May 2025 Hi Desert Real Estate Market Update

Greetings Real Estate Fans,

April is in the books, but instead of flooding sellers with showers of offers, our sellers are feeling like they are in a drought. Actually, a severe drought! 

At this writing, we have 880 active home listings in our communities (860 when I wrote this Update). This is almost a 10-to-12-month inventory (inventory divided by sales). The market is considered balanced when there is a six-month inventory. Our local market is balanced closer to 4 months. Many listings are just sitting. Waiting for someone to come look. Hoping for someone to make an offer. For some time now, the overwhelming number of sales are below $400,000!  If you are priced above $500,000, the buyer pool is shallow.

On a high note, I have seen some very positive press about our communities. Art Miller, Jr. (his family is considered pioneers in Yucca Valley for their developments) shared this article with me. Yucca Valley, Twentynine Palms, and Desert Hot Springs are all noted in this article about the nine best retirement towns in Southern California. It’s a good read with some fun information. https://www.worldatlas.com/cities/southern-california-s-9-best-retirement-towns-ranked.html

Some interesting highlights in this month’s Update include:

1. As noted above, Inventory has swelled to new heights. 880 active listings at this writing. In addition, Active Under Contract and Pending properties are still at low levels. This is how we can judge next month’s sales.
2. We closed escrow on 85 homes. Good news is this is up from last year (80) but we are still behind total sales for the year by 12 houses.
3. We closed escrow on 4 homes over $750,000. This is more than previous months. The reason I am highlighting this is when sales are low, high-priced sales can skew the averages.
4. Because both Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree sold a few high-priced homes, both communities saw a huge increase in average price. Look for that number to drop in the next two months.
5. Days on Market (DOM) will be interesting to watch the rest of the year. This month, I have two homes that I listed that sold in one day. The reason? The sellers listened to me, read these Updates, and allowed me to price the homes to sell. They still got a great return on their investment, just not as great as they would in 2021. The market has changed, and properties must be priced competitively to have a chance to sell. As more sellers price their homes well, sales will happen more quickly. I expect from month to month we will see the DOM have big swings. 

So far May has been cooler than past years. Additionally, sales have been cooler than past years. Hopefully warm weather and hotter sales are in our future. Stay strong and remember, if you know someone who needs help in this market, please share my contact with them. I can help!

Sincerely,

Bob Armstrong
(760) 221-2999
DRE #01275801
GREEN Real Estate Group