While Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley have experienced a dramatic shortage of available homes over at least the past six months, there are now signs that those numbers may be on the rise again.
Pasadena listings fell to the double digits in January. But as of Feb. 8, realtor.com showed the agent listings jumped to 276 available homes.
One local real estate expert makes a connection between the gains in listings and the Super Bowl, of all things.
“I’ve always said that the market picks up right after the Super Bowl concludes,” said Bill Podley of Deasy Penner Podley. “Typically it concludes right after the first Sunday in February, but because the NFL added an extra game this year, it’s pushed the game back to the second weekend.”
By that measure, said Podley. “This is a typical seasonal beginning of new listings.”
Podley added that the numbers “are not a surprise,” and said there is “not a huge bump in inventory,” but maintained that the situation has improved over the last few weeks.
While Podley says the rise in numbers was as the market expected, he added that there will be a shortage relative to the number of buyers for some time.
Acknowledging the market can be difficult to predict, Podley still feels that the market will continue to remain a seller’s market.
“Buyers are going to find an insufficient number of choices for the demand. I don’t see anything changing that,” he said. Podley explained that there are too many sellers in the market who are staying put because they don’t know where they’ll go if they sell. Prices are also still moving upward, he said.
But Podley also pointed out that the market saw a dramatic amount of action over the last year, in some cases, at historic levels.
“We had the best sales year in probably a decade,” said Podley, “in terms of number of units, and so, you have to ask yourself, ‘Did that push 2022 activity into 2021?’”
In better news, Podley revealed that a new project in North Central Pasadena is selling “quite a few homes in the starter range.” with most of them selling between $700,000 and $900,000 (the starter range for the Pasadena market).
His company placed eight properties on the market three weeks ago, he said, and has received 105 offers on them.
“That’s indicative of the demand,” he said.
