Saratoga, CA, Real Estate Market Update
How’s the market in Saratoga? Your view of the market will be influenced by whether you’re looking at the homes that have sold, the ones on the market, or the ones that are sitting and not selling.
Here’s a look at the numbers from my Real Estate Report for single family homes:
| Trends At a Glance | Dec 2009 | Previous Month | Year-over Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $1,400,000 | $1,497,500 (-6.5%) | $1,599,250 (-12.5%) |
| Average Price | $1,617,740 | $1,790,670 (-9.7%) | $1,492,810 (+8.4%) |
| No. of Sales | 13 | 18 (-27.8%) | 8 (+62.5%) |
| Pending Properties | 15 | 20 (-25.0%) | 6 (+150.0%) |
| Active | 79 | 87 (-9.2%) | 122 (-35.2%) |
| Sale vs. List Price | 94.8% | 96.7% (-2.0%) | 95.0% (-0.2%) |
| Days on Market | 60 | 63 (-4.4%) | 25 (+143.5%) |
Among the sold homes, the median price has been slipping. This is an “overall” number though, not reflecting price points, location, or school districts.
Here’s the same info for condos and townhomes in Saratoga:
| Trends At a Glance | Dec 2009 | Previous Month | Year-over Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $317,375 | $0 (N/A) | $650,000 (-51.2%) |
| Average Price | $317,375 | $0 (N/A) | $661,667 (-52.0%) |
| No. of Sales | 2 | 0 (N/A) | 3 (-33.3%) |
| Pending Properties | 3 | 0 (N/A) | 0 (N/A) |
| Active | 7 | 0 (N/A) | 17 (-58.8%) |
| Sale vs. List Price | 94.1% | 0.0% (N/A) | 95.3% (-1.3%) |
| Days on Market | 52 | 0 (N/A) | 25 (+105.0%) |
As you can see there were no sales of condos in Saratoga in November - hence all the zeros. What is managing to sell are the very least expensive homes - not the luxury condos.
Now let’s turn our attention to what’s happening now amoung the active or for sale homes in Saratoga (using Altos Research, to which I have a subscription).
Here’s a graph displaying the overview of list prices for condos and single family homes in Saratoga:
Oddly, list prices appear to be up even though the median sales price is clearly down. Are sellers out of touch, or what’s happening? We’ll need more data to answer that.
Here’s a similar graph but just of the single family homes, and this time with a breakdown by price quartile. (Please note that the info would be even more precise if broken down by school district, but this particular program doesn’t yet filter by schools.)
Interestingly, the middle quartiles showed upward movement in pricing over the last 12 months. I have buyers in the lower 3 quartile and it seems that there’s not much inventory among thouse in Saratoga or Cupertino Schools, and when the home is nicely fixed up and has no issues (problems), prices seem to be inching up.
And again, list price of condos with price points included.
Condos in Saratoga did not fare as well, as you can see. This has been true throughout the county - since single family homes have become more affordable, consumers are often electing to purchase a house rather than a condominium.
Inventory for houses, townhouses/condos in Saratoga:
It’s seasonally typical to have more inventory in summer than other times of the year. Going back a few more years, please note where the peaks are found - always sometime in summer. (Single family homes only.)
It’s less visible, but still visible, with condominiums and townhouses in Saratoga:
Days on market for both housing types:
Houses by quartile is not much different - DOM is rising across all price points:
It is strangely disjointed in the Saratoga Condo market, though. I can’t explain why this is so “all over the board” based on just this data.
My suspicion is that the homes with the better schools are faring the best, but that’s just a hunch based on how well homes usually sell - it’s not provable with this info at hand.
If you’re interested in buying or selling a Saratoga home, please contact me. I’ll be happy to meet with you for a no obligation initial consultation.
