Santa Cruz County Home & Community Information

HOME PRICES IN WATSONVILLE, CA - REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT

Watsonville is city located on the southern end of Santa Cruz County between Aptos and Moss Landing.  Watsonville produces much of Santa Cruz County's and California's agriculture and it has long been known as an AG town with some of the main crops being strawberries, peppers, artichokes, apples.  Watsonville has grown a lot over the past few decades with new housing developments sprouting up and big box stores coming to town.   Home prices in Watsonville have taken the biggest hit in all of Santa Cruz County in the past few years.

Home Prices in Watsonville and its immediate surroundings have dropped dramatically from the height of the market in 2005 when the average home price was $709,000.  Last year in 2009 the average home price in Watsonville and it's outskirts was $291,000!    You can see the trajectory of home prices in Watsonville in the past 2 years in the graph below.

Graph of Median Home Prices in Watsonville & Outskirts 2008-2009

When the real estate market started to go down home prices in Watsonville were severely affected.  Inventory grew and # of sales shrunk.  As a result home prices plummeted in Watsonville leading to many foreclosures and short sales.  This past year in 2009 the # of sales has started to increase.  In 2009, 432 homes were sold in Watsonville compared to 2008 when 331 homes were sold.

Monthly supply of inventory is the amount of months it would take to sell all the homes currently on the market at the current rate of sale.  It is a good indicator of where a real estate market is at and where home prices might be headed.  Between 4-6 months indicates a 'normal market', less than 4 months supply indicates a seller's market and over 8 months you are looking at a buyer's market.  The months supply of inventory in Watsonville has really dropped in the past 2 years.  In December 2007 there was a 35 month supply of homes on the market!  At the end of 2009 there was only a 1-2 month supply!

Graph of Month Supply of Inventory Watsonville, CA 2008-2009

The dramatic drop in home prices in Watsonville has enticed investors and home buyers back into the market here.  Most of the homes being sold are foreclosures and short sales now and most are receiving multiple offers.  I believe we will start to see a slow upswing in home prices here over the next year 2010.  For more detailed information about an area or price range in Watsonville or Santa Cruz County/Monterey County please feel free to contact me.

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