How did the San Carlos Market Perform in July?

Usually a Slow Month.

It seems strange to look at the calendar and see that we're already in August. Did we even have a real July? If you judge the cadence of the year by the various weather patterns that you've grown accustomed to from living here, then it feels even more strange. First, we had an incredibly long and wet Winter, which bled right through Spring. Then suddenly, Summer is upon us. And while the rest of the country was absolutely broiling in record-breaking heat, we didn't even come close to cracking 90 degrees during the entire month of July.

Strange is an understatement.

At least the local real estate market retained most of its normal behavior for the month of July — namely, the numbers dropped month-to-month from June since that's the month which marks the end of the Spring buying season. The summary below shows you just how July compared to June this year:

As expected, just about all of the metrics were down in July when compared to the month prior, except days to sell, which should go up when the market slows down. But what's not obvious from these numbers is how robust July of 2023 was for a normal July.

If you compare these numbers to July of last year, you'd see that only 14 single-family homes sold that month compared to 22 this July. And the total revenue (homes and condos) was $41M, compared to $61M for the most recent July. What does that mean?

A Strong August.

What this data tells me is that despite the stubbornly high interest rates and economic uncertainty, there's lot of momentum heading into August. Why? First, many of the sales that took place in July were multiple offer sales, which means there are still more buyers than there are homes to buy and they are still out there looking. We weren't seeing that in July of last year.

Second, I believe there's going to be a strong surge of new listings hitting the market between mid-August and the end of September. I have three gorgeous San Carlos listings that are planned to launch during that time, so I imagine other top San Carlos Realtors will have some inventory to list as well. Adding more homes to a market that is critically short of good inventory will only result in more sales.

And finally, it's very apparent that home buyers have accepted higher interest rates as the new norm. At this time last year, rates were leaping upward each month and that froze the market in its tracks. While this has had a downward impact on prices from the peak of last year, it hasn't dampened the demand for housing.

So enjoy the rest of your Summer. Before you know it, we'll be back here discussing the August numbers!