Home prices have continued to rise while the number of home sales has continued to fall, according to third-quarter statistics released Tuesday by the Santa Fe Association of Realtors.
The median home sale price in both the City of Santa Fe and the overall county increased compared to the same time period last year. Inside city limits, the price rose by 3.2%, from $575,750 in the third quarter of 2022 to $594,000 this year. Meanwhile, city home sales in the third quarter decreased by 14.5% with 201 homes sold compared to 235 last year.
Yet the combined picture doesn’t tell the whole story: The city’s northernmost area exhibited a nearly 40% decrease in the number of home sales, whereas what realtors call the “southeast (north)” region—which includes eastside neighborhoods such as Upper Canyon Road and Wilderness Gate east of St. Francis Drive and west of Atalaya Mountain—saw an almost 40% increase.
Meanwhile, the median home sale price decreased by 3.1% in the city’s most expensive northeast region—which includes Hyde Park Road and Circle Drive—down from $1.23 million to $1.19 million.
And the northwest region—which includes the Las Estrellas development and the areas north of West Alameda and south of the NM 599 bypass—exhibited a 12.8% increase from $682,000 in the third quarter of 2022 to $769,000 this year.
On the Southside, the southwest region saw an 8.5% increase from $451,500 to $490,000.
Higher interest rates for borrowers and the “overall sluggishness in the economy,” are among reasons for decreased numbers of sales and higher prices, the association’s Government Affairs Director Donna Reynolds tells SFR.
“There’s just a lot of pressure coming from increased mortgage prices and some economic uncertainty in the general sense that some folks are not sure they are going to come back down,” Reynolds says. “Of course, the feds are talking about maybe keeping it level for a while and that sends a message to the market. It really hits homeowners in the pocket first and makes everything more expensive, and it’s kind of really a mixed bag here.”
While new stats on home sales and volume were not surprising to her, Reynolds tells SFR it was “interesting” to see progress being made to the housing inventory. The estimated months supply of inventory increased 10.7% in comparison to 2022, which also saw increases from the year before. Right now, the realtors estimate, the region has a 3.1 months supply of single-family homes.
“Inventory levels are beginning to modestly increase as higher mortgage interest rates and economic concerns are impacting the housing market,” Association President Drew Lamprich said in a press release. “Yet demand continues to outpace the number of available properties resulting in increased home prices and further affecting affordability.”
When it comes to land sales, Reynolds says things are “moving in the right direction.” According to quarter three statistics, land sales increased by 12%, from 50 to 56 in comparison to 2022. Reynolds says this is sometimes an indication that the city may see more new building projects and construction, which could benefit the economy and “take some of the pressure off” the market by adding more units.
The reported increases come as Santa Fe voter are preparing to consider in the Nov. 7 election an excise tax on homes sold for more than $1 million that would benefit programs to support affordable housing.
Editor’s note: The original version of this story contained regional descriptors, which have been updated.