If you have been out looking for a home to buy or browsing the internet you may be wondering where all the housing inventory has gone. Over the last couple of months we

have been noticing that housing inventory in Pasadena, or in other words, “Homes For Sale” has been declining and is at a 52 week low. This trend has evidently became pervasive throughout California as the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal featured an article about the low housing inventory throughout the entire state of California.

Single Family Homes in Pasadena

Taking a look in the Pasadena multiple listing service as we near the end of January there are 215 homes for sale, plus another 122 that are under contract. Add to this the 74 homes that were sold in December and the inventory issue becomes quite evident with just a little over a 4.5 month supply.

Another View

I was always told there are two ways to increase profitability. Either sell more or spend less. Real estate is no different. The more houses sold, the fewer homes available. My opinion is Pasadena and probably California as well experienced such a strong 4th quarter that many of the homes which were for sale actually did sale, thereby reducing the number of homes available. And you thought the term shadow inventory only applied to the homes in foreclosure being withheld by banks.

The stats for condos and town homes is as follows: December sales were 51 units and there are 212 units for sale and 79 units under contract, which equates to about a 5.7 months supply.

Pasadena Condos and Town Homes

If you notice condo’s and single family homes do not always move in unison. The main factor affecting the Pasadena condo and town home market has been new development. This number has actually been manipulated to look better than it is. The reason is that many of the new developments in town that are for sale have not been listed in the local multiple listing service. Developers want to create the impression that the sales volume on these units is happening at a quicker pace and will only list the units when they have an accepted contract.

Tags: Buying a home in Pasadena