At last, home buyers are beginning to see an easing up in the Santa Clara County real estate market. Although it remains a strong seller’s market, it’s inching back in the direction of more normalcy with fewer numbers of offers and a flattening of prices. It’s way overdue.
This morning I logged onto MLSListings and ran some quick stats for the county as a whole for single family homes. We see the months of inventory rising, the gap between available and sold inventory widening, the sale price to list price ratio dropping and prices flat.
First – Santa Clara County months of inventory last 12 months as of July 1 2013
How does this look compared to a longer period of our local real estate history? I ran it back to January 2004:
Overall, 3.6 months of inventory looks pretty healthy (anything under 4 months is a seller’s market, though the National Association of Realtors says that 6 months is balanced). The question is whether this was a blip or a trend reversal. We’ll have to watch and see.
Second – Santa Clara County Number of Homes For Sale vs Sold as of July 1 2013 – note the widening gap between the red and green lines below. The smaller the gap, the hotter the market.
Third- Santa Clara County Sale Price to List Price Ratio and Days to Sell as of July 1 2013 – the days to sell is flat but the SP to LP ratio is falling after several months of steep increases. This is a welcome change in the trend.
Fourth and finally – Santa Clara County Average Sale Prices Over Time at Close of Escrow as of July 1 2013
The average price looks close to flat in the graphic above, but actually that last number for June ($1,029,338) was a bit lower than for May ($1,037,381). Here’s how the numbers look:
| Month | Sale Price, Average |
|---|---|
| Aug 2012 | $844,727 |
| Sep 2012 | $826,150 |
| Oct 2012 | $883,669 |
| Nov 2012 | $874,820 |
| Dec 2012 | $899,250 |
| Jan 2013 | $824,315 |
| Feb 2013 | $904,537 |
| Mar 2013 | $940,556 |
| Apr 2013 | $1,025,892 |
| May 2013 | $1,037,381 |
| Jun 2013 | $1,029,338 |
This is just a bit of relief, but combined with slightly lower interest rates last week, it’s a help to weary Silicon Valley home buyers!
