I wanted to begin by noting this article from the great Calculated Risk. It discusses the
relationship between months-of-inventory and short-term price
changes, and includes a scatter graph between the two. It was this
idea from CR that inspired the San Diego version that’s become
central to the monthly updates here:
![](https://piggington.com/sites/default/files/oct-2020-housing-data-15.png)
(To quickly explain this graph: the red line is the monthly change
in the SD Case-Shiller index; the blue line is months of inventory,
but inventory is inverted to make the relationship more clear).
This did a pretty good job of mapping the relationship between
inventory and prices through the bust and initial recovery, but
early in the teens the lines began to drift apart. Pigg reader gzz
offered a theory: the arrival of online real estate portals (Redfin
etc) sped up the inventory throughput cycle, changing the
“equilibrium” amount of inventory in a balanced market. Previously,
the equilibrium inventory (the level at which prices were stable)
was about 6 months. More recently, it’s been closer to 2 1/3 months.
![](https://piggington.com/sites/default/files/oct-2020-housing-data-18.png)
With this adjustment for a faster moving real estate market, months
of inventory has done a really good job of calibrating where we are
on supply vs. demand (and thus, upward vs. downward price pressure).
Looking at October, it appears that prices have overshot for the
month, and so may moderate a bit in the months to come. But
generally the level of inventory is quite low… in fact, the
following longer term chart shows that months of inventory is the
lowest of the decade, even lower than the 2013 meltup.
![](https://piggington.com/sites/default/files/oct-2020-housing-data-14.png)
Notwithstanding an adjusmtent to last month’s price overshoot, this
level of inventory argues for price further increases in the near
term.
Graph-fest below…
![](https://piggington.com/sites/default/files/oct-2020-housing-data-0.png)
What great news!
My zip of
What great news!
My zip of 92107 is at 0.45 months of MLS inventory.
I enjoy CR’s high frequency economic indicators.
https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2020/11/eight-high-frequency-indicators-for_16.html
The old fashioned version:
https://www.conference-board.org/data/bcicountry.cfm?cid=1
His hotel figure is too optimistic in that it has the occupancy rate, not revenue, and only hotels that didn’t close. Right now there’s a mass default by hotels on their very underwater mortgages.
Quick read on a few
Quick read on a few transactions I’m following in 92127:
Prices are rising even faster than earlier.
Petty astonishing and somewhat humbling.
4S Ranch will soon be at 1M+ for any 4 BR.
Pretty much is already based
Pretty much is already based upon offers I’ve written and counters that came back
Another record low for
Another record low for mortgage rates, 2.85% national average 30 year.
https://www.mba.org/news-research-and-resources/newsroom