The inverted quote, "They were the worst of times. They were the best of times.", may be the best way to describe the year 2020 in the Big Bear real estate market.

We saw the lowest of lows in March when Big Bear home sales plummeted due to the onset of the Covid pandemic. Fear and uncertainty ruled the markets. It wasn't long though until Big Bear saw what was perhaps the most dramatic jump in market direction ever. Sales soared as people fled urban areas to the less populated and more outdoorsy regions such as Big Bear. Also fueled by a work force which in large part began working from home, fewer people listed their vacation homes for sale as they were now using them as their primary residences while others were experiencing record vacation rental income due to the urban exodus and thus were less likely to sell.

The overwhelming buyer demand for Big Bear homes far outweighed the supply of homes for sale. This pushed prices higher while competition often resulted in multiple offers and sales prices ending up well over list prices. The number of days on market that a home was listed before selling dropped significantly as well.

To quantify this summary, here are some figures and numbers to consider.

 

As mentioned, sales skyrocketed in 2020 to with 1749 Big Bear homes selling. This represents a 45% jump over 2019's sales. What makes this even more impressive is that this gain includes the first 2 months of the year where we saw flat sales numbers as well as the following 3 months of March, April and May where sales were about half of what they were the previous year. Sales from June through December much more than made up for the deficiencies we saw in the first 5 months of the year!

Here's a look at prices.

 

BIg Bear Real Estate 2020 Sales Prices

 

2020 Big Bear real estate sales price percent change

As these figures show, when compared to 2019, the average and median sales prices of Big Bear homes rose 33% and 20% to $470,630 and $360,000 respectively.

We see gains as well in the price per square foot measures.

 

 

The average and median prices per square foot rose 15% and 13% to $285 and $273 respectively.

The average sales price to list price ratio rose from 97% last year to 100% this year. This shows that on average, homes sold for full price in 2020.

As well, the Days On Market dropped 25% with homes spending a median of 52 days on market before selling.

One important thing to keep in mind is that all of these sales numbers include the first 5 months of the year which well underperformed those of the previous year. That means that measures such as the days on market were actually much lower in the last 6 months of the year than the annual number represents. This is true as well for the sales price to list price ratio which has been consistently over 100% for the last 6 months of the year.

With home inventory remaining remarkably low, buyer demand still extremely high, and with mortgage rates literally at all-time lows, there really doesn't seem to be an end in sight to the booming Big Bear real estate market. So far, it is looking like 2021 may be another spectacular year for Big Bear home prices as they catch up to the pricing of other desirable mountain resort communities!

 

Paul Zamoyta ~ info@Zamoyta.com ~ 909.557.8285