Was January '12 the Humboldt Co. Real Estate Bottom?

Everyone is wondering when we're going to hit bottom in the real estate market.  I predicted this past February that January 2012 was going to be it!  Why?

The number of active homes on the market has been at normal or below normal levels since December of 2011.

And demand in the form of the number of homes sold has been very solid since August of 2011!  When supply is down and demand is up, it can't help but to support prices!

Humboldt County's average selling pricing had been bouncing around $250K for the last half of 2011, and when it hit a low of $225K in January '12, I thought, "this might be it!"  February's active listing numbers came in low, and the number of sold units remaind strong, and sure enough, our average price bounced right back up to the $250K mark.

The median sales price had been tracking in the same direction as the average price.  All this convinced me that our likely bottom would be January 2012.  So far the fundamentals continue to show support for prices. 

Low inventory is beginning to hold us back a bit on volume, which will continue to support prices.  So if we can get loan underwriting standards back into a "normal" mode, we should see some home prices rising back to levels where they were purchased in the last several years!  This will enable more homeowners who need to sell to do so, increasing our inventory.  We should then see prices start to stabilize, hopefully sometime next year!

So, should you buy?  Is now the time to sell?  Call me at (707) 499-7111, and we can make a plan to accomplish your real estate goals!