Affected by numerous external drivers, the Monterey Peninsula Real Estate market experienced a 5.5% reduction in transactions from Q4 of 2022 and a 36% reduction from the same quarter last year. This means the market performed comparably to national figures, which is impressive considering the region experienced extremely difficult weather during much of the quarter. The storms in Q1 delivered excessive rain, wind, flooding, and power outages throughout much of the area which made it very difficult to even show property. Combined with macro-economic pressures across the real estate market, high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty, buyers transacted at very low levels compared to previous quarters. Looking even closer, these factors specifically affected the number of high-priced discretionary sales throughout Carmel and Pebble Beach, dropping total dollar volume and average sales price much more than usual. On a positive note, with extremely tight inventory, pricing values have held up well.
