How is the real estate market in the Willow Glen area of San Jose?  There are multiple ways of viewing it – via price point, school district, proximity to “downtown Willow Glen”, by numbers or percentages of distressed sales (sale type), and many more criteria.  Today we’ll look at the broad market numbers for the MLS “area 10″ (all of Willow Glen) and at times just the zip code for San Jose 95125, which covers the majority of the Willow Glen area.  This post will only cover houses or “single family homes”, not condominiums or townhomes.

I ran the months of inventory for homes in Willow Glen (our MLS area 10) by sale type.  Here’s what I found – most of the market appears to have about 4.95 months of inventory, with short sales being considerably longer.  (This may have had different results had I isolated certain school areas or price points – this is a “sweeping view” of the area only.) The National Association of Realtors says that less than 6 months is a sellers market, but for our area, this is fairly “cool” and most sellers would not find the market to be all that much in their favor. (Six months is supposed to be a balanced market.)

It is unusual for there to be so little variation in the MOI, so I double checked but this appears correct. Often bank owned homes or REOs fly off the market.  Odd that it’s not happening here, too.

Next, a selection of statistics and trends in the numbers from my REReport for Willow Glen (click on link for more info) – prices here reflect sold prices (median and average), not list prices:

Prices appear down from the prior month but up from a year ago.  That’s good news for Willow Glen home owners, who hope that the worst is now behind us.  Days on market are better than the previous month (but worse than a year ago) and inventory is up from last month but almost the same – just a little less – than a year ago.  It’s a mixed bag. (more…)

Next week I’ll be putting a Willow Glen house on the market so have been paying attention to the trends & statistics for this charming part of San Jose.  Here’s a look at the absorption rate for Willow Glen houses and duet homes (numbers run yesterday) by price band.

Willow Glen Months of Inventory June 17 2010

My Real Estate Report provides numbers (which I don’t have to crunch!) on a monthly basis for all of Santa Clara County, including the Willow Glen (area 10, mostly 95125) part of San Jose.  It’s a good, broad view of the Willow Glen market overall.  Here’s the summary for the  May 2010 Real Estate Report for Willow Glen – June’s info will be out sometime in early July. Click on the link to get all the data rather than just this quick view.

The Willow Glen real estate market trends are up month over month for the median & average sales prices, but the average sales price is still down year over year.  Pendings are down compared to April (possibly a reaction to the federal home buyer tax credit?) and year over year.  The list price to sales price ratio is up, though, and the days on market are shorter.

Looking at both sets of numbers, mine and the REReport’s, it is clear that the homes priced up to about $900,000 are the ones leading the recovery, and that the most expensive homes are not selling well at all.  When we began to see improvement in the market, it was first entry level houses that were selling well.  Eventually it spread to the move-up market, both here and throughout Silicon Valley.  Will it continue?  The very high end homes in Santa Clara County are selling much better than they were a year ago, but as you can see, there’s still loads of room for improvement for the luxury homes market.

San Jose’s westside suburb of Cambrian Park appears to have “bottomed out” in February or March.  Home prices are rising there now, at least in many price points.   Cambrian consists of two zip codes, 95124 and 95118 (and a sliver of 95008) and two high school districts, Campbell Union High School District and San Jose Unified School District.

The “months of inventory” reflects how long the current inventory of homes for sale would take to be absorbed if sales continued at the same pace and no new homes came on the market. Six months is a balanced market more than six is a buyer’s market, and less than six is a seller’s market.

As you can see, it’s a seller’s market in Cambrian Park in both school districts!  (This may not be true for all homes in all prices and all conditions, but it is indicative of the overal market.)

With inventory selling really fast, it is not surprising that prices are rising.  Below please view the Altos Report (to which I have a subscription) for the last 6 months:

This is a little busy, but here’s the same data but broken down by price quartile:

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The Los Gatos real estate market appears to remain a ” buyer’s market”, but it entirely depends on which part of the Los Gatos market you’re discussing.

This post will cover:

• single family homes (99% houses, but a few duet homes)
• 95030 and 95032 zip codes
• Two high school districts:
  • Los Gatos Saratoga High School District (meaning Los Gatos High School)
  • Campbell Union High School District (meaning Westmont or Leigh High Schools)
• varying price points in all of the above

General comments:
Most of 95030 is in the Los Gatos Saratoga High School District, but there is a very, very tiny portion of it which belongs to the Campbell Union High School District.  The percentage is so small as to be statistically insignificant, but I wanted to mention it here for the sake of accuracy and I will include it below.  The numbers below are from our MLS provider, MLSListings.com, with the numbers crunched by me, Mary Pope-Handy.  While I have made every effort to be 100% accurate, I do not guarantee it (don’t sure me if there’s a typo or other error!).

Overview of the basic numbers and months of inventory for the housing market in the town of Los Gatos overall  - homes for sale, pending sales, and closed sales within the last month:

It appears to be a buyer’s market, which is true for much of the town, but not all of it.  There is variation to a phenomenal degree depending on price point, zip code, and school district.  Below we’ll look at all of it and see market conditions for each segment.
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How is the Almaden Valley Real Estate Market doing?

It’s the end of September now, and normally we see a little rally in the market after Labor Day. Let’s see how this September is stacking up in Almaden Valley. Below, please find charts using current list prices courtesy of Altos Research (to which I subscribe).

The Median List price for the Almaden Valley district of San Jose (zip code 95120) has been declining overall. Does this mean that homes are declining in value? Or does it mean that less expensive homes are being offered for sale? Information from sold data indicates that by and large, homes are holding their value in Almaden right now. The declines in asking prices may indicate that sellers simply want prices to be rising more than they actually are, rather than the idea that values are falling.

This first chart indicates how both homes and condominiums or townhouses are faring in terms of median list prices in Almaden. Interestingly, the condo market had a steeply rising list price this last spring, while the single family home market did a milder version of the same a couple of months later. What sellers want for their homes is not matching up to what they are getting.

Next, let’s have a look at the percent of homes that have had price reductions in this part of San Jose. A steep increase in the number of condos needing reductions in price are seen in the timeframe following that rise noted above. This would seem to indicate that condo sellers were more optimistic when putting their homes on the market, but found out over the next couple of months that these asking prices were not realistic. The number of properties getting price decreases among single family homes were a bit later, just like the rising list prices were later, in Almaden. Right now, though, the percentage of sellers decreasing their list prices are about the same for both types of housing – appx 52%. So approximately half the homes currently on the market in Almaden have had at least one price reduction.

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