Sonoma County Average Residential Price - 2009
My last post about 2009 home sales in Sonoma County gave an overview of the dollar volume in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Petaluma, and other cities. For buyers of foreclosed properties in Sonoma County, average home prices are a lot more useful at understanding value in this changing home market.
A couple of facts stand out. First, Rohnert Park continues to offer some of the best overall values for first time home buyers. The average prices are lower than any other city, and the spread price between open market sales, reo sales, and short sales is modest. Buyer demand has pushed the REO and short sale prices close to open market sales prices. The same price pressures are at work in Windsor where REO properties and short sales are almost the same average price.
Contrast that with Healdsburg or Sonoma and you can see that not all cities are alike. Both those cities have substantial estate properties that drive up the average values. With a few exceptions, those high end properties stayed out of foreclosure during 2009. I anticipate that 2010 will have more high value REO and short sale properties on the market for Healdsburg, Sonoma, and Sebastopol.
I have the underlying data for every MLS listed transaction in 2009. If you would like a detailed analysis of home sales in your neighborhood, please get in touch with me.