I put together a listing presentation for a seller in beautiful Panorama Hills today and noticed some interesting trends moving forward. At the time I wrote this, there were 80 homes for sale in Panorama Hills. From January to the end of May there were 137 sales in the community and a whopping 36 (26%) were sold in May. So far in June there have been six firm sales and there are 11 homes that have been posted as conditional sales. These are all great indicators for us as a seller, it would certainly seem that the market is in an upward trend.

Let’s look a little deeper at both the inventory as well as sales so far this year. Of the homes that are currently active in the community, 36% have been on for less than a month. 28% of the active listings have been on the market for between one and two months and 31% have been on the market over two months. It is interesting to see that so many homes have been on the market for such a long period of time as we have seen an average of just over 27 sales per month, pointing toward a fairly balanced market in Panorama Hills. It would seem to me that a good portion of those homes that have been on the market for such a significant amount of time need some major changes in their listing strategy to get the job done.

 

It is also interesting to point out the price breaks in relation to actual sales and active listings.

So far this year 32% of the sales were under $450k whereas only 12% of the listings are in that category;

27% of the sales were between $450k and $500k and only 16% of the listings are within this range;

41% of the sales were over $500k and now over 70% of the listings are asking for this price range!

 

With the numbers becoming so far apart between what a seller would like to sell for, and what the typical buyer is looking for in the community, we could be in for some very interesting times! If the buyers cannot afford any more than the previous sales are showing – perhaps they cannot qualify for the higher mortgage – we can only expect one thing… homes will stay on the market longer and longer, and eventually we will see pricing slowly move back to the ranges we have seen in the early part of the year. Alternatively, buyers may need to re-qualify for a larger mortgage or find more cash to put toward a purchase. In my experience, finding additional cash to close is quite difficult, and unless mortgage regulations are altered, finding that higher mortgage limit will also be difficult. It will definitely be interesting what the rest of the year has in store for us!