Bay Area Real Estate Continues to Demand Top-Dollar

Market Watch | Bay Area Real Estate Continues to Demand Top-Dollar

November 13, 2017    Coldwell Banker  Market News  by Marketing Department

In September, the Bay Area maintained its position as California’s most in-demand region for real estate. According to the September California Association of REALTORS^® report, six of nine Bay Area counties had less than three months’ supply of inventory, and of the six – two had less than a two months’ supply. The report indicated that San Mateo took the No. 1 spot with the highest price per square foot at $883/sq. ft., followed by San Francisco ($875/sq. ft.), and Santa Clara ($687/sq. ft.). Read more about what’s happening from our Silicon Valley offices.

SF Peninsula – Half Moon Bay reported an all-time low in inventory supply. Although this makes the housing market tough for prospective buyers, many were still encouraged by low interest rates. Palo Alto downtown also saw low inventory that led to multiple offers on most, if not all properties.
Redwood City experienced a healthy demand and saw many sales exceeding asking prices. One instance was an uninhabitable house in southern San Francisco that listed for $550,000 and received 29 offers, selling well above the listing price. The luxury market remained active, although properties did not move as quickly.
San Mateo saw an increase in both inventory and prices. The luxury market was active, but slower with properties priced above $2.5 million. 

Silicon Valley 
Cupertino saw an active market, at times with more pending sales than active listings.  Buyers are encouraged to start house hunting as Silicon Valley is a uniquely strong region with exceptional demand. The luxury market remains active with several sales exceeding $6 million.
Gilroy and Morgan Hill saw low inventory and over 65 percent of the 54 available homes sold for over $1 million. Entry-level homes can be challenging to find, although the average list price of Gilroy is slightly lower. Overall, the area remains a sellers’ market with multiple offers and homes selling for above asking.
Los Altos experienced a continued sellers’ market with low inventory and multiple offers on most listings. The average days-on-market remained low, ranging from 13 days in Sunnyvale to 35 in Los Altos Hills. Sellers need to ensure their homes are priced and primed for a competitive sale. And buyers must be prepared with financing and a knowledgeable, trusted agent to represent their best interests. Buyers must also be aggressive as the market is highly competitive and sellers are more responsive to solid offers. The luxury market priced above
$4.5 million in Los Altos is steady and flat. On average, time on market is 44 days. Inventory is steadily increasing and the number of sales in the high-end market is down slightly.
Los Gatos saw a sustained sellers’ market, and luxury activity remains strong and active.
San Jose saw inventory at a record low. That coupled with low interest rates has created an increasingly competitive market for buyers. Even with the strong demand, sellers are encouraged to price their home competitively – at or slightly below market price – to avoid pushback from buyers. Because of the current competitive landscape, buyers should be ready to make an offer quickly because hesitation may cost them a great opportunity.
Saratoga saw multiple offers on most of its listings and a continued sellers’ market.  Buyers who are ready to make a move should have all financing in order. The high-end luxury market experienced an increase in listings with 24 properties for sale in September, a 9.1 percent increase from August 2017, and a 71.4 percent increase from September 2016.

Any questions about your real estate situation? Let me know!
Thanks for reading!

Francis Rolland

Your Home Value?

Trends: Local prices and graphs.

Report from the trenches - The Silicon Valley & SF Peninsula real estate activity.

Our latest "report from the trenches", from the Coldwell Banker office managers all along the Peninsula:

SF Peninsula – ...  In her decades of experience in this area, our Menlo Park manager has never seen the market so low on inventory – even for this time of year.  Buyers are out in droves yet after last week in the equity markets, they are a bit in a wait and see attitude.  Properties are still moving quickly but there are more buyers than actual ‘bidders’ right now, she says. Anything under $1.4 million is getting a lot of attention and selling quickly. $5-6 million homes are becoming more and more common in Menlo Park. Inventory is seasonally low in Palo Alto, but demand is still there. Amazingly there is still an incredible lack of inventory all over the Peninsula, says our Redwood City manager. Because of this almost all offers are multiple offers. There still are a lot of buyers with sufficient funds to purchase but due to the lack of inventory there is a tremendous amount of frustration. More inventory is hitting the San Mateo area market, our local manager says. Agents have a number of listings inked and ready to come on in the next couple of weeks. The market is “moribund” right now in the country offices, reports our Portola Valley-Woodside manager.  But she says that this area always seems slow to start the new year.

Silicon Valley – New inventory is slow to hit the Cupertino area market. The few new open houses our local agents held had 200-300 visitors in some cases. There are currently 25 homes for sale in Los Gatos, down 40% from the same time last year, reports our Los Gatos manager. The San Jose Almaden market has been more of the same with lower inventory than previous years, although it has increased since December.  Buyers aren’t waiting to write up offers.  Most of the listings are going into contract during the first weekend of open houses.  A 1,330 square foot SFR in Santa Clara (with Cupertino HS) that had a list price of $895,000 received 46 offers and sold for $1,330,000.  With the New Year underway the post-holiday local Willow Glen market is busy although it is still experiencing extremely low listing inventory. The year started with only 23 active listings and dropped to 21 in week two. Open houses are jammed, and multiple offers well over list price are the norm. Agents all have a bounty of buyers they are trying to get into something.

My personal experience has been a difficult market for buyers, even towards the end of the year, when buyers typically are given a break. The transactions I have had in the past two months have been tough, and buyers could not ask for much... 
Such is the market!

Thank you for reading,

Francis

Silicon Valley real estate

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

Bay Area at Forefront of a National ‘Rental Crisis’

Bay Area at Forefront of a National ‘Rental Crisis’  - A Zillow report  followed by an in-depth view of the current market in the Bay Area, area by area.

There’s no doubt that Bay Area home prices have been climbing steadily since the recession, but as it turns out rental housing costs are going up even faster and it is creating what Zillow calls a national rental crisis.

Rents all across the country are going up faster than home prices, and they’re going up in our region faster than anywhere in the U.S., Zillow reported in its latest rent index.

In the five-county San Francisco metropolitan area, the Zillow Rent Index soared to $3,162, up 14.9 percent in April from a year ago, the fastest increase in the nation. And who was number two? The San Jose metro area, where the Zillow Rent Index rose to $3,287, up 12.9 percent.

Denver, Kansas City and Portland rounded out the top five rental markets with the greatest price increases. Nationally, the Zillow Rent Index rose 4 percent in April from a year ago to $1,364. The rent index is the median monthly rent “Zestimate” of all properties in a region, not just those for rent.

While home prices have moved up and down over the past decade, Zillow said that rents have been rising steadily during that time. In April, rent increases nationally outpaced home-price appreciation for the first time in years, accelerating what Zillow called a “rental crisis.”

In the San Francisco metro area, rents started rising faster than home values in July 2014, according to the report, and they have been growing faster ever since on an annual basis.

The report added that a slowdown in home-price appreciation will help renters looking to buy a home in much of the nation.

See the rest of the story there:  The "Coldwell Banker Market Watch".

Thank you for reading,

Francis

Silicon Valley real estate

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