October Newsletter

First order of business this month… We were married on Martha’s Vineyard at the end of September! We were fortunate to have close friends and family join us at the Lambert’s Cove Inn for a multi-day celebration that People Magazine covered last week! Here is a fun link to the article. It was truly the most special day.

In the markets, while the terrible situation in Israel and Gaza has continued on, and chaos seems to carry on in the world, the asset class of residential real estate in the U.S. has largely held up. At the end of September, the Case-Shiller index numbers showed that 2022’s average 5% home value decline across the country had been wiped out, and that home prices across the nation had again reached a new record high.

Locally, while there has been some adjustment in some areas to the tune of 5%, 10% perhaps more in others, some products in smaller neighborhoods in Carmel Valley, for instance, have held their value. Some of these types of products include newer construction or homes of high character with newer amenities, in neighborhoods like Rancho Road or sometimes the Bay Ridge neighborhood or surrounding. In downtown prime Carmel, some previously ignored niche neighborhoods and streets have begun setting record numbers and showing the opposite of a value decline in those areas. One example, would be a mostly new construction spec home at Casanova 7 NW of Ocean, sold for a whopping $10.7M, and offered some moderate ocean blue views and a total of 2,772 Sq Ft on a 6,298 Sq Ft lot, which is considered oversized. As with the luxury watch market some models go up and others go down (if I may be so bold as to make that analogy;) Overall, we continue to have more buyers than we have sellers.

As for Monterey Peninsula data, Active Inventory is actually up 12% to 111 units over Q3, year over year. However, the number of new listings for the 3rd Quarter is down 35%, so the pressure on supply continues… The majority of homeowners with mortgages also continue to have much lower rates than what is available in today’s climate, so a move for many anytime soon is likely out of the question. On the other hand, this is favorable to market values and strong homeprices. The median sale price in Q3 this year for the Peninsula is $1.9M, which is up a whopping 31% from this same time last year Q3 2022. The average sale price is also up 14% over that same time to $2.45M for the Peninsula. Lastly, we are still experiencing a seller’s market with 58% of homes going for full and over-asking prices, and inventory sitting at just 2.8 months supply. That said, 42% of homes are selling below asking price, and overall typically taking 33 days on market to sell, which is up 103% from this time last year, when it was an average of 16 days to get a transaction.

One more interesting piece of news is that the Water District just voted to takeover Cal-Am Water with eminent domain this month. The District states they can run the billion dollar system better than the current private ownership… I will let everyone run with that…..

Cheers and happy Fall to you all!
Ryan