If you are a first time homebuyer looking to purchase a house in the Cambrian Park area of San Jose, I encourage you to consider moving on this plan sooner rather than later. Home prices have stopped sinking and appear to be moving within a range of about 10%, which can easily be attributed to precise location, condition, or situation of the home sale. Meanwhile, interest rates are inching up, making homes less affordable than they were a few weeks ago.
Some of the bank owned homes in this part of San Jose are priced at fire sale prices. Because of the affordability, they are getting a lot of attention from buyers, and I’m hearing more stories of multiple offers with the prices getting bid up from the list price. This is not just happening in Cambrian, but all over San Jose where the prices are amazingly affordable for first-time homebuyers. The availability of FHA backed financing and the $8,000 tax credit are incentivizing people to buy San Jose real estate priced at under $729,000. Investors are also getting in on the cleanup of low-priced homes and “all cash offers” are not unheard of.
Here are the basic real estate sales statistics (and trends) in Cambrian Park:
| Trends At a Glance | May-09 | Apr-09 | Mar-09 | Feb-09 |
| Median Price | $548,750 | $520,000 (+5.5%) | $550,000 (-5.5%) | $515,000 (+6.8%) |
| Average Price | $576,935 | $532,280 (+8.4%) | $543,358 (-2.0%) | $567,983 (-4.3%) |
| No. of Sales | 54 | 41 (+31.7%) | 33 (+24.2%) | 30 (+10.0%) |
| Pending Properties | 85 | 67 (+26.9%) | 69 (-2.9%) | 52 (+32.7%) |
| Active | 98 | 125 (-21.6%) | 141 (-11.3%) | 168 (-16.1%) |
| Sale vs. List Price | 98.40% | 95.9% (+2.6%) | 97.8% (-2.0%) | 98.2% (-0.4%) |
| Days on Market | 42 | 74 (-42.8%) | 50 (+49.3%) | 77 (-35.3%) |
The lowest median price in recent months was in February, which of course reflects sales that happened in January. This may well be a “seasonal fluctuation”. Homes are often cheapest in the dead of winter, and interest rates are often lowest then too, but selection is extremely limited.
For more information on Cambrian Park real estate sales and market trends, please see my online Real Estate Report for Cambrian. You may view the last five years’ worth of closed data, or see it quarterly or annually. Or plug in your own address or that of a home that interests you in the “property analysis” tab and check out the recent listings, current homes for sale, pendings and solds in the immediate area.
