Gene Wunderlich, Sr. Staff Writer

Considering the circumstances, our April housing market came in about as anticipated. Recall that March was a surprisingly robust month in spite of the rolling shut-down of the economy mid-month. Yet pending sales, that precursor of future closings, was off its historic norm by 27% coming into April. The fact that regional sales were only […]

But let’s deal with the Corona Virus for a moment as it has had an outsize impact on our economy in a short time. Despite fears and some reports of negative activity, it has not impacted sales in our region. Yet, there are concerns that it might at some point, as it is interfering with […]

So, ignoring the media crisis du jour, how did 2020 actually start in Southwest California? About as expected – no surprises, no rush, no crash. January is always a slow month and this year was no different. After a decent December that capped off a pretty good 2019 season, pending sales were down coming into […]

Personally, I think everybody should be taking a deep breath because 2020’s going to be quite a year. We’ve got a national election coming up that will be among the most divisive we’ve seen – and that’s saying a lot. We’ve got a lot of local elections that will set up our city, county and […]

Median price also continued it’s upward trend in November with all cities posting higher numbers than a year ago. Setting aside the anomalous 26% spike in Canyon Lake (that’s what happens when your sales drop but over 1/3 of your sales are higher end homes), regional median price climbed 2% month-over-month, ($391,433 /$399,555), 7% over […]

That’s pretty good, eh? While we won’t finish the year ahead of 2017 due to a slower Q1, we will certainly turn in a very respectable sales volume year. Even more special when you consider the mix of new homes that have come on the market in all of our cities since 2017. If our […]

Is that uncertainty warranted? Well, it depends on who you talk to. There are experts who predict a recession starting sometime in 2020. There are other experts who predict that the current underlying economy is sound and sustainable for the foreseeable future. As usual, I agree with the experts. It’s the whims of human nature […]

In August the average price of a Temecula home was $591,851 and their median price hiked north of ½ million as well to $510,000. Unless the market totally tanks over the next few months, Temecula will finish the year at a new record pace with an annual average price in excess of the $543,545 also […]

So July was good. So good, in fact, that we pulled within 40 homes of last year-to-date selling 6,337 homes through July compared to 6,377 in 2018. That’s still a bit off the 7,008 pace set in 2017, but not bad. Here’s hoping we can keep that momentum going. But lagging sales isn’t just a […]

With half of 2019 behind us, what can we derive from the year so far and what does it portend for the remainder of the year? Well, sales continue at a slow pace. June sales fell 6% month-over-month (1,131/1,059) and 4% behind last June (1,087). Prices were virtually flat from May ($388,974/$388,642) but retained a […]