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

The Santa Clara County annual real estate market review

by | Jan 25, 2016 | Uncategorized

How did 2015 end as compared to 2014 for the Silicon Valley real estate market?  It was perhaps not as much appreciation as some may have perceived – and I may be alone, but I think that’s a good thing as realty trends and statistics go.  I’ll explain below.

The Annual Silicon Valley RE Report is in for Santa Clara County (links at the bottom for San Mateo County and Santa Cruz County).  Here you can view the year over year statistics and market trends for the San Jose area.

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

Santa Clara County home sales and prices –

 

Santa Clara County real estate market - sales, average price, median price of homes sold in 2015

 

As you can see, home sales (solid area)  remain fairly low.  There’s plenty of demand, just not much inventory for it, hence the pretty much steady rise in pricing overall in Santa Clara County.  This is one of the stronger areas in the nation.  (When prices are up, consuemers tend to think that Realtors are always making tons of money. But notice the number of sales!  Many agents are writing offers and not getting them accepted – so are having a tough time just as their buyers are having a tough time with multiple bids.)

Santa Clara County – prices up over 2014 by 6-8% appx

  • Median home prices increased by 7.9% year-over-year to $917,000 from $849,975.
  • The average home sales price rose by 6.4% year-over-year to $1,157,360 from $1,088,090.
  • Personal note: appreciation in this range is fairly sustainable, as compared to the appreciation in 2014, which was closer to 20%.  Double digit appreciation is usually a little worrisome since it often is not sustainable.  My sense is that this is healthier, and probably less susceptible to a “correction” than when prices rise more than 10% per year.  Hence, I think it’s GOOD NEWS that the average appreciation is in single digits.

Santa Clara County by city within the county

Naturally the whole of the Santa Clara Valley is not uniform.  There are hotter and cooler pockets.  The real estate market in the Cambrian district of San Jose has appreciation around 12% over last year – and even hotter in the area with Union Schools.  Below, get a sense of the market by city within the county. (And you can check out the areas within San Jose, Mountain View, and Palo Alto by going to popehandy.rereport.com and navigating through.)
Santa Clara County real estate market trends and statistics by city for 2015 - annual report
What’s happening now?
The January real estate climate has been more like March so far – it’s as if we were in the middle of a bustling spring market.  Homes available to purchase are scarce, the the good ones are getting a lot of attention – it remains a very hot seller’s market. My recent open house events for my Saratoga listing were a little surprising – the pouring rain did not discourage an extremely strong turnout.  At one point, every single shoe cover I’d brought was in use and the house was mobbed.
A moment ago, I checked the number of available single family homes for sale in Santa Clara County.  There are 562 available houses for the whole of Santa Clara County, which is where 1.8 – 1.9 million people live!  It’s pretty dire.   There are more when are in one stage or another of sale pending – 658 under contract right now.  And there are 542 which have sold and closed in the last month.  That’s almost exactly 1 month of inventory – including the pockets which tend to sell far, far slower, such as south county, Los Gatos, and the mountains!  Multiple offers and overbids should continue, just as they were present last month, which south county and the mountains likely being the only exceptions.
For nearby counties which are part of Silicon Valley:
San Mateo County – prices up from last year
http://rereport.com/scc/print/Mary.PopeHandySMCannual.pdf

  • Median home prices increased by 21.9% year-over-year to $1,170,000 from $960,000.
  • The average home sales price rose by 3.7% year-over-year to $1,482,950 from $1,429,870.

Santa Cruz County – prices are off year over year
https://rereport.com/scc/print/Mary.PopeHandySZCannual.pdf

  • Median home prices fell by 0.4% year-over-year to $700,000 from $702,500.
  • The average home sales price dropped by 10.4% year-over-year to $801,516 from $894,204.

Want to buy or sell a Silicon Valley home?  Please call or email me – I’d love to hear from you.

See what’s selling in Santa Clara County in the interactive map below.

 

 

 

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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