Being a homeowner in Southern California isn’t easy. Sure, it comes with perks (lots of
them), but there’s also a downside; any time someone visits from out-of-town, you hear the same
sentiment about how Southern California’s housing market is just bonkers expensive. Of course,
living in Southern California isn’t aces all around, but the Chernov Team thought it might be
nice to point out that we’re not the most overpriced area in the country.
The COVID pandemic, paired with a nonexistent recovery plan, was expected to cripple
the majority of America’s economic sectors. However, the real estate markets have been on an
unstoppable tear. Mortgage rates hit an all-time low, inventory hit an all-time-low, and sellers
began raking in profits hand-over-fist; as it stands, sellers are sitting pretty. Of course, we all
know that the market will have to come back to reality at some point.
According to Fitch Ratings, home prices are overvalued by an average of 5% across the
nation (as of Q4 2020). Some housing markets are significantly more overvalued than other
housing markets. For example, the most overvalued metropolitan (Fitch acknowledged that 25%
of all Metropolitan areas were over-valued by at least 10%) area in the country was (*drumroll*)
Las Vegas; the city that never sleeps is overvalued by about 28%. The runner-up was Dallas-Ft.
Worth, overvalued by between 20% and 24%.
Maybe you throw the information above out when Gary from Idaho visits, and simply
won’t talk about anything other than housing prices. Maybe Gary argues that as a state,
California is still the most overpriced. Not so fast Gary! According to Fitch, the most overvalued
state housing market is Idaho, overvalued by between 30% and 34%; Nevada came in second.
At the Chernov Team we understand that knowledge is power, and knowledge of how
housing markets are behaving is powerful knowledge indeed. At the Chernov Team we know
that whoever comes to the table most prepared leaves with the most, and the Chernov Team
always leaves the table with the most.