It’s looking to be a good month for Santa Clarita home sales this October 2014. I’m talking about closed sales. Whether or not buyers will be out in full force making offers and buying up the existing SCV home inventory is a bit trickier to forecast. The following is based on prior stats and being in the trenches, but follow me here if you will. I’ll try to make this simple…

In August 2014, 331 homes went into escrow (under contract).

In September 2014, just 296 Santa Clarita homes closed escrow.

So, 89% of the 331 homes into escrow figure sold the following month. Certainly… some of the 296 closings were from escrows prior to August… and some were fast escrows that originated the same month of September. Regardless…. 89%.

In the month of September, we saw a nice boost to home sales activity here in the Santa Clarita real estate market. It seemed as though right when the kids were going back to school, home sales activity picked-up. Here are the numbers to show that…

In September 2014, 427 Santa Clarita homes went into escrow (under contract). That’s 29% higher than the month prior!

And here we are… in October 2014. What will happen? Of those 427 homes that went into escrow in September, just as in August… not all of them will close this month… or at all. Many will fall out of escrow. But if approx 89% of that 427 September “into escrow” figure happen to close escrow this month, then that means we may end up with 380 closed sales this month.

380 closed escrows this month would be 28% higher than the month prior (September 2014).

380 closed escrows this month would be 34% higher than October 2013 closed sales figure.

October is looking to be a great month for Santa Clarita home sales. The market is still moving. We would see higher home sales figures if it weren’t for so many homes falling out of escrow. In August 2014 almost 25% of all escrows fell out of escrow! The main reasons for escrows falling out are because they didn’t appraise, too many repair issues unable to be negotiated out between buyer and seller, and or the buyer couldn’t get their loan due to not properly being qualified from the get-go. In order to avoid fewer appraisal issues, sellers will have to price their home more realistically according to closed comps. In order to avoid failed repair negotiations, sellers and buyers need to be more flexible, however it’s usually the sellers who are holding onto the “it’s a sellers’ market” mentality when negotiating; and it’s not as lop-sided of a real estate market any longer. Finally, in order for buyers to meet their obligations with respect to their loan, they need to work with a reputable lender who will do a strong up-front pre-approval! This means the lender needs to verify all income, assets, and credit issues prior to issuing a loan approval letter. Sometimes that work is done after the letter issuance, unfortunately.

Ok, so maybe this was a more complicated October 2014 Santa Clarita real estate market outlook blog post. If you’d like to dive into the numbers yourself… check out the free resource our board of Realtors provides here.

Need help in your next sell or buy Santa Clarita real estate transaction? ASK Robert! You can reach me today @ 661-373-2374