The Silicon Valley real estate market is always good for someone – buyers, sellers, investor, move up or move down home owners. Right now, it’s good for sellers because there is far more demand than supply in most of the region.
Some properties are usually hard to sell in normal markets unless they are deeply discounted. These are the homes or lots where there are location problems or issues, such as being on a busy road or adjacent to something less desirable (high voltage power lines, railroad tracks, freeway, etc.). This current real estate climate provides an easier selling opportunity for those home owners who would like to be home sellers. The tighter the inventory, the better the odds are of being able to sell real estate with issues (assuming that it’s priced in line with the market). Today I did a quick study of the months of inventory (MOI) on our multiple listing service, MLSListings.com, for a few places around the county. The image below is my handiwork, with the areas enjoying the best market for selling (lowest MOI) at the top.
It should be noted that this is an overview only, and that each area has lots of micro-markets, which can be investigated themselves (refining the search by school district, price point, age of home, with or without pool, and so on). The general trend seems to be that it’s very difficult for the more expensive markets such as Monte Sereno, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, and Saratoga. But if you were to break it down and view many of these in their lowest pricing tier, you’d likely find that in most of these places, the least expensive homes are moving fairly swiftly. I pointed this out in two examples only above – for Palo Alto and Los Gatos.
How does this information assist a home owner with a location challenge? If you are thinking of selling and your home is in an area with a very low “months of inventory”, that’s a good indicator that right now may be an ideal time for your home to be on the market. The real estate market is red hot in Santa Clara, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, the Cambrian area of San Jose, and several other parts of Santa Clara County – particularly in the under $1 million price range. Interested in investigating this more? Please call or email me and we’ll set up a confidential, no obligation appointment.
