Mary Pope-Handy and Clair Handy 408 204-7673 mary@popehandy.com

In the luxury home market of Santa Clara County, how many properties are bought “all cash, no loans”?

by | Oct 27, 2015 | Finance Information, Selling Tips

Orchard and Hills in Saratoga, California

Orchard and Hills in Saratoga, California

The amount of all cash offers in Santa Clara County has been very high for the last couple of years, and I’ve written about it here.  But what of the luxury market?  At one point, I read that nationwide, 50% of all homes sold at over a million dollars were bought all cash, no loans.  So I thought it might be similar here.

Just now I logged onto MLSListings.com to run the numbers for the last 90 days in Santa Clara County.  I ran the numbers with the following criteria:

  • houses, duet homes, townhouses and condos
  • sold within the last 90 days (closed escrow)
  • within Santa Clara County
  • sale price at or over $2,000,000

The number of properties matching this list over the last 90 days was 351 (it was 306 on 5/24/14).

The number of properties matching this list which were identified as having all cash, no loans financing = 108 (it was 111 on 5/24/14)

The percentage of all cash sales identified as such on the MLS for this period is 30.77% (back on 5/24/14, it was 36%).  (For all prices right now, it appears that the average is 16.86% or so. – it was 18% on 5/24/14.)

Disclaimer: for this to be accurate, it requires the listing agent or office admin who closes out the sale on the MLS to accurately represent the financing used.  It is possible that this is off, and the more accurate data could be from the county records themselves. If I can obtain that data, I’ll update this article then.

Back to the ratio of cash sales in the luxury market: why does it matter?  More than anything, it matters because interest rates are rising and this impacts the buyers’ ability to purchase property.  In real estate generally, if interest rates rise, home values are negatively impacted.  We’ll want to see what impact the more expensive loan products have on high end or estate housing, not just here in Silicon Valley, but across the country.

See homes currently for sale in Santa Clara County in the map below:

 

 

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See all Real estate matching your search.
(all data current as of 12/2/2023)

Listing information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Read full disclaimer.

 
 

 

 

 

Author

  • Mary Pope-Handy

    Silicon Valley Realtor, selling homes in Los Gatos, Saratoga, San Jose, Silicon Valley, and nearby since 1993. Prolific blogger with a network of sites.

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