After an initial slump due to the coronavirus pandemic and a summer bounce back, the Fresno housing market has completed its rebound into a healthy position.
“We have rebounded beyond where we were at with the pandemic,” said Don Scordino, President of the Fresno Association of Realtors. “The first couple months of the pandemic we dropped, and we’ve rebounded well beyond that.”
The real estate market nearly shut down in March and April due to the pandemic-fueled lockdowns. In an earlier interview in July, Scordino said the market had a 24 percent increase leading into June, but overall the market was down 12 percent from 2019.
Three months later, the housing market has closed the gap.
The first three quarters of 2020 are only down 6% compared to the same period last year, and the median price for homes sold is $300,000, up 9 percent from 2019.
Sellers at-large are also receiving offers for the listed price, as the sale-to-list ratio is averaged at 99.89 percent.
After the initial rebound in the summer, Fresno’s housing market was in an interesting place – a concurrent buyer’s and seller’s market due to high demand and low interest rates.
“That phenomena has held up,” Scordino said. “It’s a very active market where buyers are benefiting from the low interest rates, and sellers are benefiting from the short time that it takes to sell a home.”
Buyers have been attracted to the low interest rates – 2.5 to 2.75 percent for a 30 year fixed rate.
How fast are listings being sold?
“I would say that a home that is priced properly and presented properly will probably sell inside of two to three weeks,” Scordino said.
Given the lower price point, starter homes are selling fast, Scordino said, and contributing to the unique market in Fresno.
It doesn’t look like the dual buyer’s and seller’s market will end anytime soon.
“The short supply is going to be an issue that we deal with for years because builders have just not been allowed to build enough homes, and the demand is up,” Scordino said.
Currently, there are 722 homes for sale in Fresno County, which represents a one months supply of inventory, Scordino said. Normally, a market would have four to six months of inventory.
There are also 1,488 homes listed that are in escrow, which is a higher amount than normal, Scordino said, which points to possible changes for the year end comparisons.
In Scordino’s eyes, people are valuing their homes in a different way than they have before due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Probably the biggest part of the market right now is the move-up buyer,” Scordino said. “So somebody that owns a home now and decides that they want something bigger, nicer, because their home is now an office and a school room. I think people are having a new appreciation of what a home means to them.”
