Perspective on the Real Estate Market - Silicon Valley - USA

A perspective on the real estate market in the US, and in the Silicon Valley - the Bay Area of San Francisco.

As I update this amazing graph every year around the month of April - May, I cannot stop being amazed at the evolution of prices in our corner of the world.
This graph makes me think somewhat about the technical progress of the past 3 decades  - also unique to our generation.  Although obviously it is not in direct correlation to scientific discoveries, since it is a reflection of other factors like supply and demand, economic upticks and downturns and geographic particularities, the graph is as extreme in its own way, and covers a time frame that is the same.

Click to see a larger graph.

What happens after the end of 2016?  For now the market is still a strong sellers' market in most of the US regions. 
Nationwide the median home value is now higher than right before the "Big Crisis", at $198,000, according to the April Zillow® Real Estate Market Reports (Svenja Gudell article).
However, let's not forget that this is not true of all of the US: in 17 of the 32 largest metropolitan housing markets prices are still below-peak (like in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami).

Here in the Silicon Valley the market remains very much a seller's market. At this point, I believe the annual appreciation will be easily around 6-8%.  The areas with the lowest average prices may even show a higher rate of appreciation.  Multiple offers are the norm, and cash is king...

Thank you for reading,
Francis

Trends: Local prices and graphs.
Check your Home Value
A worthy local non-profit to remember: 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

Silicon Valley market update - California/US Update

Here are some news from the trenches...  concrete information about what is happening in our local area of the Silicon Valley - Plus, for some perspective, some information about the hottest markets in the US. (which include San Francisco and San Jose in the first two...).

Silicon Valley – More listings are emerging in the region, but Santa Clara County is still facing a shortage of available homes and strong buyer demand, which in some cases is leading to bidding wars. Open houses drew “hundreds of visitors” in the last two weeks, reports the Cupertino office manager. All offers ratified over the past two weeks have been multiple offers and all deals have contingencies in place, according to the San Jose Almaden office manager. Prices were up in several communities in January compared to the same month in 2016, he noted. Almaden’s average sales price was $1,329,000 in January, which was up 12 percent from January 2016 and down 3 percent from December.  Blossom Valley’s average sales price followed a similar trend. The average sales price in that community was $708,000 in January, which is up 10.5 percent from January 2016 and down 9 percent from the prior month.  In contrast, Cambrian’s average sales price declined 10.5 percent from a year ago to $916,000 and was down 6 percent from December.  Santa Teresa’s average sales price rose 11 percent year-over-year to $759,000 in January and was also 2 percent higher than the average sales price recorded in December. Most homes are going into contract after just one weekend on the market and in some areas homes are selling well over 10 percent of asking list price, says the San Jose Willow Glen office manager. Despite the strong demand and brisk activity, “Sellers still need to be careful not to overprice as we see homes that are priced above market sit idle as more competitively priced homes are seeing all the action,” explained the San Jose Main office manager.


For the hottest real estate markets in the US (many of them in California), please follow this Coldwell Banker article.

Thank you for reading!
Francis

Silicon Valley real estate specialist
Detailed, local trends etc...
Current mortgage rates
A place worth noting: Our Brother's Home in MountainView

Where can you find that home style?

Where can you find that style?

Great article I found recently about the various building styles in the US, and in which area/state you are more likely to find them. 

The following map speaks quite well about the locations and the styles, but I find the article itself most interesting to read as it goes into the reasons why a style is more prevalent in a given state, and the usual value of the houses.

It comes to no surprise that the Mediterranean style is the most expensive, - it is often the case here too in the Silicon Valley, although I would add to this article that the “contemporary” home and the “modern” home are likely to be the most expensive where we are, as they are often associated with “new”, "recently build" and “high tech” or “smart home”.  This includes energy efficient.  Only the Eichlers might fit in that category of “contemporary” while not being necessarily new.

From an article in Realtor.com author by YuqingPan.

Thank you, as always, for reading, and let me know if you are thinking of buying or selling in 2017! ;-)

Francis

Buying or selling?

Silicon Valley real estate

Worthwhile non-profit Agency:  CSA in Mountain View