The California Association of Realtors (CAR) has issued an update to their views on the California housing market. The summary of the update is as follows:
“Emerging trends over the past week have led C.A.R. to a less optimistic forecast for both the economy and the housing market in 2020. The current outlook calls for fewer home sales in 2020, a significant, but short-lived, recession extending through the summer, and downward pressure on home prices as negative economic impacts and deteriorating consumer confidence outweigh the benefits of lower interest rates. However, things continue to develop rapidly on both the consequences and the potential policy relief that may be enacted. As such, this forecast will likely be revised further in the coming weeks and months as more data becomes available”.
For a look at the entire update, please visit: https://www.carcovidupdates.org/market-update
For our Wine Country Real Estate Markets, I don’t see much variance from CAR’s predictions. Our firm entered last week with 40 pending sales and over 100 available listings. A good number of the pending sales have closed. A smaller number have cancelled. Many listings have been put on hold – or removed “temporarily” from the market. I will have more information early next week and will provide that as it becomes available.
Our ability to assist our clients in either sales or purchases is limited by the “Shelter in Place” orders issued at the State and Local levels. I expect the market to “skid to a halt” quickly and we will need to wait until April 7 when the current orders are set to expire.
We are keeping our staff, our agents, our families and clients at the top of our minds and in our hearts. We extend this to all of those, all over the world, dealing with this episode. We all hope that these difficulties pass swiftly with a limited amount of further impact and disruption.
Please contact me if you have any questions.