Golden State Fire Sale Impacts Housing Market

California Counties Begin Listing Empty Lots


RENO, NV--(Marketwired - December 19, 2017) - Today, Clear Capital released its monthly Home Data Index™ (HDI™) report, revealing for the first time this year a decline in quarter-over-quarter (QOQ) home price growth for the Western region. The Western region decreased slightly from previous month at 1.3 percent to 1.2 percent, which may be attributed to the recent barrage of wildfires across the state.

While Northern California continues to recover from fires that raged across Sonoma and Napa counties, a series of new wildfires are burning in Southern California's Ventura County. As of December 12, at least 150 structures and 65,500 acres have burned with numbers expected to increase.

Data shows that Oxnard, California has seen lackluster growth since November with a quarter-over-quarter (QOQ) increase of only 0.01 percent to 0.59 percent. Because Oxnard is in Ventura County, it may experience short-term growth as wildfires continue to burn and diminish the already limited supply of homes in that area.

"Destructive wildfires are consuming homes and buildings in southern California, which is impacting an already tight housing market. Displaced homeowners may be forced to compete for temporary dwellings during rebuilds in tandem with a shrinking and expensive rental inventory to choose from," shared Clear Capital CEO Duane Andrews.

Despite the recent devastation in the northern part of the state, many of the burned down homes are going up for sale, but now as empty lots. The lots are being listed at approximately a third of what they would have sold for if a home was still standing on the parcel.

Where some homebuyers may see these listings as a deal, for others the lots may have less appeal based on expenses and time needed to make the property habitable, or rebuild altogether. Conversely, investors and developers may see opportunity. For instance, many of the lots are already connected to utilities and have been permitted for development, which could work to turn a profit. The effects of these investors though will not be felt until a couple of years later as home construction lags behind demand.

"The lack of homes available before the crisis may cause overall housing prices to increase, simply because undamaged homes are in high-demand, but in limited supply," continued Andrews.

Despite a small dip in QOQ home price appreciation for the West, several metros within the region continue to accelerate in growth. In fact, eight of the top 15 fastest growing metros belong are part of the Western region, including:

  1. San Jose, California at 2.6 percent
  2. Las Vegas, Nevada at 2.1 percent
  3. Seattle, Washington at 1.85 percent
  4. Riverside California at 1.6 percent
  5. Tucson, Arizona at 1.35 percent
  6. Bakersfield, California at 1.31 percent
  7. Fresno, California at 1.30 percent
  8. San Francisco, California at 1.30 percent

The Clear Capital December HDI report features the top 15 appreciating and depreciating MSAs based on quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year data, as well as national performance based on four separate regions: West, Midwest, South and Northeast.

Clear Capital's HDI platform runs on patent-pending indexing technology and provides housing market data and analysis that assist mortgage lenders and financial organizations with a holistic view of market performance, trends and forecasting.

To learn more, please download a copy of the Clear Capital December HDI report or visit www.clearcapital.com. To schedule an interview, please contact Director of Marketing Sarah Hartshorn at (530) 550-2588.

About Clear Capital
Clear Capital (www.clearcapital.com) is the premium provider of data and solutions for residential and commercial real estate asset valuation and collateral risk assessment for large financial services companies. Their products include appraisals, broker price opinions, property condition inspections, value reconciliations, quality assurance services, home data indices and platform solutions. Clear Capital's combination of progressive technology, high caliber in-house staff and a well-trained network of more than 40,000 field experts sets a new standard for accurate, up-to-date and well documented valuation data and assessments. The company's customers include the largest U.S. banks, investment firms and other financial organizations.

Contact Information:

Contact:
Sarah Hartshorn
Director of Marketing
(530) 550-2588
pr@clearcapital.com