December Silicon Valley Real Estate Update

Here are my observations of the most recent November transactions for Santa Clara County real estate and San Mateo County real estate. Your comments and questions are always welcome. If you see something in your neighborhood that you are curious about or have a question, please don't hesitate to share with us. If you have questions or a comment, please leave them here, or feel free to contact me through my website or send me an email.

General Market Observations and Comments -- As we get closer to the end of the year, the amount of homes (single family and condos and townhouses) currently available for sale decrease at an even faster clip. Part of this is due to the seasonality aspect and the other is that this continues the trend set in motion from the early part of this year. Lowered inventory usually advantages sellers. At this level, we are not close to a record low point reached in early 2000. Possible we can set a new record, yes, as there is still time left in the year! Both counties have the characteristics of a seller's market in most market areas but not all. During November, more than half of the closings had a sales price greater than a list price (58% in Santa Clara County and 62% in San Mateo County). It bears repeating that a well-priced listing has a tendency to develop more activity and have a much higher chance of generating multiple offers.

Which Half Are You? --  In November, it took just 14 days to sell half of the homes in Santa Clara County and 15 in San Mateo County! Keep in mind that these are countywide averages. A neighborhood may vary from these figures so it's best to contact your Realtor for a current reading.

In Santa Clara County, the fastest market area is Cupertino and Sunnyvale (zip codes 95014, 94086, 94087) with a median days on market of just 10 whereas the slowest is Los Gatos and Saratoga with a median days on market of 33 for those that closed escrow during the month. For San Mateo County, the fastest market area is Redwood City with 11 whereas the slowest is the San Mateo Coast area comprising the communities of Half Moon Bay, El Granada, Moss Beach, Montara with 46.

Median Prices Increase -- Median prices of single family, condo and townhouse homes continue upwards. For single family residences, November saw Santa Clara County's median price, half above and half below or the middle transaction, increase to $685,000 and the median sales price for San Mateo County increased to $820,000.

Inventory of Available Homes for Sale Continue at Low Levels -- There were just 794 single family residences for sale and 180 condos/townhouses in Santa Clara County and just 455 single family residences in San Mateo County. Not record lows but each are about 60% lower than the same month a year ago.

Where Have All the REO's Gone? -- In Santa Clara County, just 10% of the active listings are lender-controlled transactions. That is either Short Sales (pre-foreclosure, 6%) or REO's (bank-owned, 4%). Fully 90% are regular or equity sales! In San Mateo County, the numbers are similar -- Regular 91%, Short Sale 5% and REO's 3%. True, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tends to slow the rate of foreclosures down a bit around the holidays but the trend was still evident before.

In Santa Clara County, for the Sunnyvale and Cupertino (zip codes 94086, 94087, 95014) market area, there were exactly none with 51 active single family residence listings. Ditto for Redwood Shores/Foster City area in San Mateo County with just five active listings.

Shuttle Flyover of Sunnyvale, CA - Photo Captured by Dave Lofgren

What's HOT and What's NOT -- In Santa Clara County, the hottest market area comprises Santa Teresa, North Valley, Milpitas, Blossom Valley with a Days of Unsold Inventory (DUI) of 15. In San Mateo County, the hottest area is Foster City/Redwood Shores with a DUI of 10. What's not is Los Gatos/Saratoga in Santa Clara County with a DUI of 61 and the expensive areas of Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Hillsborough and Woodside in San Mateo County with a DUI of 99.

Thanks for reading! I'm Tom McEvoy, Realtor with RE/MAX Santa Clara Valley -- Let me know if you have any comments, questions, observations or any future topics you'd like me to address.