Despite a milder and less snowy winter than hoped for, Big Bear homes sales in March still jumped by almost 40% over 2014's March sales with 92 closings compared to last year's 66 sales. Many local real estate professionals attribute this jump to the purchase of our local ski resorts by Mammoth Mountain investors. Many also believe that with historically low mortgage interest rates and with the likelihood of rate hikes later this year, this may be the last chance to capitalize on sub-4% rates.
Not only did the number of homes sold increased significantly this March as compared to March of 2014, but price measures continued showing gains.
Although the average sale price slid an insignificant 2% to $297,766 (average sale price is the least accurate measure of market direction as it can be swayed greatly by outlier sales), the median sale price rose 27% to $233,500 while the average and median price per square foot rose 6% and 3% respectively to $199 and $182.
With the Big Bear home sale jump this past month, we saw the "months of inventory" dip well below where we were at this time last year. (see figure below) With "months of inventory" being the number of listings divided by the number of sales for a given month, March showed only 4.9 months of homes on the market while March of 2014 showed 6.1 months. A normal market usually being defined as 6 months of inventory, you can see that we've shifted towards a much stronger market position as demand is outpacing supply.
But as summer fast approaches, we will see the usual increase in the number of homes listing for sale. Below, you will see how last year the number of Big Bear homes for sale almost doubled from its January low to its peak in August. With buyer traffic increasing as well over summer months, the local real estate market will likely stay in a strong position.
