still affected by the larger concerns from a few months ago, including the lower stock market and government shut down (which ended on January 25th). When you buy a home it isn't an overnight process. These February sales were for offers written in January. But what if it takes you 30 days to find the perfect home? That means you are writing an offer in February for a March closing. And that is exactly what we are seeing.

Currently, there are 125 homes available for sale and a whopping 75 more under contract. There has been a ton of pent up demand and all of a sudden somebody lit a match underneath it. This can translate to more sales in one month than the prior three combined. It will be interesting to see how the overall pricing trends change from this and how long the buying spree continues. From what has gone under contract, I'm expecting a large bump in pricing over the coming months.

Looking at numbers, prices have stayed fairly healthy over the last few months. Price per square foot is still climbing up pretty much across the board. I generally consider this to be one of the larger indicators of the market (but once again, a terrible way to value any individual home).