Quick Market Summary: The Silicon Valley real estate market broiling continues! Year over year the Santa Clara County median price has jumped to $1,420,000 in April up 22.4% and in San Mateo County the median price sits at $1,800,000. The unbalanced market with super low inventories and high demand contributes to the strong price increases -- sellers take notice. Very high-end priced home market throughout both counties remain The Santa Clara County median price for condos/townhouses reached $915,000. In Santa Clara County 84.5% of homes that closed escrow in April sold for more than list price inferring multiple offers and a record for this time of year. It was "only" 82% in San Mateo County!
Nuts and Bolts: Inventory or the amount of homes available for purchase in Santa Clara County was 837 down 13.6% from last year at this time. Sales (accepted offers) were 1,184 down from 1,265 or 6.4% from the same month last year. You'd think that sales would be down as much as inventory if you believed what some agents say that sales are limited by the low inventory. You have to take another variable into consideration and that is -- turnover. A faster market or one with a shorter number of days on market easily cancels or mitigates a lower level of inventory. Currently we're at the fastest market turnover ever!
For San Mateo County, inventory of single family residences stood at 377 in April also down from last year. Sales (accepted offers) were 454. For both counties, the inventory continues to lag far below the historical average for this time of the year placing pressure on buyers as evidenced in the predominance of multiple offer situations and heated competition between buyers trying to enter the market.
Sale price to list price ratio, an important key market condition indicator, shows that for Santa Clara County transactions completed during April this stood at 112.5% and the highest ever eclipsing the previous all time high of 110.0% reached in the heady days of the “Dot-com” period in 2000. Last year at this time it stood at 106.0%.
The hottest market in Santa Clara County belongs to the Cupertino/Sunnyvale market area (median price of about $2.22 million) at 119.1% which means that the average closed sale has a sale price 19.1% higher than the list price! It also registered the lowest median days on market at just 8 which means half the inventory sells in just a bit over a week and 89% of closings sold above list price! The coolest is the South County (Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Martin) market area (median price of about $0.91 million) with 103.1% and 30 days of unsold inventory.
Days of unsold inventory are at a record low of just 24.7 for Santa Clara County and 29 for San Mateo County. This means that for Santa Clara County that the entire inventory, if held static, would sell out in less than 25 days!
San Mateo County’s overall sale price to list price ratio stands at 111.9% with the highest ratio and hottest market area in the Bay Cities (Belmont, Burlingame, Millbrae, San Carlos, San Mateo) market area (median price of about $1.93 million) at 116.3% with a median days on market of 11. One advantage of this area is its proximity to San Francisco and a heck of a lot less expensive! The coolest is the Expensive (Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Hillsborough and Woodside) market area, (median price of about $3.69 million).
As always, market dynamics change and the supply and demand relationships can vary by area. If you would like specific market condition information for your area or neighborhood or a current home valuation, please feel free to call me, your Remax Agent! You are welcome to leave your comments or questions or contact me directly at my website. Check out and “like” my Facebook Business Page (have over 750 likes – help me to reach 1,000!) or follow me on my Twitter Page.Thank you.
