Residential real estate prices in Santa Clara County rose in February 2013 by  34.5%. That’s the 5th month in a row that the median sales price has been higher than the year before by more than 20%. This is why we are saying it could be a bubble. The median price for single-family, re-sale homes is up 53% from the lowest part of the market, which happened n March 2009. Santa Clara County as a whole is still 21% below the peak which occurred in June 2007. That said, some areas area already back to peak pricing, including the hotbed areas of Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto.

FEBRUARY SINGLE FAMILY HOME MARKET STATISTICS FOR SANTA CLARA COUNTY

Sales of single-family, re-sale homes were down 21.4% year-over-year (due to lack of inventory, not lack of interest by buyers). There were 585 homes sold last month in Santa Clara County. The median price for homes jumped 34.5% yea-rover- year. The median price has been higher than the year before for the past thirteen months. The sales price to list price ratio has been over 100% for the past twelve months. It was 103.8% for February 2013. That is the highest the ratio has been since April 2005.

The average price for homes was up 25.8% year-over-year. Pending home sales were down 33.5% yearover- year. That’s the fourth month in a row pending sales have been down, portending a slow first quarter in 2013.

Next let’s see the median and average home prices over time along with the number of sales.  Note how sharply the number of sales is falling off while prices are rising.  This is a factor of critically low inventory.

Santa Clara County Condo Statistics

The median price for condos in Santa Clara County was up 30% year-over-year. That’s eleven straight months of double-digit gains. Sales were off 21.5% (due to low inventory), while pending sales fell 42.3%. Condo inventory was down 68.5% from last February . As of the 5th of the month, there were only 209 condos for sale in the county.

Next please find the median and average sales price of condos accross the county, along with the plummeting number of sales (likewise due to low inventory, not low consumer interest).

Foreclosure statistics

Notices of default, the first step in the foreclosure process, in Santa Clara County plunged 62.5% in January from December, and they were down 80.1% year-over-year.

Notices of sale, which set the date and time of an auction, and serve as the homeowner’s final notice before sale, were down 26.9% compared to December, and were down 69.8% year-over-year. After the filing of a Notice of Trustee Sale, there are three possible outcomes. First, the sale can be canceled for reasons that include a successful loan modification or short sale, a filing error, or a legal requirement to re-file the notice after extended postponements. Alternatively, if the property is taken to sale, the bank will place the opening bid. If a third party, typically an investor, bids more than the bank’s opening bid, the property will be sold to the third party; if not, it will go back to the bank.

Properties going back to the bank dropped 5.3% in January from December. Year-over-year, they were down 81.2%. The total number of properties that have had a notice of default filed decreased by 41.6% year-over-year. The total number of properties scheduled for sale declined by 55.4% year-over-year. The total number of properties owned by banks was down 56.2% year-over-year to about 806.

Loads more statistical information for San Jose, Los Gatos, Saratoga and all of Santa Clara County:

It is a very hot seller’s market in the San Jose area. Pull up the statistics for all of the county at http://www.popehandy.rereport.com.  Read more articles and find statistics at a glance via the PDF version:

http://rereport.com/scc/print/Mary.PopeHandySCC.pdf