July 2025 Hi-Desert Real Estate Market Update
Summer Greetings, Real Estate Fans,
July is here and the weather shows it. Last week we hit some hot temperatures in the Hi Desert, but our real estate market remains very cool. This is usually the month, along with June, that we close large amounts of escrows. Not so with June and nothing shows any change for this month’s closings.
Before the turn of the century, it was common to see a statistic that said one in five Americans had worked at McDonalds at some point in their life. That number is now about one in eight. I just read a new survey that stated that currently, one in five Americans have lived in a storage unit! Read that again, 1 in 5! How bad must our housing market be to have statistics like this? We need new housing, and we need it fast. We need to refocus on affordable housing and encourage our government to bring the interest rates down so more people can focus on being homeowners. Interesting study. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) economists say a 30-year fixed rate mortgage of 6% would make the median-priced home affordable for about 5.5 million more households, including 1.6 million renters. If rates were to hit that magic number, it’s likely that about 10% or 550,000 of those additional households would buy a home over the next 12 or 18 months, according to new data. In our communities, we need to relax our focus on large lots and allow smaller lots with smaller homes to attract seniors and new buyers back to our communities. With our slow market, now is the time to focus on this vital issue before growth starts again.
Last month, in June, we closed escrow on just 83 homes, just one more than last year. Currently we are about 5% behind last year’s sales (this is close to the nationwide estimate of a 4.50% decline). Last year was one of the worst on record for total sales in our Hi Desert communities. In addition, over 70% of sales were below $400,000. Currently over 50% of our listings are above this amount. Another 10% of our current listings are basically uninhabitable and will require a large amount of work (dollars) to be brought up to livable condition. This equates to about 320 active listings that are in the same game as our current pool of buyers!
Other highlights of this Update include-
- Inventory has dropped. In this Update we see 819 active homes for sale. Today this number is below 800. Reason? Many sellers have grown unhappy with their home not selling and have allowed their listings to expire or have cancelled them. I have listings that have never been shown after months of marketing.
- Twentynine Palms has cut out a bigger portion of the sales pie. This month they account for 33% of all sales compared to Yucca Valley (the traditional leader) with 38%. Each month Twentynine Palms gains in percentage.
- Last month, Twentynine Palms average sale was $298,264. In 2020 the average in Twentynine Palms was just $150,814! In comparison, last month the average price of a sold home in Yucca Valley was $403,917. Same month in 2020 the average price was $252,484.
- Days active in the MLS (DAM) for both Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree are triple digit. Twentynine Palms is at 81 days last month.
As always, stay cool and enjoy your July. If you have a family member or friend that needs help in our trying market, please have them contact me.
Sincerely,
Bob Armstrong
(760) 221-2999
DRE #01275801
GREEN Real Estate Group
Bob Armstrong
