The Scotts Valley real estate market continues to thrive with a wave of buyers from Silicon Valley and beyond snatching up available homes at a pace that could lead a record breaking year in home appreciation.
Single Family Closed Sales YTD – As of this writing, May 13th 2015, the average list price for closed single-family homes is $799,606 and the average sales price is $806,941 YTD, which means buyers are paying on average, 101% of the asking price or $7,335 above asking. At the same time last year, the average list price for closings were $761,363 with the average sales price being $752,076, which is an average of $9,287 under the asking price. That is a whopping +$16,622 swing in what buyers are paying for a home versus asking price.
The average sales price for single family homes went up by $54,865 in the same time period comparison. The average was $752,076 from January 1 – May 13th, 2014 and $806,941 YTD through the same time period.
Condos and Townhouses YTD – The average YTD sales price for condos & townhouses is $470,060 versus an average list price of $468,187. This means that buyers are paying just over 100% of asking price. At the same time last year, condos & townhouses that closed were averaging a sales price of $440,562 versus a list price of $439,708 which is almost exactly the same sales price to list price ratio as this year.
Current For Sale and Pending – There are currently 54 homes for sale in the 95066 zip code with 45 of them being single-family homes. Of the 45, only 20 are still active and available and 25 are already contingent/pending sales which means 56% of single-family homes in Scotts Valley are in contract. At the same time last year, it was about 35% of homes being contingent/pending. That is a big jump of 21%.
The average list price for active listings is $873,435 with the average days on market being 24.
The average list price for contingent/pending sales is $884,578 with the average days on market being 37.
Prediction Still Holding Strong – Last year I predicted that we would have an appreciation rate of homes in Scotts Valley of about 6% for 2014. After all was said and done, that is pretty much where it came in with some estimating a 5.5% appreciation rate and others giving a 6-6.5% appreciation rate. But for the most part, I think that is where we ended up.
In a previous article this year, I predicted an 8% appreciation rate for 2015 in Scotts Valley and I still think that figure will hold. I could be wrong and see it go a little higher, but for the time being I will stick to my original prediction. The market is hot and the buyers who are buying are strong buyers with large down-payments and many cash buyers also coming from Silicon Valley. Yes, there are more homes coming on the market, but they are being snatched up almost as soon as they come up.
Don’t call me crazy yet, let’s ride this out and see where it ends up this year but in my opinion, this is going to be another banner year like we have not seen in a long time in terms of how high certain homes will sell for.
