Manteca Housing Sales Hold Steady

Manteca’s housing market continues to perform better than California as a whole when it comes to the number of existing homes being purchased.

The median selling price movement, though, is close to mirroring that of the rest of the state. California prices were off 6 percent in July compared to July of 2010. The decline in Manteca was 5.8 percent. But unlike the state as a whole, Manteca’s home prices jumped from 2009 to 2010 going from a median of $178,000 to $185,000 while the California median closing price declined.

The number of existing homes closing escrow has remained steady for the past four years. There were 1,165 homes sold in 2008, 1,211 homes in 2009, and 1,181 homes in 2011. As of Monday, 718 homes have been sold this year. That reflects 3.2 homes closing escrow every day. At that rate, Manteca will hit 1,169 sold homes by year’s end.

The pending deals offer encouraging numbers in terms of the median price not slipping. There are 206 homes currently in contract with a median pending price of $186,450.

There are 200 active listings with a median asking price of $194,750. The inventory has been dropping after climbing back up to 268 in February. Prior to the start of this year, the number of available homes had been steadily declining since September 2007 when a record 651 homes were waiting for buyers.

Realtors have indicated it is not clear if the decline is the result of inventory actually dropping or the foreclosure process taking longer to put homes back on the market. In either case, the market absorption of existing homes has remained virtually unchanged since March of 2008.

By Dennis Wyatt
Managing Editor
dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
209-249-3519