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Palm Desert led the Coachella Valley in home sales last month and also had the largest inventory at the end of December, reflecting a housing market that remains relatively stable compared to the year before.
Across the valley, the median price of an average-sized detached home was $660,000, down less than 1% year over year. Prices for attached homes declined more sharply, falling 3% to $460,000. Only three cities — Indian Wells, Bermuda Dunes and La Quinta — recorded year-over-year increases in detached home prices.
In Palm Desert, detached home prices slipped less than 1% from a year earlier to $728,000 in December, while attached home prices fell 4% to an average of about $516,000. The city also posted the highest sales activity in the valley, with a three-month average of 124 homes sold, up from 113 during the same period last year.
Inventory, however, continues to build. At the end of December, Palm Desert had 663 homes for sale, compared with 582 a year earlier — the most of any city in the valley. Despite that increase, overall sales remain about 24% below pre-pandemic levels.
“While inventory has recovered, because of low sales, supply is beginning to exceed demand,” the report notes. “This should not cause a problem for home prices unless it begins to extend average selling times.”
That trend may already be emerging. Homes in Palm Desert took an average of 48 days to sell last month, compared with 37 days during the same period last year.
On the national level, analysts expected little change from Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, and the outcome largely met those expectations. The Fed held interest rates steady, though two governors dissented in favor of a quarter-point cut. The central bank had implemented three rate reductions in the final months of 2025.