Another month, another housing report from the Greater Palm Springs Realtors (GPSR), and the news is familiar: Prices are up, and inventory is down. But with mortgage rates climbing, even more people are getting priced out of homeownership throughout the Coachella Valley.
Driving the news: Mortgage rates are now over 5%, and home prices in Palm Springs are up about 40% year-over-year.
- In April 2022, data shows the average-sized home in Palm Springs sold for $1.4 million. In April 2021, the average-sized home here sold for just over $1 million.
Playing with a mortgage calculator gets really depressing, really fast.
- If you’re putting 20% down and have perfect credit, your monthly payment on the average Palm Springs home sold last month — before taxes, insurance, and possible HOA fees — would be about $6,000 at current mortgage rates.
- Last April, with the average-sized home in the city selling at the $1 million price point and interest rates near 3%, your mortgage payment would have been about $3,400 a month.
Paying a premium: If you can find a home, don’t put much faith in the sticker price. The GPSR data shows those successfully landing offers in Palm Springs paid 5.2% over asking for a detached home and 4.2% above asking for condos, townhomes, and other attached dwellings.
- More than half (55.5%) of all homes sold in the Coachella Valley sold above list price last month. That’s the highest percentage in history.
- Last year at this time, about 32% of homes were selling above asking. In a typical year? That percentage should be at 10%.
What else? Consider the following:
- Across the entire Coachella Valley, the median price of an average single-family home continued to rise — averaging $670,500 in April — a gain of 19.8% over April 2021.
- Compared to two years ago, the average price is up an “astonishing” 52%.
- Compared to two years ago, the average price is up an “astonishing” 52%.
- Condominium and townhome prices in the Valley also continued to increase, with an average sale price of $479,450 — a rise of 37% from a year ago and 60% from two years ago.
Supply-side: On May 1, there were 859 units available to purchase in the Valley, which is 149 units more than last year.
Demand-side: Homes in Palm Springs are on the market for about two weeks before being purchased, compared to 27 days last year.
Looking ahead: It’s not all doom and gloom. Realtors say they are “somewhat encouraged” by the slight increase in inventory over the past two months.
- Yes, but: “We are still far below normal ratios of three and four months and these low ratios point to continuing upward pressure on home prices.”
