June Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Comments

Here are my observations of the most recent May 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.

General Market Observations and Comments -- The amount of homes (single family and condos and townhouses) available for sale continue at lower levels continuing the pattern of most of the year thus far. Normally, inventory levels start their climb in early spring and peak by mid-year but not this time. Since there have been a good amount of buyer demand, this condition has set up many areas as seller's markets -- many buyers chasing relatively few properties with its tendency toward multiple offer situations. This condition is occurring in both counties but certainly not in every area. The market continues to be more brisk in Santa Clara County than San Mateo County at present.


Want to Be First Time Buyers? Part 2 --  If rents going up are getting you down, and you expect to live in the area for a reasonable period, it may be advantageous to own than to rent! Mortgage rates continue at virtual cartoon-like levels with about 85% of borrowers choosing a fixed rate loan product.

Median Prices Increase -- Beware of the month to month numbers you read in the press or see on the internet -- they don't mean much! Year over year is much more meaningful as it eliminates the seasonality of the market. For May, Santa Clara County's median price for single family residences, half above and half below or the middle transaction, increased to $640,000, as more and more lower priced homes have been scooped up.


14 will get you 51 -- Some real estate practitioners are mentioning that it takes about eight weeks (51 days) to sell a home and they consider that good. However, most seller's wouldn't consider that good when you tell them it will take an average of that long to sell! In actuality, it now takes but 14 days to sell half of the homes. That is the median days on market. The 51 figure is the average. The difference is that those homes that have issues or are grossly overpriced sit on the market for a long time thus bringing the average up and does not impact the median which is the middle transaction. When I provide advice to sellers I use the median and calculate it down to their neighborhood or as small an area as possible.


Sunnyvale is #7 in the U.S. -- According to the Kiplinger Personal Finance survey, Sunnyvale was named as the 7th greatest city in the United States to raise kids. As a long-time resident of Sunnyvale and where my wife and I have raised our two sons, I'd have to agree!

According to a City of Sunnyvale press release, the city now reports the highest rate of construction and permitting in its history! Included in the issuance was a permit for a 75,000 square foot building that will house LinkedIn. The presser went on to say "construction activity in Sunnyvale has significantly increased in the past 18 months. Development activity is led by new office and R&D construction, both new building construction and tenant improvements, and residential development
is also experiencing a resurgence of interest."



Thanks for reading my blog. 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.

Welcome to My Behind the Real Estate Scenes in Silicon Valley Blog

Welcome to my blog -- Behind the Real Estate Scenes in Silicon Valley!





This blog will provide readers who want a bit more specifics about real estate topics than what you would normally find in a newspaper or online article which can be extremely general and perhaps meant to scare or sell newspapers rather than provide relevant, local information on real estate in our Silicon Valley communities. We'll delve into market and industry trends, strategies, tips for buyers and sellers, and even ideas and tips on improving or maintaining your home or investment properties.




Also, we will venture into non real estate areas too! Things like community and neighborhood events, charities, dining, etc. My blogs related to dining experiences will sport the name "Real Eats" and blogs about movie reviews and comments will be called "Reel Estate".




My name is Tom McEvoy. I've been a California licensed real estate broker for the past eight years. I'm a Realtor and was awarded the Seniors Real Estate Specialist designation because of my experience and education in dealing with seniors.




Prior to entering real estate, I was in corporate financial planning and analysis for 23 years ending as a Director of Financial Planning in 1999. My business, finance and investment experience allows me to provide comprehensive advice to my clients as well as interact effectively with CPA's, estate attorneys, loan officers, financial planners and other professionals so that my clients may be afforded top-level expertise so they make the best decision possible.




My associations and memberships include the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, the California and National Associations of Realtors, Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau of Santa Clara County as well as a member of MLS Listings Inc. our Multiple Listing Service. I possess an MBA from Santa Clara University, a BS degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from San Jose State University and an AA degree in Real Estate from Foothill College.




After working at two independent real estate firms during my first five years in business, I joined RE/MAX Santa Clara Valley, an independently owned and operated franchise, in early 2005. I have found it beneficial to belong to the largest realty member firm in the world with a network spanning more than 60 countries and comprising more than 120,000 agents. The power of RE/MAX extends to their widely-popular website http://www.remax.com/.




My business philosophy is to advise and educate my clients to enable them to achieve their real estate goals in the best possible manner. I am client-driven, not transaction driven and spend a great deal of time understanding my clients aims so that I can advise them on the appropriate strategy necessary to save them time and money.




The services I provide include helping people buy, sell or exchange residential and commercial properties. Properties include those occupied by the owners or those kept as investments. I serve clients from first time buyers of homes and income properties to trade up and trade down clients looking to meet goals due to changing life situations. In particular, I help senior citizens utilizing my designation of a Seniors Real Estate Specialist on whether or not to sell the family home, tax implications of selling income properties and the like. I also advise investor clients on exchanging properties to defer capital gains taxes through the use of Section 1031 of the IRS Tax Code.




Since I am client-oriented, my area of service is quite broad and mainly includes San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. I have assisted clients outside this large area both in California and out of state with the help of a local professional that I team up with to assure my client receives the highest level of service at all times.





If you have any questions or suggestions for additional topics or subjects, please click comments below and post them here or contact me.






Thanks for reading!






To life's best,


Tom McEvoy, Realtor