Sonoma County Real Estate – 2021 Market Begins

Our January report focused mostly on 2020’s annual statistics. This report will put most of its attention on quarterly and monthly indicators, which better illustrate changes occurring as 2020 progressed: pre-pandemic to initial pandemic crash through the subsequent market recovery. In some counties – and of course, Sonoma is one of them – the terrible fires of late summer, early autumn also affected market dynamics to varying degrees.

The 2021 market began with a bang: The number of listings going into contract in January was more than 50% higher than in January 2020, a tremendous increase. As is the norm, new listing activity climbed from the typical annual low point in December.

The next chart compares the year-over-year changes in sales for homes selling for over and under $2 million. Sales in the higher price segment saw an astounding surge in 2020, while sales under $2 million saw a much smaller increase. Neither statistic really does justice to the rapid acceleration in market activity occurring in the second half of the year.

The big jump in high-price home sales was a common dynamic around most of the Bay Area, though Sonoma County had the largest increase of all.

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