What did the pandemic do to 2020 home sales in Merced County? Here are the local prices

The coronavirus pandemic rocked the local economy in Merced and neighboring Valley counties in 2020, but by the end of the year median home prices defied gravity and rose significantly in the region.

Data from CoreLogic, a real estate data provider, and the California Association of Realtors both reflect increases in the prices of existing single-family homes.

In Merced County, the median price of a house in December 2020 was $320,000, up almost 15% compared to the end of 2019, according to CoreLogic. The median price estimate by the state Realtors association for January reflects a more modest year-over-year increase of 8.5% – from about $283,000 in January 2020 to $315,000 in December 2020, and sliding modestly to $307,000 last month.

Merced County was the only county in the central San Joaquin Valley in which home sales dipped. with 22% fewer homes sold in January 2021 compared to a year earlier.

For homes in Fresno County, the median price – the price at which half of homes sold for more and half for less – of an existing home in January 2021 was estimated by the California Association of Realtors at $325,000. That’s down slightly from December 2020, but it’s more than 12% higher than the January 2020 median price of $289,950.

CAR also reported that the number of homes sold was up by more than 10% compared to a year earlier.

CoreLogic, in its California Home Sale Activity report for December 2020, shows Fresno County data for median prices in the 12-month span from December 2019 to December 2020 reflected a 13.1% increase, to $325,000 in December 2020 over 1,246 homes sold.

Neighboring Valley counties also saw significant increases in prices under both the CAR and CoreLogic estimates:

In Kings County, CoreLogic reported a year-over-year increase of 5.6%, to a year-end median price of $265,000. The January 2021 estimates from CAR reflects a median price of $278,750, up 12.6% compared to January 2020, with sales up by almost 18% over January 2020.

The median price of a house in Madera County in December 2020 was $320,000, according to CoreLogic, a 12.3% increase from a year earlier. The CAR’s median-price estimate for January 2021 was $325,000, a decrease of about 3% from January 2020. But the number of houses sold was up by more than 21%.

In Tulare County, the median price in December 2020 was about $282,000, or about 10.6% more than the end of 2019, according to the CoreLogic report.

Data from the state Realtors association, however, reflected a much more vigorous year-over-year increase for January 2021 in Tulare County. The median price for a single-family house last month was reported at $306,000, almost 28% higher than the $240,000 median calculated in January 2020. The CAR also reported that home sales last month were up 5.8% from a year earlier.

Prices by community

CoreLogic also calculated the median prices for homes by community. But in places where only a few houses were sold, the average price can be swayed heavily by one or two houses with very high or very low selling prices.

Among Merced County towns and cities for home sales median prices were:

Merced: $303,000 in December 2020 across 150 sales, up 11.8% compared to $271,000 in December 2019

Atwater: $320,000 in December 2020 across 47 sales, up 21.6% compared to $263,250 in December 2019

Los Banos: $375,000 in December 2020 across 65 sales, up 15% compared to $326,000 in December 2019.

Delhi: $300,000 in December 2020 across 5 sales, up almost 14.3% compared to $262,500 in December 2019.

Planada: $77,000 in December 2020 across 5 sales, down almost 64% compared to $214,500 in December 2019.

Dos Palos: $279,000 in December 2020 across 12 sales, up about 16.5% compared to $239,500 in December 2019.

Gustine: $330,500 in December 2020 across 14 sales, up about 8.5% compared to $304,500 in December 2019.

Hilmar: $425,000 in December 2020 across 6 sales, up about 14.6% compared to $371,000 in December 2019.

Le Grand: $215,000 in December 2020 across 3 sales, up 83% compared to $117,500 in December 2019.

Livingston: $356,500 in December 2020 across 16 sales, up 7.1% compared to $332,750 in December 2019.

Winton: $252,500 in December 2020 across 6 sales, up about 19% compared to $211,000 in December 2019.

Elsewhere in the Valley

Among Valley cities in which more than 100 homes were sold in December 2020, median prices were:

Fresno: $310,000 in December 2020 across 760 sales, up almost 18% compared to $263,000 in December 2019.

Modesto: $355,000 in December 2020 across 312 sales, up 14.1% compared to $311,250 in December 2019.

Turlock: $366,000 in December 2020 across 90 sales, up 11.2% compared to $329,000 in December 2019.

Clovis: $415,000 in December 2020 across 265 sales, up about 12% compared to $370,500 in December 2019.

Hanford: $278,000 in December 2020 across 109 sales, up about 5.1% compared to $264,500 in December 2019.

Madera: $320,000 in December 2020 across 165 sales, up about 9.2% compared to $293,000 in December 2019.

Tulare: $284,500 in December 2020 across 120 sales, up 3.5% compared to $275,000 in December 2019.

Visalia: $308,000 in December 2020 across 295 sales, up 12.8% compared to $273,000 in December 2019.