LAKEPORT >> The Lake County Association of Realtors (LCAOR) reported that the median sales price of single family residences for Lake County rose from $208,500 in 2015 to $235,000 in 2016, a 12.7 percent gain. The number of units selling in 2016 decreased by 1.7 percent going from 874 units in 2015 to 859 units in 2016.
The 2015 median sales price showed a 23.4 percent increase over the 2014 median of $169,000 suggesting that market gains are leveling off.
In 2006 the median sales price in Lake County peeked at $310,000 before falling to a low of $107,000 in 2011 during the great recession. Since 2011 the median sales price has increased in each of the subsequent years.
Distressed property sales accounted for 10.6 percent of the 2016 sales, down from 14.6 percent of the sales in 2015. While this number has been on the decrease over the last few years the percentage is still high when compared to the statewide median. In 2011 over 72 percent of the single family residential sales were considered distressed.
On a year to year basis financing of property sales remained relatively the same. In 2016 30.5% of the sales were financed with cash and in 2015 32.2 percent of the transactions were cash financed. Conventional loans were used in 36.4 percent of the 2016 deals and 36.2 percent of the 2015 deals. FHA loan financing was used in 15.4 percent of the sales up from 11.4 percent in 2015.
Land sales in the county had a total dollar sales volume of $20.8M on 310 sales. This was up from 2015 land sales of $17.3M and 233 sales. Over the last eleven years the year that had the highest volume and number of sales was 2006 when $53.2M was the dollar volume and 563 sales were recorded.
The dollar volume for reported commercial sales was $18.6M, up from $8.5M in 2015. The number of sales in 2016 was 29 compared to 23 sales in 2015. There were six transactions that were above the $1M in 2016 compared to one in 2015.
“2016 was an excellent year for Lake County real estate values,” commented 2017 LCAOR President Bobby Dutcher. “The market performed well on all levels, residential, land and commercial. Lake County continues to offer a more relaxed lifestyle than many other areas in the state and that is attractive to potential buyers.”
The California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) is forecasting a 4.6 percent increase in the statewide median sales prices in 2017 which would be down from an estimated 6.2 percent gain in 2016. The California housing market continues to be constrained by a number of factors most notably housing affordability and the lack of new housing starts.
Scott Knickmeyer is an executive with the Lake Count Association of Realtors
