Hottest Sellers Market Ever.

After seeing all but 2 Santa Cruz area zip codes dip in median price from Jan 2021 to Feb 2021, it seemed like the ride for sellers might finally be on its way back down. Upon evaluating the month-to-date median sales prices as of March 16th, 2021 it's obvious that that simply isn't the case.

Even with more supply (listings) coming-on this past week than that of past 2 years', buyers simply couldn't get enough. Capitola currently holds 1st Place for the highest median sales price of $1.687mil followed by Scotts Valley (95066), Santa Cruz (95060 & 95062), Aptos (95003), and Santa Cruz (95065), respectively. These are all double-digit increases from February 2021 with the exception of Aptos and Santa Cruz 95065. Soquel has had 4 closings that were sub $1mil , which bring its median sales price down to just $895k at the moment, but if past is prologue, it's bound to bounce-back by the end of the month. In aggregate, Santa Cruz County is coming-in at a median sales price of $1.202mil which, if it holds, would be a record high.

The good news for buyers is that, at some point, supply will eventually surpass demand again and that's when we'll start to see softening in prices. In the meantime, unless you're willing/able to come-in with an offer of all-cash (or substantially over asking $$) and with no contingencies, it might be better to sit this one out for a while until things start to cool-off.

As for sellers, if you're looking to get the highest sales price possible; listing your home sooner than later might very well be the key to doing so. The most notable reason is that there are a far fewer homes to compete with on the market now vs. if you wait until later in the season - The more options buyers have, the more leverage they have on sales price.

Head on over to www.derekscranton.com/market for the latest Santa Cruz area market info and stats!