Median List price for San Jose 95129

How’s the Cupertino real estate market right now? Let’s start with the most basic window into conditions: supply and demand. (This graph and more info comes from my Cupertino Real Estate Report. Please click on the link for much more data and information – with statistics and trends dating back many years. Also you will find reports which are monthly, quarterly and annually generated. Finally, there’s a “property analysis” tab which enables you to check sales – and see images – around any Cupertino address. Please allow the analysis tab to do its slow load – it’s worth it – enjoy!)

Cupertino Real Estate Supply and Demand

Cupertino Real Estate Market Barometer of Supply and Demand

The realty market barometer is going through the roof!  This implies that it’s very easy for Cupertino home sellers to get their properties into contract and to the closing table, that it is a hot seller’s market in Cupertino.  Please note the darkest line reflects housing inventory – and it’s been plummeting for months.  (Look at each year for October through December and you will note that the pattern is seasonal – but the actual number of homes available does vary considerably.)  Now please note the pale gray line, which indicates the number of homes selling and closing escrow.  The bigger the gap between these lines, the more choices buyers have, and the narrower the gap, the fewer.  Right now, for the first time covered by the chart above, these lines have met, meaning that homes are selling at the same rate that they are coming on the market.  When supply matches or outpaces demand, prices nearly always rise.

But what about home prices in Cupertino?

Here’s a look at the numbers, in brief, as reported with closed sales in December 2011.  Surprisingly, although the market appears to be very hot, prices don’t seem to reflect that – perhaps “yet”.  The median sales price of houses in Cupertino are off significantly from both the month prior and the year prior, and the average sales price is down a little. The number of sales is off a little and the list price to sales price is off some too (both year over year and month over month). Meanwhile, the days on market are growing pretty steadily.

What’s happening? Why this contradiction between the market barometer and pricing?   First, the days on market reflect the inventory which recently sold, not the inventory which is available today.  This tells us that many homes that have been on the market awhile are now being purchased. (Probably others went off the market for the holidays, which is typical for the season.) (more…)

The annual market report is out at popehandy.REReport.com and we can now learn how 2011 compared to 2010.  The median sales price for houses in Santa Clara County was off 5.3% overall.  But from one part of the valley to the next it varied wildly with 6 cities or areas finding themselves in positive territory while others were off by double digits.

In the image to the left, I’ve put into bold the cities where the median sales price of houses which sold and closed escrow in 2011 were ahead of 2010′s pricing.

What is it that makes Gilroy, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Mountain View and Palo Alto “in the black”?

Most of these cities/towns are upscale, west valley communities.  But so are Saratoga, Cupertino, and Monte Sereno.

Gilroy was especially hard-hit with the housing downturn so perhaps in that case, it’s just coming back into more of a balance. (Then again, so was Morgan Hill and it’s still off by 12%.)

The LinkedIn IPO and others in the Palo Alto area drove prices up for some parts of the housing market nearby and it’s likely that this explains the positive growth for Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos Hills.  That said, it would seem that Los Altos, and perhaps even Sunnyvale would have seen stronger numbers on the same account.  Perhaps school scores are the key driver here.

Los Gatos, Saratoga and Monte Sereno often behave somewhat similarly as they are adjacent to one another and often attract similar home buyers who want good schools, a nice downtown area nearby and scenic beauty with the hills.  The annual numbers show Monte Sereno down 6.7%, Saratoga down 2% but Los Gatos up 6.4%.  With Monte Sereno, there are very few sales each month and each year (only about 4,000 residents), so there can be a wider swing without it necessarily being accurate. Saratoga and Los Gatos each have about 30,000 people who call these areas home, though, so the data is much more helpful.  Saratoga and Los Gatos both have multiple school districts, views, homes with better proximity to “downtown” and more variables – I think we’d have to dig a lot deeper to learn why these two neighboring markets are so diverse.  We might also have to look at multiple years of data to see if Saratoga spiked while LG slumped to explain the difference. (more…)

How’s the Saratoga California real estate market?

Annual Saratoga CA Real Estate Update:

Saratoga’s prices slipped a bit in 2011 over 2010.  Here are the basic numbers with the stats for the annual review, including median sales price and average sales price of houses sold (see the Saratoga Real Estate Report for even more data):

Median Sale Price 2011 = $1,480,000   2010 = $1,510,000 (-2.0%)

Average Sale Price 2011 = $1,636,300   2010 = $1,657,140 (-1.3%)

For condominiums and townhouses it was stronger (finally, they’ve taken a beating!):

Median Sale Price 2011 =  $660,000     2010 =  $612,500 (+7.8%)

Average Sale Price  2011 = $684,500    2010 =  $640,895 (+6.8%)

To see much more information please visit the full annual Real Estate Report for Saratoga condos and townhomes

Monthly Real Estate Update for Saratoga:

Sales of single family homes were up but prices were down month over month – but way, way up over December 2010! It’s taking much longer to sell houses compared to a year ago too – but look at the prices from a year ago – the low price went with a very brisk sale time (average 17 days on the market).  That was nuts both for low pricing and for speed!

What about Saratoga condos for sale and sold? There are very, very few of these which sell in any given month, so the numbers can very easily jump around like crazy – and therefore aren’t terribly helpful.  (more…)

How’s the Almaden Valley real estate market?   Prices appear to  have been rising, but slipped some this last month. There’s not much inventory in this part of the valley so it remains a seller’s market, incredibly. A  fairly nice 4 bed, 2 bath house in most parts of the San Jose 95120 zip code will still cost about a million dollars (more if it’s in the best areas with best schools and best condition).  A smaller 3-4 bedroom townhouse with good schools will be about half that much unless it’s really young and highly upgraded.

Average Days on Market  & Sale to List Price Ratio for Almaden Valley (San Jose, CA 95120) houses in 2011:

Number of Homes For Sale vs Sold for Almaden Houses on the Market

Date is between Jan 2011 and Dec 2011

Property Sub Class is ‘Single Family Residential’

Area AreaIdName is ’13 Almaden Valley’

Results calculated from approximately 570 listings

Listings by Price Range

Date is between Feb 2011 and Jan 2012

Property Sub Class is ‘Single Family Residential’

Area AreaIdName is ’13 Almaden Valley’

Results calculated from approximately 470 listings

Sales by price range

Date is between Jan 2011 and Dec 2011

Property Sub Class is ‘Single Family Residential’

Area AreaIdName is ’13 Almaden Valley’

Results calculated from approximately 320 listings

(more…)

Every couple of weeks I update this post to bring fresh news and data on the Cambrian Park real estate market. On Dec 9th  I went onto the MLS and ran the “months of inventory” or absorption rate of houses and duet homes (what our MLS calls “class 1″)  in “area 14″ or Cambrian area of San Jose. This time I broke it down into price points as well as the type of sale (regular, short sale, bank owned)  so you can pinpoint the pricing for the various segments of the Cambrian market. (Reminder: months of inventory reflects how long it will take to sell a property if sales continue at the current rate. Six months or so is considered “balanced”. More is a buyer’s market and less is a seller’s.)

**please note – typo below – numbers were crunched December 9th, 2011, not December 10th.

Cambrian Park (San Jose) Months of Inventory by sale type & price point Dec 9, 2011

What’s selling? “Regular sales” – non distressed. Not faring so well? Short sales.  In many price points, although many are under contract or pending, FEW – sometimes none – are making it to the closing table.  We are hearing a lot about the streamlined processes for short sales, but these numbers hint at a different reality, namely that Silicon Valley and Cambrian short sales sell but often don’t close escrow.

What is the typical kind of home and price for these neighborhoods?  Of the homes which transferred ownership in the last 30 days, a typical house cost about $600,000, has about 1600 square feet and sits on a lot of around 6700 square feet (and is “partially updated”, not fully remodeled).  The price per square foot averaged $376 but ran from $205 (distressed and on a hugely busy road) to $513 (close to the hills near Almaden and Los Gatos).  If the home you want to buy or sell needs remodeling or is “all original” it’s probably going to sell for less. If it’s in a great area, is a regular sale and absolutely turnkey and fully remodeled, it’ll sell for more.  A beautifully remodeled Cambrian house with 3 bed, 2 bath and 1200 square feet can easily run $600,000 or more if it’s a regular sale and in a good area with no “issues” (high voltage lines, backing to busy road or school etc.).

What about the pending sales? (more…)

Los Gatos real estate can be viewed from many angles: zip code, school district, sale type, view or no view, acreage, luxury home or basic home type…. This post will serve as a brief overview only. For information on YOUR Los Gatos subdivision or neighborhood, please contact me!

Here’s a quick glance at the basic numbers for SOLD real estate in Los Gatos (houses and duet homes) for November 2011. Please click on the link for full report on my other site.

And next, same information but for condos and townhouses in Los Gatos:

Next we’ll have a quick look at the town by zip code and will use Altos Research charts and graphs (using list prices, not sold ones) to get a pulse on the market.  Disclaimers aside, here’s the broad overview by zip code – hope you find this helpful!  I will be using “live charts” here so they will always be current!

95030 stats:

Continue via link for more information on Los Gatos real estate trends and statistics.

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