Latest / Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life / Castaic real estate market update for week 1 of 2025 by The First Responder Realtor

Transcript

Castaic real estate market update for week 1 of 2025 by The First Responder Realtor · Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, good morning.
• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Every day is a real estate day for updates here in Santa Clarita Valley.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Today's gonna be for Castac.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start off, though, with the overall view of Santa Clarita Valley, give you some headlines off of the World Wide Web and talk a little bit about what's happening in real estate.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, I know saying World Wide Web is really something of an ancient term, but it's everywhere.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And with the advent of artificial intelligence continuing its very steep uphill climb, I would say that here in the next couple months, we're gonna see some amazing changes in that realm, and hopefully it will be something where we can all be happy with and not upset with.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about what's happening.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Santa Cruita Valley overview, looking at the last seven days, covering all the cities before I get into the Castaic specific update.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Seven coming soon.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: 43 new listings, 18 properties have had their prices changed, 12 properties have come back onto the market.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: The price changes of 18 back on market properties, 12, that is actually less than on average.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Typically, we see those numbers a little bit higher, especially when the market's a little unsteady from the vantage point of people being promised or talking about interest rates being relaxed.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: That hasn't been happening.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen interest rates holding nice and steady, leveling out around 6.5% to 7%.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, interest rates are very much dependent on your credit history, FICO score, all of those items are very important in whether or not you're going to get that lowest rate or maybe a higher rate.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Also, the type of loan you're choosing as a real estate buyer is also going to impact that.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, like the FHA loan, you can actually end up getting a better interest rate with less down, but your monthly payment is higher because you have property mortgage insurance attached to that type of loan.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Versus if you're coming in with 20% down, you might get close to that interest rate, maybe a little higher, but you don't have that property mortgage insurance.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So over time, that's going to be less expensive per month.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: These are things to explore with your lender when you finally make contact and start to discuss the loan options out there for your specific circumstance.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember, I've been talking a lot about homeowners associations lately.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: There are quite a few that are in charge of most properties in the Santa Clarita Valley, definitely over half.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I will tell you, when you're going in, you don't know a lot about what they do.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I always tell my clients, here's the phone number, make a phone call and find out how you can get more information about what they do.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, part of every real estate transaction, you're going to get a document basically showing you exactly what the homeowners association does, where their solvability is as far as monies go and those sorts of things.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it's called the CCRs, covenants, conditions, and restrictions.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the HOA hand guide or rule book.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: You will get that in escrow.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: The document costs money, and typically it's a seller's expense, at least as of now.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: But everything, of course, in real estate's negotiable.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: But usually you get that, and it's a few hundred bucks depending on the homeowners association.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And even when we have sellers that are holding on to their copy, replacing pages as things get updated, as the bylaws change, even with those, it's not going to work.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: They want that original document paid for, I guess, so somebody can pay for dinner twice a week.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Watch out for that.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: But again, that's part of that expense.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's why going in before you get too deep in the transaction, or before you even have your offer accepted, if there could be a question as to maybe whether or not you can wash your car outside, or maybe change your own oil if that's something that's done anymore.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Or even have a particular type of dog or number of pets.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those are things to be explored about the homeowners association.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to that, find out how much those fees can increase because per monthly basis, you go in and they're going to be at a particular level.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: What if the homeowners association has been planning or is going to start planning, doing some kind of entire community remodeling that's going to be costing or being paid through the homeowners association dues?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: You could have an increase of those, and it could be a lot of money.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So these are questions to ask up front.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, everything should be known to a point, but if you happen to go in and purchase into a complex right before that started to be discussed, at least you'll be in on the ground floor of it, so you'll know exactly what's going to be happening, and maybe have some kind of a voice depending on how the homeowners association is managed, whether it's professionally managed, or whether there's actually people that have been voted in for the board of directors with the homeowners association.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Those are uh well, there's a lot of jokes about those whole situations.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: But that's just something to know going in.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about this.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you have the price changes 18, back on market properties 12.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: These are properties that actually fell out of escrow and came back on the market for sale.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: 20 properties have gone active under contract.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is in escrow.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: 20 properties have also gone pending.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: 31 properties closed this last week in Santa Clarita Valley.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's a little bit of that week after Christmas, and then of course to today, the 4th of January, 2025.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: 22 expired.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: That means they actually failed to sell within their contractual time frames.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at each of those listings in particular, which I have, a majority of them are pricing issues.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: A few others are need a lot of work to a point that some of the loan programs that are offered out there will not finance them.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to be a seller issue, though.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: If they want that property sold, they can either reduce the price far enough so an investor might come in and pay cash, or somebody else that happens to be sitting on that much cash can come in and actually purchase the property and rehab it, either to live there or to turn around and flip it.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what we're seeing with the expired listings.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Seven canceled, eight put on hold, and three have withdrawn.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, breaking down into Santa Castilla, California, there's only 33 properties active and for sale there.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: The price ranges go from$539 to$1.5 million.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: The average days on market is 48.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's a little bit longer than other cities in Santa Clarita, such as Stevenson Ranch and Valencia, just different areas, different feelings.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't toured the area, give me a buzz, and we can set up a Santa Clarita Valley real estate tour to best educate you on the market and also the neighborhoods out here, which is very important.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Median sales price in Castac$830,000.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: In the last 30 days, 11 homes with an average sales price of$789,000 and a sales price to list price ratio of 99.1% have sold.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: We have the trend analysis.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Castac is maintaining a balanced market.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Homes are selling close to list price, days on market remain moderate, suggesting stable buyer interest.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: For sellers, accurate pricing and well-prepared homes are essential to capture this momentum.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: That is very true, not with just Castac, but every other Santa Clarita Valley City.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now I will tell you because inventory levels are exceptionally low all over the valley, we're going to start seeing that start to kick up here as we get into mid-January and moving through February and March of 2025.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're watching as inventory will start to rise.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's indicative of every single year that happens.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's all the same.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we get into the January time frame and February and March, you're going to see that competition between real estate sellers start to increase.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're also going to see prices start to increase, and you're also going to see higher buyer drive.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: So please prepare yourselves.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: We do have a book that I have written.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can find that at Santa ClaritaOpenhouses.com.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Besides that, there's a lot of information that I put out there on the blog to help both buyers and sellers make better decisions.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, I know at the beginning of this podcast video show, we did talk a little bit about artificial intelligence.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's something to be concerned about because now a lot of the real estate syndication websites are wrapping themselves around that technology, and they have a lot of movement with regard to having algorithms and different things built specifically for them in an attempt to elicit a buyer or seller decision, especially to get that buyer or seller to give up their personal information online because agents are paying tens of thousands of dollars a month in some cases to be able to get your information as leads.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: What I do, my practice is I stay organic.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I do a lot of writing and content, education about the real estate market.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that is better from all my years as a police officer.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I always found that to serve my clients best.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: This has been your Santa Clarita Real Estate update for Saturday.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Also check into the open houses at Santa Clarita Open Houses.com.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Besides open houses, there I have all the available inventory currently for sale.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can search without having to give up any personal or private information.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: This has been your real estate update.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor, over and out.