I don’t often enter Market Updates between month ends, but we’ve seen a dramatic increase in listings across the Wine Country in the last several weeks. You may recall that I questioned whether we’d be following the lead of Marin County last month which had a 27% jump in listings and it is appearing to come through. It’s interesting to see some communities in Wine Country experiencing this jump at this time – and others not.
In Sonoma and Napa Counties combined, the available number of residential homes for sale has jumped from 881 on March 1, 2014 to 1,087 today (March 26), a 23% increase. In Sonoma County, the increase has been 20% and in Napa County it has been 31%. Areas with the largest percentage increase in listings include the Sonoma Valley at 71%, Up Valley Napa at 53%, the city of Napa at 34% and the city of Santa Rosa at 21%. Other communities such as Healdsburg, Petaluma and Sebastopol have seen little or no change since the beginning of March.
I expect we will continue to see a growth in listings in Wine Country in the coming months, at least until summer, and these communities that haven’t yet shown change will be adding to their inventory shortly. This will help to balance demand and supply and lead to a more moderate growth in the median prices throughout the region.