Conventional wisdom says that a balanced real estate market has approximately six months of for sale inventory. The columns we see in this Sebastopol chart show between two and three months of for sale inventory vs homes sold for most months of the year, strongly favoring sellers. If a buyer is firmly set on living in a specific town like Sebastopol and the inventory of homes is low like we see here, they may settle for less house than they want, or pay more than they wanted, or both.
The second chart shows equivalent sales information for the city of Sonoma. This charming city remains one of the most sought after destinations north of San Francisco. It’s got cultural amenities, history, wineries and a great town square. As you can see, the For sale vs. sold columns for Sonoma show between four and six times more residences for sale than sold. Great for buyers, but tougher for sellers. The reality is that Sonoma is statistically a seller’s market based on the six months of inventory guidelines. It’s just not as dramatically skewed in favor of home sellers as Sebastopol.
