Inventory Shortage Hits First-time Buyers in California - Don't Worry, There is Never Enough Inventory!

Inventory Shortage Hits First-time Buyers in California – Don’t Worry, There is Never Enough Inventory! – Marina del Rey Real Estate

Inventory shortage hits first-time buyers in California – Early Bird Gets the Worm… err Condo!

The inventory of lower-priced homes for sale, which are commonly sought by first-time home buyers, has dropped by more than 40 percent in California over the past year, according to a new Zillow analysis, which tracks changes in the number of homes listed for sale on Zillow across the country as of Sept. 30, 2012, and compares inventory changes in the bottom, middle, and upper tiers of home prices.

California has the highest annual rate of inventory reductions across all three housing tiers (-37.5 percent), but the inventory in the bottom tier of homes saw the biggest decline (-42.7 percent); with lower-priced homes in the Fresno (-59.7 percent), Sacramento (-55.4 percent), San Francisco (-53.2 percent), and Modesto (-50.5 percent) metros seeing the largest annual reductions. These homes commonly are purchased by first-time home buyers and, more recently, investors. Nationally, the bottom price tier has experienced an inventory reduction of 15.3 percent over the past year.

Nationally, inventory rates have dropped by one-fifth (-19.4 percent) across all homes with inventory declining the most in higher-priced homes (-22 percent).

In the largest 30 metro areas, inventory across all tiers has fallen the most in the Sacramento, down 42.4 percent; San Francisco, down 42.4 percent; and San Diego, down 40.7 percent.

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