Do you ever get the feeling that real estate agents are never happy? We always have something to complain about. If it's not the lack of inventory, it's too much inventory. If it’s not the lack of buyers, it's too much buyer competition. Maybe you can tell where I’m headed. For the past two years, we have lamented the lack of inventory, or at least the lack of quality inventory. Now we find ourselves in the first quarter of 2025 and inventory is up 20% from the first quarter of 2024.
Two towns we see this particularly true in are Rossmoor and Orinda for related reasons. Both communities have been disproportionately affected by insurance issues. Essentially all of Orinda has been relegated to utilizing the California Fair Plan, prompting some homeowners to sell out of normal market sequencing. In Rossmoor, a 55+ community in Walnut Creek with ~6,000 homes, the governing board decided to arrange for less than 100% replacement insurance to help manage the rising costs of insurance and help residents be able to stay in place. But the unintended consequence was to exclude most of Rossmoor from qualified loans. So active average inventory rose from about 60 homes to about 90.
Other markets are still seeing more homes for sale, even with higher interest rates, higher cost of repairs and improvements, and the stock market volatility. Well prepared and properly priced homes are still selling rather quickly in places other than Orinda and Rossmoor.
If you need to move, give us a call, we will help understand what you can expect from the market today and in the upcoming months.
