It’s only been a month or so since my last real estate market update – but wow, a lot can happen in a month!  Would you believe…Donald Trump is now President-Elect?  I wrote a whole piece and did a video about what that means for your home’s value last week, and it’s already had hundreds of views. If you’re interested to hear what may be in store for your Aptos home’s value in the coming months and years, it’s worth a read.

But here in the Shire, err, Aptos, that is, things are looking rosy. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been enjoying the rain and I hope it keeps up! It hasn’t dampened home prices, that’s for sure – the median single family home price in Aptos in October 2016 was $856,000 – that’s up 10.8% year-over-year, and up 5.6% from the prior month. We closed 25 homes in October – down 7.4% from a year ago, and those homes sold in an average of 48 days on market (vs. 40 days on market this time a year ago).

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If you’re thinking about selling your home this fall or winter, here’s some more good news: we are down to just 71 days of inventory. That means if you’re looking to buy, there are slim pickings – a 2.4 month supply of homes means this is a very strong seller’s market. Owners who do a good job pricing their homes will usually be rewarded by getting multiple offers and a sale price often high over asking price.

Speaking of pricing your home, I thought I’d share with you something interesting that’s happening right in my own neighborhood. I live in a small little self-contained neighborhood near Cabrillo College, and there are two homes up for sale right now: the “cheap” house is 2839 Estates Drive (3/2, 1450sf, 23,697sf lot with a swimming pool, initially listed at $799K). The “expensive” house is 2884 Estates Drive (5/4, 2856sf, 11,543sf lot, initially listed at $1,050,000 later reduced to $1,025,000).

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The “cheap” house does a huge back yard, and a pool (which typically adds $0 in value around here) – but it’s much smaller than the “expensive” house, and the interior hasn’t been updated pretty much since it was built in the 1960s. The “expensive” house was “refreshed” prior to sale – the kitchen was updated, but not luxuriously so. The baths are original 1960s, but the rest of the house has been cleaned up with new high-grade laminate flooring, carpet, and fresh paint throughout.

Well guess what happened? The “cheap” house got 6-7 offers in just 5 days on market. The house is now under contract, and the list price has been boosted to $895,000 – which pretty much means that the contract price on that is $895K. The “expensive” house has been on the market for 56 days, with no offers. It’s going to sit, and sit…and sit.

A lot of folks around here own condos and townhouses, and they’ll be interested to know that the median price for condos and townhouses in Aptos in October 2016 was $550,000 – that’s a 15.9% drop over a year ago, and also down 9.5% month over month. On the flip side, 9 condos and townhouses sold in the month, and that’s up 125% from a year ago, when just 4 sold in October 2015.

The condos which sold did so in an average of just 37 days on market, and sellers received 98.4% of full asking price! Not too shabby – but sellers did a bit better last year. In October 2015, sellers got their Aptos condos and townhouses sold in an average of 26 days and for 101% of full asking price.

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Low, Median, and Highest Sales – Single Family Homes

Low, Median, and Highest Sales – Condos/Townhouses