Highly competitive housing market in Santa Cruz County

The phrase “Home Sweet Home” is leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of potential home buyers. There’s too high of a demand, with a small supply. While there’s no way to quantify the number of people in the market for a home, the president of the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors has an idea.

“My gut feeling is there’s probably six times as many buyers as their are houses to buy,” Randy Turnquist said.

With the foreclosure market in the rearview mirrow and the recovery of the job market, many people are back at work making money and ready to take the plunge. However, many buyers have bee priced out over the hill. Local realtor Robert Bailey said buyers get more bang for their buck here than in the Bay Area.

“You’ve got nice pockets in the San Lorenzo Valley that have gotten extremely active,” Bailey said. “Anything on the coast, anything near the water. Walking distance to the beach. Westside neighborhoods, eastside neighborhoods of the city of Santa Cruz. The bedroom communities of greater Capitola have certainly picked up a lot of momentum over the past couple of years.”

Jim Demangos just moved into a 684-square-foot one bedroom home in Capitola after looking at other homes.

“There were actually four houses in the market up here in the general price range and we didn’t get any of the other three but really we ended up with the best,” Demangos said.

While it looks like sellers are getting the better end of the deal, it’s not entirely a seller’s market. A quick look at several homes found some for sale for over a month now. The asking price of one home in particular dropped by $50,000. With the demand expected to continue while the supply stays the same, compromise is the name of the game for potential home buyers.

“They need to settle in one way or another,” Turnquist said. “They make their list of their ten most important things and then they decide which of these can they scratch off and still get the house they want.”