Silicon Valley's Market Continues Its Upward Pace

Some news from the trenches, as of the 2nd week of June:  
At the Los Gatos-Saratoga District Virtual Breakfast Meeting this week, C.A.R. President-elect Dave Walsh was upbeat because weekly market stats he has tracked show the market is continuing on an upward pace. Sellers are returning to the market and buyers are even bidding on homes.

Walsh's data for Santa Clara County shows sales since March have been increasing to an average of 200 a week. Sales dropped to a mere 99 the week after county Shelter-in-Place order was imposed. 

Walsh said, "Our REALTORS® are very good at pulling buyers and sellers together no matter what the situation is, even in a pandemic. Our market is recovering faster than any other market in the state. We all are fortunate to be in Silicon Valley."

Many areas are hot. South County has been "on fire" with its affordable, expansive housing. Walsh said a reason for this is people are gravitating to larger open areas, away from cramped units in cities.

Milpitas has been hot from the start, according to Walsh. Santa Clara, Central San Jose and Sunnyvale "have never retracted and have stayed unbelievably hot with a zero slowdown." Santa Clara had 13 sales last week; its 4-week average is 10 sales. Central San Jose had seven sales last week; its 4-week average is five sales. Comparing last week's sales to their 4-week averages, these cities have exploded: Sunnyvale 19 sales (avg. 7), Cupertino 13 sales (avg. 7), Los Gatos 10 sales (avg. 6), Saratoga 8 sales (avg. 3). Positive changes are seen in Willow Glen, which had 17 sales last week (avg. 7) and Mountain View, 9 sales (avg. 3).

Since Santa Clara County's March 16 Shelter-in-Place order, 2,369 properties have been put under contract. Of those properties, 1,968 were priced below $2 million, 122 were priced over $3-7 million, and six properties sold at over $7 million.

"This tells us there is a lot of confidence in our marketplace, confidence in our consumers that work and live in Silicon Valley, confidence in employers and their stock portfolios. I cannot emphasize it enough. Our market is hot, our market is strong. If you price it correctly, it will sell." Walsh told members.

Thank you for reading,

Francis

Silicon Valley real estate

Trends: Local prices and graphs.
A noteworthy local non-profit event:  Community Services Agency - in Mountain View

8 facts about Mountain View, Google's hometown

Mountain View is the hometown of Google.  Have you ever been curious about the town that hosts Google?

Here are 8 facts about Mountain View that you've always been curious about, but never asked - ok, may be you checked before... ;-)

 In 2016:

• 573 homes sold - houses, townhouses and condominiums,
• Mountain View’s average home sales price is:  $ 1.384 million, roughly 6% over the asking price, and 4.3% over the average sales price of 2015,
• The average time for properties to sell was: 19 days
• Out of those 573 homes, 42% were single family residences.  The others were condominiums or townhouses,
• Overwhelmingly, properties sold in Mountain View were 3 bedroom homes (41%).  Then in order came the 2 bedrooms (29%) and the 4 bedrooms (18%).
• Nearly half of the homes were between 40 and 70 years old (45%).   (13 were over 80 years old, 37 were new or 1 yr old),
• The average size of all these sold Mountain View homes is 1493 sq.ft.
• Half of all the households of Mountain View made over $103k/year and half made under that.

Curious about more info on Google's town?  Check out my full neighborhood report.

Curious about your town, in the Silicon Valley? curious about the value of your home?  Let me know, I'll do the study.

Thanks for reading!

Francis

Your Mountain View Home Value

Trends: Local prices and graphs.
A worthy local non-profit to remember: Community Services Agency in Mountain View
Card Drawing by Francis

First-time home buyers

First-time home buyers make about a third of all home buyers, nationwide, according to the National Association of Realtors. 

The median age of a first-time buyer is 31, (making about $70k), while the median age of a repeat buyer is 53, (making nearly $100k).  It is safe to say that they do not have the same priorities.

While first-time home buyers usually settled in the past for a cheaper “starter home”, there are signs now that more want to have a home for the long term, holding back for a home that will work for them for a much longer time.  70% are willing to wait, rather than settle for that cheaper, smaller house with some repairs. 

Since we have been faced with a severe scarcity of “starter homes” for sale, compared with a few years back, the price tag of those properties went up drastically.  It is possible that first-time home buyers find that the price is not worth it any more and prefer to wait for more savings to buy a larger first home that will serve their needs for many more years.

Per the Residential Specialist (trsmag.com) the main home features that first time home buyers like most are, in order:

- updated kitchen and bathrooms (81%),

- an open floor plan (59%),

- low maintenance characteristics (43%),

- walkable communities (36%),

- energy efficiency (20%),

- cell phone service and wifi access (19%).

Those feature preferences are definitely evident in our market in the Silicon Valley, and with the exception of the last one, I think the order is pretty much the same.  Here, phone reception and wifi access is also close to the top of the list in my experience.

Thank you for reading!

Let me know if I can be of assistance to you, or someone you know, with real estate questions.

Francis

Silicon Valley real estate specialist
Detailed, local trends etc...
Current mortgage rates
A worthy local non-profit to remember: Community Services Agency in Mountain View

News from the trenches .... in the Silicon Valley.

Taking the pulse of the local offices, and managers and agents in the local cities.  It does not get more "down to earth" and "raw" than that!   ;-)

SF Peninsula – Listing inventory is steadily increasing in the Burlingame area, and so are sales, according to our local manager. Across the hill in Half Moon Bay, there has been a continuous increase in inventory. Our local manager provided this update for the area of Half Moon Bay, El Granada, Montara, Moss Beach, and Pescadero market update: The average listing price is $1,428,716, highest listing price is $3,388,888, and the lowest listing price is $699,000. Pending Average listing price is $1,372,445, highest listing price is $1,988,000, and the lowest listing price is $785,000. Sold average listing price is $1,062,552, the sold price is $1,071,980, days on the market is 14 days. ...  Our Menlo Park manager said the local market is steady but cautious. No throwing money at houses now like caution to the wind. She adds that sellers are more likely to look at a pre-emptive offer now realizing that we could be close to the ‘top of the market’ if anyone can really see that without it being behind them.  Our Redwood City-San Carlos manager reports lots and lots of frustration out there for everyone (sellers, buyers, agents). It’s a definite alteration in the market (which was needed). Only the ideal homes with the ideal location and the ideal price are selling quickly. All the rest are remaining on the market with very little, if any, showings. The San Mateo market has slowed down, our local manager says. Our Woodside-Portola Valley manager says that
Woodside continues to be a good/bad market. It is a month to month thing. Big buyers are out there but always waiting for the RIGHT house. The market is feeling cautious, she notes.

Silicon Valley – Our Cupertino manager says homes are staying on the market longer and need to be priced right. Open houses are spotty. That can be a good thing because agents have more chances to engage visitors in conversation, and perhaps get new clients. She adds that the luxury segment has been slowing. In the Los Gatos area, competition remains heavy for entry-level homes listed under $2,000,000. More inventory is hitting the market in the $2,000,000 plus range. Our San Jose-Almaden manager says we’re starting to see an increase number of active listings as well as a lower number of homes pending in Santa Clara County. The available inventory is actually higher than the number of available in 2014. Not surprising were the lower number of units sold for May. There were 35 properties sold in Almaden for the month which is down 25% from last month and 18% from the previous year. Blossom Valley was slightly better with a total of 101 homes sold for the month which is down 8.5% from the previous year. Cambrian was almost flat, with 78 properties selling for the month which is just down 2.5% for the previous month and year. Santa Teresa had 27 homes sold which is down 16% from the same time last year. Willow Glen had a sleepy Memorial Day week. Sales were slow and not many new listings came to the market. The following week things started moving again we had one of our better sales weeks and listing inventory is back up to 92 units. We are still hovering at 3-4 year highs for active listing inventory. The local market seems to be driven mainly by price point. Anything under or around the $850,000 price point is drawing lots of attention and still attracting multiple offers well over list price.

It is my experience that in Los Altos / Mountain View / Palo Alto the market is a little slower like elsewhere, but still quite active: anything priced right is selling quite well, even if sometimes it is not right away (like the first week).  I think the consensus is that prices are going to be flatter unless the property is among the most desirable in its category (and not overpriced).
The least expensive house in Mountain View sold in April for $1,050,000.
The least expensive house in Palo Alto sold in February for $1,325,000  (with a lot of 2,875 sq.ft.).

Thanks for reading, and hoping each finds his/her own area in the above ;-)
Francis

Silicon Valley real estate specialist
Detailed, local trends etc...
Current mortgage rates

non-profit organization worth noting: Partners for New Generations.

New to the Silicon Valley? This blog's for you!

FUN FACTS

- Silicon Valley has the nation’s second highest concentration of wealthy people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
- Money Magazine named Cupertino one of the nation’s best places to live in 2012.
- Forbes ranked San Jose No. 6 on its 2011 list of “America’s Safest Cities”.
- The name “Silicon Valley” originally referred to the region’s large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually applied to all of the tech companies in the area.
- The “mouse” was invented in Silicon Valley in 1963.

See more at: The CaliforniaHome Blog

Francis
Silicon Valley real estate specialist
Detailed, local trends etc...
Current mortgage rates

Market trend in Mountain View - price/sq.ft

Market trends -  Mountain View:
Following some of my last blogs on average prices in Mountain View and Los Altos, someone asked me to show the evolution of $ price per square foot.



 

So, how is “Google’s” City doing in that respect? 

  As always with figures and statistics one has to take the information with a grain of salt, or a good dose of caution. The figures can be deceiving.
The price per square foot is a good measure of the activity, as part of a combination of measures. It is shown below for the market of condominiums and townhouses, for the past 3 years; it is showing a lower value as we go into 2011:

…and for the house market, it shows a very healthy trend:

But this is one element of a big picture. In this case it is good to remember that as a property is larger, the price per square foot is lower. So the figures may also partly reflect a difference in average size of the properties sold.

Curious about another City? Do let me know at francis@frolland.com

Silicon Valley real estate
Search the MLS

A link of interest: recycling event in Los Altos next week.