The Central Valley housing market seems to be finding its new normal, as median home sale prices have bounced back by 8.3% in Stanislaus County since the start of the year.
TrendVision reports from April show a changed market since last summer when the Federal Reserve began aggressively raising key interest rates to fight ongoing inflation. Those increases have more than doubled the mortgage rate from around 3% through much of 2020 and 2021 to now about 6.2%.
But rates have dropped from their peak last September of about 7.1%. While the higher rates and subsequent higher monthly payments have priced some potential buyers out of the market, PMZ Real Estate broker Daniel Del Real said the demand remains high.
“Buyers want to buy not on face value, but on monthly payments. That caused the process to slow down and a pull back at the end of last year. But