Obviously being in the real estate business we have our ears to the track of the housing market. We’ve speculated to ourselves and publicly via our websites and social media forums that 2013 would be a year of a “Seller’s Market”, with increased home prices and decreased inventory, or available homes for sale. And I apologize upfront for tooting our own horns, but we were right!

We’ve also declared that with an increase in interest rates, the doubt the government shutdown put into home buyer’s fears, along with more sellers coming to the realization that now is a great time to sell, that the seller’s market would cool at the conclusion of this year. We are already seeing this scenario playing out.

We decided to conduct a comparison statistical study of homes for sale by monthly inventory in the collective cities of Banning, Beaumont, Calimesa, Hemet, Moreno Valley, Redlands, San Jacinto and Yucaipa, also known as East Inland Empire and The Pass Area. We sampled this comparison from the year-to-date (from January 2013 to November 2013). We grouped it by month, and we also isolated standard sales, short sales, foreclosures and auction sales to highlight the change in the market. We then placed these findings into graphs to visually highlight where the East Inland Empire housing market has been and where its going!

Here’s the first graph, which includes all the cities mentioned: Banning, Beaumont, Calimesa, Hemet, Moreno Valley, Redlands, San Jacinto and Yucaipa, and includes all types of sales:

Time frame is from Jan 2013 to Nov 2013
City is one of ‘Banning’, ‘Beaumont’, ‘Calimesa’, ‘Hemet’, ‘Moreno Valley’, ‘Redlands’, ‘San Jacinto’, ‘Yucaipa’
Results calculated from approximately 10,000 listings

And here’s the graph reflecting standard sale listings only:

Time frame is from Jan 2013 to Nov 2013
SaleType is ‘Standard’
City is one of ‘Banning’, ‘Beaumont’, ‘Calimesa’, ‘Hemet’, ‘Moreno Valley’, ‘Redlands’, ‘San Jacinto’, ‘Yucaipa’
Results calculated from approximately 6,800 listings

And again, isolating only short sale listings:

Time frame is from Jan 2013 to Nov 2013
SaleType is one of ‘In Foreclosure’, ‘Notice Of Default’, ‘Short Pay / Subject To Lender’
City is one of ‘Banning’, ‘Beaumont’, ‘Calimesa’, ‘Hemet’, ‘Moreno Valley’, ‘Redlands’, ‘San Jacinto’, ‘Yucaipa’
Results calculated from approximately 2,400 listings

And once more with just foreclosures and auction sales:

Time frame is from Jan 2013 to Nov 2013
SaleType is one of ‘Real Estate Owned’, ‘Auction’
City is one of ‘Banning’, ‘Beaumont’, ‘Calimesa’, ‘Hemet’, ‘Moreno Valley’, ‘Redlands’, ‘San Jacinto’, ‘Yucaipa’
Results calculated from approximately 760 listings

As you can see, inventory gradually increases as 2013 progresses. We are clearly in a cooling period with home buyers, but we believe the cooling is only temporary. Why? Interest rates have already proven they can’t sustain their intermittent increase, the housing market usually goes through a slowdown during the holiday months, and we’re also are seeing rents exceeding the cost of owning a home.

So is it a good time to sell a house? It really depends on your goals and your particular situation. If you’re a buyer though, NOW is definitely a time to buy! Your competition is down and everyone else is busy with the holidays. Oh, and come the first of the year, expect a spike in buyers coming back into the market, and prices continuing to rise!

Would you like to speak with us about your specific situation? Just call us at (888) 9-List-It. That’s (888) 954-7848. Or just use the contact form below and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible: