Tehachapi real estate market loves the sunshine

The Tehachapi housing market should pick up when the sun shines.

While pricing remains stable, “the market has been a little flat,” Lorri Busse, Realtor with Access Real Estate and president of the Tehachapi Area Association of Realtors (TAAR), said. “If anything has affected the market this year, it has been our weather. Usually our market doesn’t really pick up until the sun shines, so we’re getting a late start on the buying season.”

She said she has not found that aerospace employees are moving to New Mexico for the Space Port, “but more importantly, there seem to be more engineers moving to our area because of the contracts at Boeing.”

Beth Hall, Realtor with Miramar International and past president of TAAR, said she sees occasional multiple offers and that it is a seller’s market. “We have definitely turned a corner. Appraisals are coming in higher. Prices are creeping up, not skyrocketing, but more buyers are coming to the area.” Hall attributed a stronger market to aerospace expansion in Mojave, Lancaster and Palmdale.

Another demographic is arriving.

“There are retirees coming from other areas,” she said. “It’s an eclectic crowd. There are families wanting a cleaner environment. People are starting to discover Tehachapi.”

There also is an influx of horse people, Hall said, who are moving from areas where it has become more difficult to maintain horses.

At Stallion Springs, the average sale price is $289,104 (98.10 percent of listing price). There are nine pending sales and active listings of 29 homes. Forty have been sold this year.

At Bear Valley Springs, there are 17 pending sales on 58 active listings. Fifty-three homes have been sold this year at an average sale price of $338,320 (97.97 percent of listing price)..

In the Tehachapi city limits, there are 18 pending sales and 29 active listings. Thirty-seven have been sold this year at an average price of $267,189 (98.18 percent of listing price).

At Golden Hills, there are 18 pending sales, 29 active homes in the listings and 47 sold at an average sales price of $266,181 (98.69 percent of listing price.)

Tehachapi, Busse said, remains affordable in comparison to other markets.

According to the California Association of Realtors, the April median home price statewide was $602,920, up 6.5 percent from March and up 3.2 percent from April 2018.