Morro Bay & Cayucos Real Estate Market Report: Stagnant

These beautiful coastal communities are still struggling to overcome economic issues and begin a real estate rebound. Looking at single-family homes, condos, and PUDs, prices have drifted downward since the first of the year. Price per square foot has gone from $337 to $262 at the end of November.

Prices on for sale versus sold homes have been somewehat erratic. For sale prices have maintained an average in the low to mid $700,000 range, while sold home prices have jumped from $554,000 to $429,000 to $639,000, finally ending up at $452,000 at the end of November.

The big improvement, however, has been in the inventory of available homes for sale. This has dropped from a high of 12.3 months in January to about 7.5 at the end of November, signaling that the extreme buyers' market is easing off a bit. However, the situation won't really change until the inventory is below 5 months . . . a sign that a sellers' market is just around the corner.

There has been a large number of REOs and short sales to be absorbed, and with slow sales, this is taking a long time. The large gap between asking price and selling price indicates that sellers still are not biting the bullet and lowering prices to match the market, which also serves to slow sales. Hopefully, spring will see more activity in the local real estate market in Morro Bay and Cayucos.