Sonoma County housing markets slows for second straight month

The Sonoma County housing market slowed for a second straight month in February as large numbers of potential sellers held off listing their homes amid a string of winter downpours.

New sellers listed 346 single-family homes and condominiums last month, a decrease of nearly 40 percent from a year earlier, according to The Press Democrat’s monthly housing report, compiled by Pacific Union International senior vice president Rick Laws.

Most agents and brokers attributed the decline to the wet weather, including the 14-plus inches of rain that fell on Santa Rosa in February. Another suggested reason is that potential sellers are holding back because it’s so hard to find a new place to buy after selling their current homes.

Whatever the reasons, the fact that 135 fewer properties came to market last month compared to a year earlier was striking, said Glenn Gephart, one of four owners Century 21 NorthBay Alliance in Santa Rosa.

“We didn’t see the uptick in February like we would have a year ago,” Gephart said.

Brokers from around California are reporting more sellers gearing up to bring homes to market this spring, said Laws.

“I’m hoping everyone’s right,” he said, “because our sales are off.”

County buyers last month purchased 244 single-family homes, a decline of 3 percent from a year earlier. To date this year sales have declined nearly 7 percent from the same period in 2016.

The median price for a single-family home in February sold for $599,318, an increase of almost 11 percent from a year earlier.

The county has been in a seller’s market for several years, following a historic crash and rebound.

The median single-family home price hit a record $619,000 in August 2005, then slid during a national housing downturn to $305,000 in February 2009.

Since 2012, home prices have risen each year. But during that time inventory has fallen dramatically and sales have declined in three of the past four years.

At the end of February, inventory numbered 482 single-family homes, less than half of what was available five years earlier.

While the sun shone brightly amid blue skies Monday, winter rains set back sellers in their timetables for putting homes on the market, brokers said.

“The weather’s been terrible, especially in the west county,” said Lori Sacco, managing broker for Vanguard Properties in Sebastopol. “I would say we’re about three weeks behind.”

Laws is hearing the same thing from his agents.

“The sellers really want their home to be presented in their best light, with flowers and not a muddy yard,” he said.

Jeremey King, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Petaluma, acknowledged some sellers may be dealing with weather-related setbacks. But it still doesn’t make sense to him that so many buyers would think a delay can produce a higher price when currently “there’s no competition” because of low inventory.

Instead, King, a partner with his mother Peg King, said sellers keep voicing reluctance to become buyers in a market with so little inventory. Their thinking is “Hey, I can sell for a good price but where can I go?” he said. “We run into that every single day.”

In such a market, said Laws, buyers “are getting less choosy about finding the perfect property.”

Sacco agreed, saying buyers are considering homes with such factors as extra noise from nearby roads.

Sellers, meanwhile, are willing to accept what are known as contingent offers, but with strict guidelines, Sacco said. For example, one seller accepted an offer from her buyers that allows them to first seek to arrange for the sale of their property. But the seller set a deadline of just two weeks to arrange a deal on the buyers’ home.

“They don’t want to come off the market too long,” Sacco said of the sellers.

It remains uncertain how active the market will become this spring. But Laws said prices “can’t go anywhere but up.”

“We still have constrained supply and high demand,” he said. “There’s only one possible outcome for that algorithm.”

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 707-521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit.