Santa Clara County (SCC): Home Sales Prices & Sales Continue to Fall
The median sales price for single-family, re-sale homes rose, month-over-month. It was up 11.9% from February. It was down 13.3% compared to last year.
The average sales price for single-family, re-sale homes was up 6.2%, month-over-month. It was down 12.5% year-over-year.
Sales of single-family, re-sale homes were down for the nineteenth month in a row, year-over-year, in March. Sales fell 26.9%. There were 593 homes sold in Santa Clara County last month. The monthly average since 2000 is 987.
The sales price to list price ratio rose from 101.6% to 102.9%.
Pending sales were down 23.5% year-over-year.
After being down, year-over-year, thirty months in a row, inventory of single-family, re-sale homes was up for the thirteenth month in a row. It gained 3.2% compared to last year. As of April 5th, there were 614 homes for sale in Santa Clara County. The average since January 2000 is 2,703.
Days of Inventory, or how long it would take to sell all homes listed for sale at the current rate of sales, fell from 47 days to 31 days. The average since 2003 is 89.
It took twenty-five days to sell a home last month. That is the time from when a home is listed for sale to when it goes into contract.
The median sales price for condos was down 6.7% compared to last March. The average sales price fell 9% year-over-year.
Condo sales were down 44.8% year-over-year. There were 245 condos sold in March.
The sales price to list price ratio rose from 101.1% to 101.5%.
Condo inventory was down 3.6% compared to last February.
As of April 5th, there were 244 condos for sale in Santa Clara County. The average since January 2000 is 757.
Days of inventory fell from thirty-six to thirty. It took an average of twenty-five days to sell a condo last month.
If you are planning on selling your property, call me for a free comparative market analysis.
March 2023 Sales Statistics (SCC)
* Total inventory is active listings plus pending listings. Active listings do not include pending.
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Fed “May” Until May (SCC & SMC)
Mar 31, 2023 — It’s Friday, the last day of the month, and so closes a very unsteady March for financial markets. March started with influential yields rising to their highest levels in several months, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury cresting over the 4% mark for the first time since early November. As well, firming inflation re-strengthening labor markets seemed to have the Fed on track for a half-point hike in the federal funds rate at its mid-month meeting, and there were increasing odds for an additional rate hike late in the spring or in the early summer.
Housing markets have seemed to find at least a little bit of traction — or at least a little balance of their own — over the last couple of months, Mortgage rates retreated from 20+ year highs at the end of last year and into this one, and a few more homebuyers found market conditions to be acceptable and jumped in. Since last September, sales of new homes have been climbing nearly steadily, and sales in February were 16.4% higher compared to the end of last summer.
Unlike the existing home market, where inventories of homes for sale are very thin and sellers are usually loath to cut prices, the new home market has over 8 months of supply of homes available to buy at the present rate of sale. In addition, builders have greater leeway in offering a range of concessions to entice buyers, including cutting prices and offering mortgage subsidies to help temper costs. Builder enthusiasm about conditions has recently been on the incline, and construction of new homes has recently been in an uptrend, too.
The existing housing market has also improved a bit over the winter, but of course challenges of availability and affordability still permeate the market. A measure of signed contracts to purchase existing homes — the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index — posted a 0.8% increase in February, a third consecutive gain. Since it can take 45-60 days for a signed contract to become a counted home sale, January’s 8.1% increase coupled with February’s more modest bump suggests that we’ll likely see a continued increase in existing home sales as we move deeper into the spring.
Supporting this assumption is the recent trend for mortgage applications. Despite still-high rates and highly volatile financial markets, applications for mortgage credit actually managed to increase in each of the last four weeks. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that in the week ending March 24, another 2.9% increase in applications was seen, with requests for purchase-money mortgages moving 2% higher and up about 19.3% over the last four weeks, while applications to refinance existing mortgages surprisingly climbed 4.8% in the latest week, and are up by about 26% compared to where they ended February. To be sure, the overall level of activity is way below where it was a year or even just six months ago, but it’s at least a bit encouraging that some consumers will engage the market despite an unfavorable interest rate climate. By now, most homebuyers or refinancers know that the rate they get today isn’t likely to be a forever proposition, as opportunities to refinance to lower rates come around on a fairly regular basis.
California homeowners interested in building accessory dwelling units on their property just caught a break, potentially shaving off thousands of dollars in fees and permits. In a move proponents say will help ease the Bay Area’s housing crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed Senate Bill 1069, making the so-called “granny units” easier and less expensive to build throughout the state.
Many new home owners or owners who consider remodeling or rebuilding their homes should take advantage of their county Tax Assessor web site. These web site and their respective city building departments web site typically have vest information regarding the process for applying for permits, the impact on their taxes and many other resources that home owners should be aware are available for them. For the San Mateo County Tax Assessor office visit https://www.smcare.org/default.asp For Santa Clara County Tax Assessor visit https://www.sccassessor.org/index.php
The Silicon Valley 150 Index Corner
The Silicon Valley’s Real estate market is a derivative of the local economy–it prospers and withers depending on how well the local innovation-based sector performs. The San Jose Mercury News tracks the performances of the largest 150 publicly traded companies headquartered in Silicon Valley through an index called the SV150, which may be found at www.mercurynews.com. Stocks are valued based on several criteria, but one of the more important criteria is a company’s future earnings. Therefore, I see the SV150 as a leading indicator for Silicon Valley’s real estate market.
Investors Corner
S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index Declining Trend Continued in January
NEW YORK, MARCH 28, 2023: S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) today released the latest results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices. Data released today for January 2023 show that the trend of declining home price gains continued across the United States with declining prices reported in the San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle markets. More than 27 years of history are available for the data series and can be accessed in full by CLICK HERE
Is it time to seriously consider investing in real estate?
The average sales price for single-family, re-sale homes fell 14% year-over-year.
The median sales price for single-family, re-sale homes fell 16.6% compared to last year.
Sales of single-family, re-sale homes in San Mateo County fell for the nineteenth month in a row, year-over-year. They were down 32.1% in March. There were 212 homes sold in San Mateo County last month. The average since 2000 is 398.
The sales price to list price ratio rose from 99.4% to 102.3%.
Inventory of single-family, re-sale homes was up 13.1% compared to last year. As of April 5th, there were 303 homes for sale in San Mateo County. The average since January 2000 is 1,287.
Days of Inventory, or the amount of time it would take to sell all homes for sale divided by how many homes have sold, fell from fifty to forty-three days.
It took twenty-eight days, on average, to sell a home last month. That is the time from when a home is listed to when it goes into contract.
The median sales price for re-sale condos rose 6.7% year-over-year.
Year-over-year, the average sales price gained 10.8%.
Condo sales were down 41.5% year-over-year. There were 79 condos sold last month. The average since January 2003 is 122.
Inventory was down 4.1% year-over-year.
As of April 5th, there were 116 condos for sale in San Mateo County. The average since January 2003 is 350.
Days of inventory fell from fifty-four to fifty.
It took an average of twenty-five days to sell a condo last month.
If you are planning on selling your property, call me for a free comparative market analysis.
March 2023 Sales Statistics (SMC)
* Total inventory is active listings plus pending listings. Active listings do not include pending.
Under Proposition 60, California homeowners 55 and older get a one-time chance to sell their primary residence and transfer its property-tax assessment to a new one, but the market value of the new home generally must be equal to or less than the market value of the old home.
Prop. 60 was designed to help longtime California homeowners who want to downsize but don’t want to give up the low property-tax assessment they enjoy in their existing home.
Under Proposition 13, homes are reassessed for property-tax purposes when there is a change in ownership or new construction. In between ownership changes, the assessed value can go up by an inflation rate not to exceed 2% a year. (Homeowners can get temporary reductions when property values go down.)
Prop. 60 lets homeowners 55 or older transfer their base-year value from an existing primary residence to a new primary residence, but there are restrictions.
The new home must be in the same county as the old one or, as Proposition 90 added, in one of eleven counties that accept transfers of base-year value from other counties. The eleven counties are: Alameda, El Dorado, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Tuolumne and Ventura.
Also, the new home must be purchased or built within two years – before or after – the sale of the original property.
If the new house is purchased before the old house is sold, the market value of the new house on its purchase date cannot exceed 100% of the old home’s market value on the date it is sold.
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