First: Days on Market vs Days to Sell:    We should start by clarifying that the average “days on market” includes the properties which do go pending and sell (many of them quickly) as well as those which linger on the market a long time and eventually become cancelled, expired or withdrawn listings.  The average days on market is usually significantly shorter than the average days to sell for that reason.

San Jose Houses – Days to Sell from MLS Listings

Just now, I pulled the statistics from MLSListings for all of the city of San Jose (all price points, school districts etc.) for single family homes (mostly houses, a few duet homes). This is the Days to Sell info, which specifically views the days on market of homes that DID sell as opposed to all homes on the market. Here’s how the numbers shake out:

As you can see, it’s a strong seller’s market in San Jose, with residential real estate selling above list price (though not nearly as much above as last April!) and homes that go pending doing so at an average of 24 days.  Please note that this data represents the properties that DO sell.  In every market, there are homes which do not sell.  (Usually they are overpriced, but other troubles can be the root of the market rejection.)

Some parts of San Jose are “hotter” than others.  Let’s have a look at the Cambrian area, where I tend to be especially active.

If we were to look only at Cambrian houses listed under $1 million, we’d find that the market is hotter still:

San Jose has an average days to sell of 24.  In the Cambrian district of SJ, it’s a mere 16 but for homes under $1 million, it’s a rapid, ultra red hot 13!!

Other areas of San Jose are also fairly strong, but please remember that any number of variables (school district, pricing tier, exact location or condition) can make these general numbers not apply to a particular property.  Next up: let’s have a view of Evergreen, Blossom Valley, Almaden Valley, Willow Glen, and the Campbell border area of San Jose.

Evergreen: a little cooler than San Jose as a whole.

Willow Glen – very close to the city as a whole:

Campbell area of San Jose – strong sellers market:

Blossom Valley area of San Jose:

Almaden Valley – another very hot real estate market with just 13 days to sell on average and 105% sale price to list price:

Next we’ll take a broader view using Altos and its live charts.

The San Jose real estate market data from Altos Research for both single family homes and condos / townhomes:

What are the average Days on Market for listed homes in San Jose?  First, let’s consider all of San Jose, both single family homes and condos/townhouses for Days on Market, all price points combined, of listed properties. (Graph from Altos Research, to which I have a subscription. This is “live” and will automatically update weekly.)

The quick, oversimplified answer is here: houses are on the market about 45 days and condos about 30 days.  (This is for listed homes, not the ones which are sold, and this statistic is a little different than “days to sell”, though they are of course related).  However, the nuance is hugely important!  The luxury market will be very different from the entry level market.  And homes in Silver Creek and Evergreen are going to be selling differently than those in the Rose Garden, Shasta Hanchett and other parts of Central San Jose.   Plus there’s the issue of the best homes selling for the most money quickly, as opposed to other properties which don’t exactly hit the ground running and have to re-stage, re-do photos, get a price reduction (or a new listing agent) etc.

Most properties are  single family homes (houses plus a few duet properties), so for the rest of this article, we will focus in on them.  Next, let’s see how houses in San Jose are faring if we consider the price quartiles (25% segments of the market by list price). Do they stay on the market as long?  Not too surprisingly, the most affordable houses are selling the fastest.

Overall, the days on market are pretty short, given that some homes will not ever sell (a certain percentage will always be overpriced, poorly marketed or have other problems which will make them unappealing to buyers). In general, houses are on the market for about 45 days in San Jose.  Bit of a surprise: the most expensive homes are selling faster than the tier just beneath it.

What if we look at different parts of San Jose? There are many, but let’s review a sampling to get a flavor of how different things may be.  Here’s a quick look at 95129 (West San Jose, much of this zip code with Cupertino Schools), 95124 (Cambrian, mostly with Union Schools), 95120 (Almaden, mostly with the San Jose Unified School District but some areas go to Union or even Los Gatos schools, and the SJUSD area has far better high school scores in southern Almaden than northern – so it is a real mixed bag) and 95125 (Willow Glen, mostly with San Jose Unified School District).

San Jose 95129 is “rock bottom” with only about 21 days on the market.  I would be willing to bet that if we could tease out the school districts, we’d find that the homes in Cupertino schools are at close to 7 days on market – they are so much in demand!  Of these 4 areas, Almaden or 95120 is the slowest to sell with about 80 days on the market. Almaden has been all over the board.  This can be because of the school districts in Almaden, which are really varied and have a huge impact on home values.  It can also be due to the pricing spread, as houses in that zip code range from modest to luxury estates.

District to district, and school district to school district, things can be quite diverse.  Let’s look at just one of the regions listed above, the Cambrian area of San Jose 95124, and see how it is with various pricing quartiles:

Super low DOM are found in the least expensive homes.  That is a fairly normal pattern in my experience.   This is very curious, so let’s see what this translates to for the median list price by price quartile:

Back to “in general” – what are the broad brush expectations for homes sitting on the market in San Jose?

We have teased out some of the city’s numbers by area and by price point (and school districts a little indirectly)- but you get the idea that there is no easy answer for how long a home should be on the market in San Jose which is guaranteed to be correct “sight unseen” to your particular property.  Additionally, some homes will be difficult to sell and some much easier: newer homes, homes on larger lots, houses which are professionally staged, properties which are priced aggressively (rather than “testing the market”) are going to go faster. But there are other factors too which can complicate the situation – things like showing challenges (appointment only, no lock box, tenants in the home etc.), a rough condition, difficult sale type or other problems (such as being too close to high voltage power lines, a busy road etc.) and those homes could take much, much longer to sell.  So each property must be considered relative to many factors to get any kind of accurate gauge on what to expect.

Circling back to the average days on market vs average days to sell, perhaps the questions that emerge are (1) what are the odds of selling (since not all properties do sell) and (2) for the homes which do sell, how fast does that usually happen?  (In other words, what are the average days to sell?)

Disclaimers aside:  In many cases, well priced homes that are in good condition and with no “issues” will sell within 7 days to a month depending on many factors. If it’s taking longer than a month, in most cases, there’s something way wrong that probably needs changing, and fast.  There are exceptions:  multi-million dollar homes, houses with unpopular architecture, houses in less desirable locations, condos with litigation, and so many more things can mess with the broad brush expectations laid out here.

For information on your particular situation and to get a more precise sense on the timing, please contact me today!