The Condo Market in Almaden Valley, Los Gatos, Saratoga and Cupertino
The real estate market for condominiums and townhomes in the west valley area of Silicon Valley is similar to the rest of Santa Clara County in one main regard: the most expensive homes are having far more trouble selling than entry level homes.
Today we’ll look at the months of inventory for condos and townhomes in four areas of the west valley: Almaden Valley, Cupertino, Los Gatos and Saratoga. Since this is a fairly small subset of the overall residential real estate market, I’ve also looked at them as a group (upscale areas with good to great schools near the foothills) and wanted to see the overall trend when the four neighborhoods were viewed together.
As a reminder, under 6 months is a seller’s market, 6 is neutral and 7 or more is a buyer’s market.
Interestingly, the overall trend of these four areas combined shows consistent improvement in the market toward neutral, from 23.5 months in January to 8.6 months in April. It’s really very dramatic when viewed as a whole!
Cupertino area condos are faring well in the last 30 days with more closed escrows and just 8 months of inventory. Los Gatos is even better now with 6 months of inventory.
The market is much tougher in Saratoga, CA, where almost no condominiums or townhouses are selling. Those that do go under contract are in the lowest price ranges. Many properties are “just sitting”. Buyers are waiting for prices to drop. Nearly as tough is the condo market in Almaden Valley.
The challenge for luxury condo owners is that buyers now are primarily buying either for shelter or for investment. Investment buyers seldom purchase a luxury item (it’s safer to buy two small condos than one large one to hedge against vacancy).
For many condo sellers, now may just not be the right time to sell. On the other hand, if you’re moving up, now may be the ideal time since prices in the higher priced homes are fairly soft compared to “normal”.
Tags: almaden valley, Condominiums, condos, Cupertino, Los Gatos, months of inventory, Saratoga, townhome, townhouse