Curious how the Ventura County real estate market is doing as a whole? Below I have graphs and my expert interpretation of those charts. Data is pulled from the local MLS, which is the most accurate and authoritative source.

Explaining the Charts

Number of Listings

The first chart I want to take a look at is the Number of Listings. Currently, we're sitting around the 1700 mark for active listings, which is up slightly from January, but down around 500 from where we were 12 months ago. We are going into the traditional selling season, so inventory should start to pick up. As for new listings and sold listings, we're pretty steady from last month and not too far off from this time last year.

Listing Prices

The median Listing Prices for active listings were pretty flat for most of 2019 and have seen a slight upward movement this month over last month and are higher than they were in March of 2019. The median price of new listings is continuing it's 4 month upwards trend and is higher than it was at this time last year. Interestingly, the median sales price is essentially unchanged from a year ago and with the exception of two minor blips, has remained pretty steady.

Absorption Rate

The Absorption Rate is defined as how many months of inventory do we have, if sales and listing volumes stay the same as they are now. This number tells us what type of market we have. There are traditionally three types of real estate markets, the Buyer's Market, the Seller's Market and the Balanced Market.  I have taken this one step further and developed the "Strong" versions of the Buyer's and Seller's Market.  The strong markets are within 2.5 months of the end of the spectrum.   

Below is the scale I use to determine the type of market each area is in:

Strong Seller's: 2.5 months or less
Seller's: Less than 6 months
Balanced: 6 months
Buyer's: 7 months or more
Strong Buyer's: 9.5 months or more

Currently we are sitting at just below a 2.5 month absorption rate, down from a high of 4 months back in July 2019 and down from 3.5 months at this time last year. That means that we are in a strong seller's market.

Sold to List Price Ration

The Sold to List Ratio is simply how close to the original list price a home sells for. We are currently right around 97.5%, up from about 96.9% last month and about 97.3% last year. What this means is... don't lowball those offers! Sellers don't have to budge in their prices because it's such a strong seller's market.

Days in the MLS

The Days In MLS number just means how long a property was on the market before it closed escrow. We appear to be just shy of the 85 day mark now, up a day or two from January, which was on par with this time last year.

The Price Volume

And for fun, the Price Volume. This is the cumulative dollar amount of all residential real estate in the county. We have roughly $2 Billion worth of active inventory, steady from last month and down about half a billion from this time last year. The new listings that came out are worth about $750 million, which is down slightly from last month and from a year ago. This is to be expected given the realitively steady prices and number of new listings. The volume of homes sold sits at just under $500 Million, which is steady from last month and about the same as a year ago.

What does all this mean for you?

Simply put, this is a great time to sell your home! With low inventory and prices on an upwards trend and homes selling for within 3% of what they list for, it's a trifecta of good news for sellers! With interest rates at unprecedentedly low numbers, it's also a great time to buy a new home!

So contact Ryan Huggins today at 805.905.4000 or Ryan@HugginsHomes.com for a free and no-obligation discussion about your real estate goals and needs.