December Newsletter

Dear Friends,

This month I want to first cover some big news- I finally pulled the trigger and Brittney and I are now engaged! Pictured below 🙂

Other big, local news is the approval of the long overdue, proposed Desalination plant in Marina, and the approval of the evening game lights at Carmel High’s football field.

Many residents in Monterey County have been waiting on pins and needles for the Desal plant approval. As you may already know, the cease and desist on new water hook ups over the past couple of decades has prevented new construction, development, add-ons to existing homes and even needed workforce housing, all over the area. While the Monterey Water Management District vehemently opposed this approval, along with the city of Marina, the data showed that we would be at a deficit without it. There will still be significant unseen work to be done, before any real construction can get underway. In the meantime, Monterey’s PURE water reclamation system is under construction, which is Monterey Water Management’s project, and that should bring the first of the new water credits to the public in probably 3-5 years. PURE and Water Management claimed during the Cal-Am Desal hearings that PURE would be enough to cover our shortages, but it was demonstrated at the board of supervisors that this was not the case.

Carmel High neighborhood residents were a mixed bag on whether the football field lights were a good idea. In fact, for a couple of years there were contentious debates and demonstrations. Its obviously a great thing for the students but some neighbors didn’t want the light or the noise, even as infrequent as it was proven to be. Residents can be tough around here, though. In any event, the students and families of student are celebrating. Most of the Carmel residents I’ve spoken to that were not in the immediate area of the school, felt it was a net positive for the community.

Marketwise, different folks are saying different things, with opinions getting more and more positive, so this month’s newsletter will have a lighter tone. With the prognosis earlier this Fall being falling values, certain “cornerstone” voices in the financial sector are beginning to come out as saying that we will have little reduction in prices, but rather a loss of demand and velocity. One such voice is the financial guru, Dave Ramsey, who called the current cryptocurrency meltdown due to it’s lack of direct utility. Now he’s saying that right now is the best price you’re going to get on a house, and that if you’re financing, you buy the house and refinance when rates come back down to 5%. I’m not sure who’s right, but I can say that in Carmel and Pebble Beach, demand itself is still much stronger than is the inventory levels in those areas. Q4 showed us that pricing held firm, further suggesting that we may not get the “hit” that we expected, and that markets like downtown Carmel are somewhat insulated to outside economics. This isn’t the case for every area- some areas in the Bay have dropped in value, somewhat significantly, as has Lake Tahoe and other secondary markets. Downtown Carmel, on the other hand, is actually continuing to go UP in both demand and pricing, based on sales data, which is likely in part due to it’s being a more full-time area than the aforementioned areas.

Inflation has cooled to 7.1% year over year, and based on this mortgage rates have trended downward with better long predictions. While the FED just raised rates another 50 basis points, Jumbo 30 yr mortgages are still coming in about 6%, and weren’t affected by this. The FED also signaled another half point or possibly quarter point raise in Feb and a quarter point raise in March, after which many analysts think they’ll start to adjust back down again around Springtime, would could create more buyer competition in the market again.

Conforming loan limits are moving up to $915K in Monterey County as of 2023. That’s big news. It might be a good time to start looking for your next home, while the competitions thinner- we’ve been very quiet the last few months, and just now starting to see a reemergence on the buyer side. You can always refinance next Fall!

As always, we want your business! Please reach out if any family or friends could use our services.

Cheers & Happy Holidays,
Ryan & Team