Reflecting a national trend, the supply of available homes in Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley has dwindled sharply to lows not seen in more than a decade.
“There’s nothing out there, it’s a very challenging situation, a lot of wheel-spinning,” said realtor Adam Bray-Ali with Coldwell Banker. “It’s affecting every realtor. We try to help someone buy a home, and encounter ten other realtors going after that same home.”
Many would-be home sellers are waiting because they cannot find and buy a new house to move into.
“Sellers are holding on to their properties because they would have nowhere else to go. They’re just chasing their tails,” explained realtor Catherine “Tink” Cheney of Coldwell Banker
Some of the inventory shrinkage was expected and normal at year end. “No one wants to sell during the holidays,” said Bray-Ali.
But listings are down nationally 10.1% so far this month from this time last year, while “active” listings are down 28.6%, according to Realtor.com.
The number of available listings in Pasadena was at 99 for January, compared to 999 in July-September of 2007, a drop of 43.7%. In fact, from 2006 to January 2022, there has been an 88% decrease in the number of available homes, said the January 2022 TrendVision report.
According to the report, there is currently only an 0.8 Months of Inventory rate in Pasadena. A healthy supply would be closer to a six-month supply of homes for sale, noted Bray-Ali. That inventory rate number has not been this low in Pasadena since 2006, according to TrendVision.
“Real estate markets remain active so far this winter,” Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com, told The LA Times last week. “Data shows buyers continued searching the still-limited for-sale home supply last week, which declined again, along with new listings.”
Homes are often slow to hit the market during the winter, however.
‘We could see a pick up in these numbers in February,” said Bray-Ali.
But according to the California Association of Realtors (CAR) website, “Although it is likely too early to see the effect of declining case numbers on housing supply, given that the former trend is still in its infancy, it is noteworthy that the number of homes being added to the MLS each week remains relatively depressed. “
On January 31, the site struck an almost hopeful note, saying, “There were roughly 4,200 new listings added to the MLS. That compares to almost 5,000 new listings added during the final week of January 2021, which in turn was well below pre-pandemic levels. Despite this, new listings have exceeded closed sales in 3 of the last 4 weeks, which means that the number of active listings on the MLS at any given moment is finally starting to rise after falling almost consecutively since September 2021.”
