Here’s why the fall is an important time for Desert real estate.
I spoke to an out-of-area Realtor this week who was coming in with a Buyer to our area. The point of this video is seasonality... This realtor did not understand what I was talking about when I mentioned “season is coming”.
Of course, anyone familiar with the desert knows that when the weather cools down and country clubs re-open the golf courses with the freshly seeded rye grass, the parties start and the visitors swarm in for the coming season… It is Adult Camp in full swing again!
The Desert has traditionally been a very seasonally based area for sales and tourism. When I started selling here in 1998, 23 seasons ago, the high season started November 1, then slowed around April and May when winter visitors started leaving.
DEMAND REMAINS STRONG ALTHOUGH SUPPLY IS LIMITED
People are always surprised to learn that the top closing months for sales are May and June. Typically, this is what happens: Renters come for January-March/April, look at open houses while here, then decide to buy their own place for the next season.
Our population in the Coachella Valley is approximately 400,000 people. With the winter visitors, our population can go to 1,000,000! There are a total of approximately 156,000 condos or single-family homes standing in the Desert today. Many of these are rented out during the season or used as second or third homes.
Since March of this year, our inventory available for sale has only been between 700 and 900 units each month. Prior to COVID, we typically had 3,000 to 4,000 properties to sell during the winter months. The last 3 months we have had only a half month supply or a 2 week supply! With the Covid effect, sales have not been as seasonal as there is too little inventory to determine seasonality. More would have sold possibly in the winter, but we cannot know. We do know that summer sales have been very strong!
As buyers are now looking forward to November 1 season starting again, we are seeing a big increase in phone calls and people flying in for the day to secure a home. Some clubs are even having a challenge finding enough memberships for the influx of buyers.
With what we know today, we expect sales to continue like this throughout the year as long as inventory and interest rates remain low. There’s strong demand in the Desert, even though supply is limited.
If you have any questions about buying or selling, I’d be happy to use my decades of experience in Desert real estate to your advantage. Feel free to reach out via phone or email today with any questions. I look forward to hearing from you.
