Dax Nollenberger

- Dax Nollenberger

Dax’s Data: 2021 Year in Review

January 11, 20222021 was the year of firsts. Not only did the real estate market survive a global pandemic, it thrived. To be fair, it thrived despite unprecedented times not because. Santa Cruz County Real Estate has seen a consistent and steady appreciation since the last housing crash and great recession.  To truly put into perspective just how crazy the 2021 Santa Cruz County real estate market really was, I dove into the last 11 years of real estate data. So, what records were broken in 2021?...

- Dax Nollenberger

Dax’s Data: The True Cost of Changing Interest Rates

December 15, 2021With all this talk about inflation and the inevitable increase in interest rates coming in 2022, I wanted to dive into the actual effect that interest rates have on both your buying power and the overall cost of the loan. Now, the two obvious conclusions are that as interest rates increase, buying power decreases and the cost of the loan gets more expensive. But at what rate? And at what impact to the affordability of homes? Low-interest rates have been a major talking point as...

- Dax Nollenberger

Dax’s Data: The Value of Professional Staging & Photography

November 23, 2021The Monetary Value of Professional Staging & Photography Let me begin by just saying this, the value of professional staging and photography is real and I have the numbers to prove it.  Before I dive into the numbers, let me tell you exactly how I collected and analyzed the data. I looked at over 500 recently sold single-family homes in Santa Cruz County from July 17th, 2021 to November 5th, 2021. I scrolled through the pictures on the MLS and marked whether it was staged,...

- Dax Nollenberger

Dax’s Data- What About The Condo Market?

October 13, 2021What about the Condo/Townhome market? As the single-family residence market continues its record pace, I frequently get inquiries about how the Condo/Townhome market in Santa Cruz County compares. Those that own want to know what it’s worth now and those that have gotten buyer fatigue in the single-family space are starting to consider Condo’s or Townhomes as an truly viable alternative. Let’s dig deeper into the Condo/Townhome market.  Note: You may see the abbreviation of C/T and SFR throughout this blog, that stands for Condo’s/Townhomes...

- Dax Nollenberger

Dax’s Data- Signs of a Slow Down?

October 13, 2021The question everyone is dying to know:  Q. Are we finally seeing signs of a slowdown in the Santa Cruz County real estate market? A. There are some encouraging trends but let’s dig deeper: The first thing to note is Days on Market. DOM saw an increase from August when the average was 19 to September when the average was 26. What that means is that homes listed in September took a week longer to sell, on average. For the overall balance of the market...

- Dax Nollenberger

Dax’s Data: The Seasonal Trends of Santa Cruz Real Estate

October 8, 2021A common seller question: When is the best time of year to sell? The short answer of course is “right now!” I’m sure you have heard but we are in an all-time sellers’ market. In Santa Cruz County, the average single-family home in 2021 is $1.321MM, up a whopping 17.57% from last year’s average of $1.123MM. In this market with these conditions, attempting to time the correct part of the year is both unnecessary and unadvised. We can’t say for certain that the market won’t...

- Dax Nollenberger

Dax’s Data- The Benefits of Strategic Pricing

September 2, 2021Let’s talk through a hypothetical scenario for a moment. You’re discussing listing price strategy with your Santa Cruz realtor and the agent suggests a price range between 1.3M and 1.4M. The house, based on 5 comparable homes in the area, is worth about 1.4M. While initially on board, a few days go by and you see a comparable house down the street that was originally listed for 1.3M sell for 1.5M after only 6 days on the market. “That’s what my neighbor got for a...

- Dax Nollenberger

Dax’s Data

August 11, 2021The inventory in July was the second most inventory in the last 3 years (behind only May 2021)! While on the surface that’s good news for buyers, looking holistically gives a bit of a different picture of the market as a whole. Days on market was only 15 days which is the 3rd lowest number of days in a 3-year period. Months of inventory, which tells us how quickly we would run out of inventory if no more supply came on the market, is at...