Quick Take
April’s countywide home sales were as high as they’ve been in any April since 2022, and real estate agents point to higher inventory encouraging prospective buyers to enter the market, as they are able to explore more options than they have in recent years. Although economic uncertainty is still a major factor, experts agree that having so many homes on the market is hard to ignore from a buyer’s point of view.
Santa Cruz County home sales had their best April in three years despite broad national economic uncertainty as more sellers listed their homes and buyers rushed to snap them up.
Real estate agents say April’s busy market reflects local buyers adjusting to a new normal of higher interest rates and homeowners who were once reluctant to list their properties now looking to take advantage of a market that is heating up. That has meant more homes hitting the market and all that new inventory creating excitement among buyers.
“I swear it’s a herd mentality – when they see something moving, they want to do it, too,” Sereno Group agent Jennifer Watson said of both buyers and sellers making the jump into the housing market.
There were 131 home sales countywide in April, compared to 111 in the same month last year, an 18% increase. That was also significantly higher than in April 2023, when just 76 homes sold countywide, but lower than April 2022, when 180 homes sold.
Agents point to more homes available for sale. Listings jumped to 437 in April, up from 367 in March — a 19% increase and nearly double the number of homes for sale in April 2023.
Properties have been taking longer to sell, averaging 39 days in April. That was down slightly from an average of 42 days in March but far longer than during the scorching post-pandemic market, when houses were sitting on the market for only about 20 days, sometimes even fewer.
With new homes hitting the market in higher numbers, buyers now have more properties to choose from, a significant change from recent years, like 2022, when extremely low interest rates in the post-pandemic market spurred a flurry of activity that lasted essentially the entire year.
Watson said the noticeably higher inventory can likely be attributed to a number of factors. As mortgage rates rose back to typical levels in the mid-to-high-6% range following the post-pandemic era’s rates in the 2% to 3% range, some sellers might have waited to put their home on the market until most people were once again comfortable with higher rates, and over time, new listings accumulate, bringing inventory up and motivating both buyers and sellers to enter the market.
Should inventory stay high, the county’s housing market could begin to become more balanced between buyers and sellers after having been a solid seller’s market for years, said Monterey Bay Mortgage advisor Scott Goodrich. “We’re not anywhere close to that yet, but more inventory will get us closer to that,” he said.
Yet the market remains unpredictable. Although sales and new listings were both up in April, Watson said prices are still “all over the map.” That was reflected in April’s housing data, which saw the countywide median sale price drop 16% in April compared to the same month last year. The median price was just shy of $1.3 million, down from $1.56 million in April 2024.
Watson said that in a meeting with around 300 agents from the Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley areas, all said they have seen some properties selling quickly with many offers while others sit for weeks.
While the increase in home listings and sales is good for the local market, Santa Cruz County buyers still face “stiff competition” from deep-pocketed purchasers, Goodrich said. This past weekend, a client of his lost out on a Santa Cruz property to an all-cash offer.
“Even with the increased inventory, I think you’re still going to see that supply and demand are in effect here,” Goodrich said. “There’s still an overabundance of buyers out there.”
Watson expects home sales and prices to dip slightly starting in May because of the increase in homes available for sale and persistent economic turmoil. “More inventory gives people more choices, and then [sellers] panic a little bit because some of them are still used to selling in a week,” she said. But she added that the slowdown would likely be temporary: “With the inventory remaining high, it’s too exciting not to jump in.”
Goodrich added that with the U.S. and China jointly announcing a temporary reduction on tariffs this week, money is flowing into stocks and out of bonds, which puts pressure on mortgage rates to increase. While that likely won’t deter committed buyers, he said, it does add uncertainty to an already uncertain economy.
“We could see a complete flip-flop in a few days, the other way around, because of the uncertainty,” he said.
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