The Watsonville housing market

The Watsonville housing market, a part of the larger Santa Cruz County real estate market, showed signs of recovery along with the larger economy of the area. According to a May 27, 2010 article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, “Santa Cruz County lost 5 percent of its jobs over the past two years, but it would have been worse without the steadying effect of agriculture. That’s the assessment of Jeffrey Michael, who heads the business forecasting center at the University of the Pacific and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio.” The piece, written by Jondi Gumz, went on to state that “Santa Cruz is closely tied with Silicon Valley, which is seeing the strongest early recovery. The ag sector, which added jobs, has been a buffer; without it, the county’s job loss would have been 7 percent.”

The average price of a Watsonville real estate rallied strongly in the month of April along with the rest of Santa Cruz County. According to a May 24, 2010 article in the Mercury News, “Santa Cruz County saw fewer single-family homes sold in April compared to a year ago, but the median price rebounded from $420,000 to $553,000, the highest in 20 months, as distress sales dipped. Two years ago, the midpoint of what sold was $661,000.” The piece, also composed by Jondi Gomz, went on to say that “There were 121 sales in April, with 43 percent selling for under $500,000, compared to a year ago, when 132 homes sold with 57 percent under $500,000, according to Gary Gangnes of Real Options Realty, who tracks the numbers. Last month saw 33 bank-owned sales and 17 ‘short sales,’ where the home is sold for less than the debt, compared to 56 bank-owned sales and 11 short sales a year ago.”

An increase in the median price was also observed above the larger Bay Area, which includes the Watsonville real estate market. According to a June 14, 2010 report from the Sacramento Bee, “Redfin today released new data on the San Francisco Bay Area market showing that the median price of a Bay Area single-family home increased 9.9% from April to May, and 32.8% year over year.”