I went from being a renter to a homeowner in 1984 because I got sick and tired of those friendly little notices in my mailbox every six months cheerfully notifying me that the rent on my apartment was going up another fifty bucks a month.
It ticked me off. Don’t I have something to say about this? No, as a matter of fact, you don’t.
So I bought a one-bedroom condo, and even though my fixed mortgage was 13.9 percent, at least I knew my monthly payment wouldn’t go up.
Ticked-off renters seemed to be the driving force in the local real estate market as 2015 came to an end. In the final three months of the year, the median home price in the Felton area rose nine percent, from $445,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014 to $485,000 in the last three months of 2015, according to Santa Cruz Realtor John Ultsch. Sales also increased from 23 homes to 30.
ScottsValley started the year strong after a red-hot 2014 but cooled off mid-year, Ultsch said. The median price actually dropped seven percent, from $792,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014 to $736,000 in the same period of 2015. Sales dropped from 33 to 26.
The reason for the price drop in ScottsValley has more to do with which houses were selling rather than any weakness. As in the Felton area, it looks like many sales went to first-time buyers.
The average apartment rent reached more than $2,100 in the Bay Area at mid-year, according to the San Jose Mercury News – more than 10 percent higher than the year before.
With what they were paying in rent, people found that it made more sense to buy and get a fixed-rate loan that wasn’t going to go up, said Peg Popken, a realtor in Santa CruzCounty since 1981.
Renters looking to become owners were drawn to San LorenzoValley and what Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mary Andersen called its natural beauty, small-town feel and many amenities, along with home prices that are affordable by Santa CruzCounty standards.
And it was the more affordable end of the market that was moving in ScottsValley. Longtime Santa Cruz Realtor Wayne Shaffer said ScottsValley homes have become too expensive for many buyers. He said that when only 26 homes are sold in the quarter, it only takes a few lower priced homes to bring down the median price.
He also pointed out that there aren’t many homes for sale, so buyers don’t have much to choose from and many are waiting for more homes to come on the market. Ultsch said there currently are 17 homes listed for sale in ScottsValley and only six in the Felton area.
In a county that is the second smallest in California by land area, it is amazing how starkly different one town is from another even though they are only a few miles apart. From the mountain cabins to the beach cottages to the multimillion-dollar ocean view homes, Santa CruzCounty is a place like no other.
”It’s beyond different,” Popken said. “It’s like they took all of Europe and squished it into one little county. This part looks like Spain and this part looks like Scotland.”
Mark Rosenberg is a financial adviser with Financial West Group in Scotts Valley, a member of FINRA and SIPC. He can be reached at 831-439-9910 or [email protected].
