Local home prices soar; pistachio farmland values rise
The median sale price of a single-family home in Bakersfield jumped in September by $17,250 — an unprecedented monthly increase that illustrates the local market’s “atypical strength,” in the words of the appraiser who reported the figure.
Gary Crabtree of Affiliated Appraisers noted the 5.3 percent rise brings the city’s median for an existing home to 15 percent above the 2005 peak of the housing bubble that preceded the Great Recession. He added that September’s $345,000 median was 18.8 percent greater than its level the same month a year before.
Meanwhile, the median sales price for a newly built home in the city rose by about the same amount in September: $17,500, or 4.8 percent in a single month.
Crabtree pointed out that Bakersfield’s appreciation rate, based on a 12-month running average, stood at a little more than 16 percent per year, and that the city’s median sale price remains 57 percent below California’s median.
For the first time, local
pistachio acreage surpassed $50,000 per acre at the high end, up from about $48,000 during the second quarter. That increase to an average of about $52,000 per acre came after a flat second quarter, which was preceded by a run-up in prices that lasted three quarters.
At the lower end of prices, the land under pistachio local orchards was unchanged during the second quarter at about $23,000 per acre, where it has held for since 2017.
Local “undistricted” farmland, defined as ag properties without water district representation, dipped in value during the second quarter, while ag land planted with grape orchards stayed mostly steady.
Alliance principal Michael Ming noted that “numerous big buyers” are looking for pistachio, almond, citrus and open land in districts with ample access to water. He added that properties listed for sale with less desirable water access can expect “few to no offers unless discounted appropriately.”
The nonprofit Hub of Bakersfield is accepting proposals from anyone who wants to make a presentation during a fourhour symposium Nov. 17 on the future of the city’s downtown.
The event scheduled to start at 8 a.m. at the Ovation Theater, 1622 19th St., will feature nine 18-minute presentations from “people who are shaping the future of Bakersfield’s urban core, challenging the status quo and reimagining how we live, work and recreate in our city,” a news release from the organization stated.
It said the idea is for the event to touch on these themes: housing, downtown and the new economy, and community development and adaptive reuse of existing commercial properties.
Information about the inaugural symposium, including how to apply to make a presentation, is available online at thehubofbakersfield.org.
A Bakersfield certified public accountant will share Employer Retention Tax Credit strategies during a free webinar today.
CPA Michael Stevenson, with the accounting firm Barbich,
Hooper,
King, Dill & Hoffman, will join webinar host Kelly Bearden, director of Cal State Bakersfield’s Small Business Development Center, between noon and 1 p.m.
The online event will also delve into other government pandemic recovery programs. Anyone may sign up to participate at www.tinyurl.com/ BusinessRelief85.
Prime southern Central Valley farmland planted with pistachio orchards gained value during the third quarter while virtually every other category of local agricultural real estate held steady, according to a new report by Bakersfield-based Alliance Ag Services Inc.