For more than a decade, Market Watch’s housing presentations have been a staple for real estate professionals, investors, and civic leaders across the Coachella Valley. This year’s Franklin Loan Center Winter Seminar, a Palm Springs Life event delivered by housing analyst Michael McDonald of Market Watch LLC, marks a deliberate and notable shift in how they analyze and explain the region’s housing market. The data is derived from Greater Palm Springs Realtors via their MLS platform.
Rather than organizing the data by city, which has long been the standard approach for Market Watch and most local housing reports, the 2026 presentation restructures the market by housing type. The goal, McDonald explained, is to provide clearer insight into how fundamentally different market segments behave, regardless of municipal boundaries.
“The Coachella Valley is too eclectic for median city prices to tell the full story,” McDonald told attendees. “Even within a single city, housing performance varies dramatically depending on the type of home.”
A market defined by ownership patterns
The presentation opened with a trend Market Watch has tracked for years: the outsized role of remote owners in the Coachella Valley. Roughly 40 percent of homes in the valley are owned by individuals who live elsewhere, a figure far higher than the typical 12 to 15 percent seen across California.
That ownership pattern continues to influence listing behavior. In 2025, remote owners accounted for approximately 52 percent of active listings, up from a pre-pandemic average near 48 percent. While not a dramatic jump, McDonald emphasized that the increase is persistent and measurable.
Market Watch also addressed national concerns about corporate ownership of housing. Using county-level deed and tax data, the firm found that corporate entities own about 10 percent of homes in the Coachella Valley, a share McDonald described as “not insignificant, but far from dominant.”
Four housing market sectors, four different stories
The core of the presentation breaks the valley’s housing stock into four major subdivisions, each analyzed independently for price trends, sales volume, inventory, and days on market:
- Active adult communities
- Attached country club homes
- Detached country club homes
- Luxury golf-oriented estates
This framework replaces city-by-city comparisons with a housing-type approach designed to reflect how buyers and sellers actually participate in the market.
Active adult communities: digesting pandemic gains
Active adult communities, including Sun City and seven other major developments, remain one of the valley’s most stable segments. The average 1,900-square-foot home now sells for about $571,000, down roughly 5 percent from a year earlier.
Sales volume has flattened at about 69 homes per month, 17 percent below pre-pandemic norms. Inventory has returned to seasonal averages, while days on market have risen to 81, nearly matching pre-COVID levels. The data suggests a market that is cooling modestly but not unraveling.
Attached country club homes: growing inventory pressure
Attached country club homes, typically condominiums or duplex units within golf communities, show the most visible signs of stress. Prices are down about 6 percent year over year, while sales remain more than 30 percent below pre-pandemic levels.
Inventory has climbed above historical norms, a trend McDonald flagged as a potential source of additional price pressure in 2026. Although selling times remain relatively short for now, Market Watch expects that advantage to erode if listings continue to outpace demand.
Detached country club homes: holding firm
Detached homes within country clubs tell a different story. Despite sales volumes still running roughly 27 percent below pre-pandemic averages, prices have slipped just 1 percent year over year and remain near record highs.
Inventory in this segment is actually lower than last year, signaling that owners are choosing to hold rather than sell. Homes are still moving quickly, with average selling times about 40 percent faster than before the pandemic.
Luxury market: remarkably resilient
The luxury segment, defined as homes averaging roughly 4,500 square feet within high-end golf communities, continues to outperform expectations. Average prices have climbed to approximately $3.8 million, more than double their 2018 levels.
Sales are up modestly from last year, inventory is more than 50 percent below seasonal norms, and average selling time has dropped to just 68 days. Market Watch attributes this strength to both limited supply and a seller base that remains financially insulated from higher interest rates.
What the shift in analysis reveals
By reorganizing the data around housing type instead of geography, the presentation highlights a central theme: the Coachella Valley is not one housing market, but several moving at different speeds.
Citywide median prices, McDonald argued, often obscure these differences and can mislead both buyers and policymakers. A flat price trend in one city may hide softness in attached units and strength in luxury homes occurring simultaneously.
“This approach gives us better intelligence,” McDonald said. “It tells us where pressure is building and where stability remains.”
Data sources and methodology
Market Watch compiles its analysis using recorded MLS transactions, public property records, and proprietary historical databases built over more than 15 years of tracking Coachella Valley housing. Price figures are weighted by actual sales volume within each subdivision to avoid distortion from low-activity communities.
The presentation materials and supporting charts were prepared internally by Market Watch and presented by Michael McDonald, the firm’s principal analyst, as part of its long-running “Tale of Nine Cities” series. Despite the name, this year’s edition intentionally deemphasizes city boundaries in favor of market structure and buyer behavior.
Looking ahead
Market Watch’s outlook for 2026 is cautious but not alarmist. The firm expects prices to remain generally stable to slightly lower, inventories to rise gradually in most segments, and sales activity to remain below pre-pandemic norms.
What has changed, however, is how those trends are being measured.
By focusing on housing type rather than location, Market Watch’s latest presentation offers a more precise view of where the Coachella Valley housing market is absorbing past gains—and where it may still be vulnerable.
