Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Trend Report:

Santa Clara County (SCC): Sales Surge Continues

Sales of single-family, re-sale homes rose 17.6% in July compared to June. Home sales were up 11.8% compared to last July. There were 988 homes sold in Santa Clara County last month. Last July there were 884 homes sold. The average since 2000 is 987.

Year-to-date, home sales are down 17.3%.

Inventory of single-family, re-sale homes was down 42.1% compared to last year. That is the eleventh month in a row inventory has been lower than the year before. As of August 5th, there were 873 homes for sale in Santa Clara County. The average since January 2000 is 2,703.

The median sales price for single-family, re-sale homes in July was up 6.6% compared to last year. The average sales price was up 10.6% year-over-year.

The sales price to list price ratio went from 100.6% to 101.7%.

Days of Inventory

Days of Inventory, or how long it would take to sell all homes listed for sale at the current rate of sales, fell five days to 27 days compared to June. The average since 2003 is 89.

It took only twenty-seven 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 up 3.6% from last July. The average sales price gained 3.3% year-over-year.
Condo sales were up 10.4% year-over-year. There were 349 condos sold in July.
Year-to-date, condo sales are down 15.6%.

The sales price to list price ratio rose to 100.6% from 100.4%.

Condo inventory dropped 22.8% from last July.
As of August 5th, there were 572 condos for sale in Santa Clara County. The average since January 2000 is 757.

Days of inventory fell to forty-nine from fifty-two.
It took an average of thirty-one days to sell a condo last month.
If you are planning on selling your property, call me for a free comparative market analysis

July  2020 Sales Statistics (SCC)

* Total inventory is active listings plus pending listings. Active listings do not include pending.

More information is available in our on-line report at http://avi.rereport.com/market_reports

Fed Stands Pat, Rates Flat (SCC & SMC)

July 31, 2020 — With mortgage rates at or near record lows on a number of occasions, it’s to be expected that home sales have picked up, even with the coronavirus making like challenging for buyers and sellers alike. We learned last week that existing home sales for June (reflective of activity in late April most of May, when things were re-opening) played a bit of catch-up, rising by 20.7% to 4.72 million (annualized) units sold after a three-month series of declined.

This week, the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index posted a gain of 16.6 percent in June over May. This indicator tracks signed contracts; not all contracts will make it through to closing. However, if they did, this would suggest that sales will kick higher for July and likely August, too, and this would put the annual run rate of sales in the mid-5 million range — about where they were to start the year and before the pandemic made a mess of things.

New applications for mortgages softened a bit in the week ending July 24, but as this is typically the height of vacation season and mortgage rates have been essentially in the same small range for weeks, there’s really not a lot of urgency for borrowers to jump in for a refinance, and purchase activity remains more throttled by a lack of inventory to buy than not. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, overall applications for mortgage credit slipped 0.8%, with those for purchase-money mortgages easing 1.5% and refinances by 0.4% for the week.

Buying plans for autos remained steady, as did those for appliances, while interest in purchasing houses increased. Record low mortgage rates are likely the cause of that despite the difficult economic climate for many.

Although there continues to be a fair bit of downward pull on mortgage rates, they remain stubbornly tethered at about present levels. Presently, the balance between the poor economic climate and Fed policy stance and bond-buying programs that should be pulling rates down is being offset to a nearly equal degree by the risks of making, servicing and investing in mortgages. Although the number of mortgages in forbearance programs continues to decline ever-so-gently, storm clouds of potential future loss remain prominent, what with unemployment at extraordinary levels and the amount and duration of any future fiscal support for homeowners and renters still unclear.

Even if an effective COVID-19 vaccine was announced tomorrow, it will take a year or more to distribute it on a wide enough basis to do much good. Between now and then, there remains a lot of economic difficulty to endure, and this likely spells continuing trouble for participants in the mortgage market, whether homeowner or investor.

For next week, we think there is a good probability that we’ll see at least a small decline in mortgage rates. Any move of more than a basis point in the averaged offered rate for a conforming 30-year FRM as reported by Freddie Mac will be a new record, and that’s probably what we’ll see come next Thursday morning. Whatever the decline may be, it would likely be a whole lot more if risks were abating, but new record lows will have to do, no matter how small the move into new territory it may be.

Call or email me if you have any questions.

For further details and a city-by-city breakdown statistics, go to http://avi.rereport.com/market_reports.

Real estate related Articles

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.

For more read California eases restrictions on ‘granny units’

and http://www.hcd.ca.gov/policy-research/AccessoryDwellingUnits.shtml

Helpful resource for home owners

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 http://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 Corne

S&P CORELOGIC CASE-SHILLER INDEX REPORTS 4.5% ANNUAL HOME PRICE GAIN IN MAY

NEW YORK, JULY 28, 2020 – S&P Dow Jones Indices 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 May 2020 show that home prices continue to increase at a modest rate across the U.S. More than 27 years of history are available for these data series, and can be accessed in full by going to click here

U.S. Housing Markets Moving Into Rent Territory for First Time in Over 8 Years: Report

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San Mateo County (SMC): Home Sales Continue to Surge

Sales of single-family, re-sale homes in San Mateo County jumped 27.8% in July compared to June. Home sales were up 14.2% year-over-year. There were 427 homes sold in San Mateo County last month. The average since 2000 is 398.

Year-to-date, home sales are down 18.7%.

Inventory of single-family, re-sale homes was up 2% compared to last year, breaking a ten month losing streak. As of August 5th, there were 520 homes for sale in San Mateo County. The average since January 2000 is 1,287.

The sales price to list price ratio rose from 101% to 101.3%.

The median sales price for single-family, re-sale homes was up, year-over-year, by 11.1%. The average price was up 15.2%.

The median sales price was off 0.1% compared to June. The average sales price was up 1.2%.

Days of Inventory

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 six days to thirty-seven 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 4.1% year-over-year. It was flat from June. The average sales price fell 4% from June. Year-over-year, the average sales price gained 0.4%.

Condo sales fell 5.7% year-over-year. Condo sales were up 47.4% from June.

Inventory rose 66.2% year-over-year. It was up 36.1% compared to June.

As of August 5th, there were 226 condos for sale in San Mateo County. The average since January 2003 is 350.

Days of inventory fell to fifty-nine from sixty-two.

It took an average of twenty-six days to sell a condo last month.

If you are planning on selling your property, call me for a free comparative market analysis.

July  2019 Sales Statistics (SMC)

Call or email me if you have any questions.

For further details and a city-by-city breakdown statistics, go to http://avi.rereport.com/market_reports.