Santa Clara County (SCC): Home Prices Up, Sales Down in January
The median sales price for single-family, re-sale homes was up 7.3% compared to last year. The median sales price was $1,840,000.
The average sales price for single-family, re-sale homes was up 9.5% year-over-year. The average sales price was $2,277,380.
Sales of single-family, re-sale homes were down 2.2%, year-over-year. There were 307 homes sold in Santa Clara County last month. The monthly average since 2000 is 987.
The sales price to list price ratio fell from 105.2% to 104.9%.
Pending sales were down 5.6% year-over-year. There are 340 homes in escrow.
Inventory of single-family, re-sale homes was up 27.9% compared to last year. As of February 5th, there were 408 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, rose from 17 days to 40 days. The average since 2003 is 89.
It took 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.
Condo prices were mixed last month. The median sales price for condos was down 0.5% compared to last January. The median sales price was $915,000. The average sales price gained 7.9% year-over-year. The average sales price was $1,051,020.
Condo sales were up 16.8%. There were 153 condos sold in January.
The sales price to list price ratio stayed at 101.4%.
Pending sales were up 4.5% year-over-year. There are 210 condos in escrow.
Condo inventory was up 77.7% compared to last January.
As of February 5th, there were 343 condos for sale in Santa Clara County. The average since January 2000 is 757.
Days of inventory rose from twenty-nine to sixty-seven.
It took an average of forty-three days to sell a condo last month.
If you are planning on selling your property, call me for a free comparative market analysis.
January 2025 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
Price Plateau (SCC & SMC)
January 31, 2025 — The Federal Reserve held a policy-setting meeting this week, ultimately deciding to take no action and leaving the federal funds rate unchanged. There was little new insight into the Fed’s thinking in either the statement that closed the meeting or in Chairman Powell’s post-meeting press conference.
In his prepared remarks, Mr. Powell noted “significant progress” made toward the Fed’s two goals of full employment and price stability over the last two years, while acknowledging that inflation “remains somewhat elevated.” While it is true that progress has been made toward those goals, it is also true that there really hasn’t been much progress made in some time. Given pandemic distortion, it’s difficult to compare the labor market two years ago to today; certainly, millions more people are on payrolls. However, the unemployment rate of late is currently higher than those days, too, running at 4.1% now as compared to 3.5% then.
The improvement in inflation is easier to see; two years ago, headline PCE prices were running at a 5% annual rate, and core PCE at 4.4%, and steadily declining. Currently, those figures are 2.6% and 2.8%, and firming or firm. Annualized PCE inflation has risen by a half percentage point since September, so there’s certainly no progress at all to be seen here. As well, annualized core PCE has held at the present level for the past three months, and is little better than it was last April, so there is no recent evidence of progress in getting inflation down to target levels. Given this, it’s reasonable to think that the rate cut in December (and perhaps November as well) were perhaps less than optimally timed.
Sales of newly-constructed homes posted a 3.6% increase in December, landing at a 698.000 annual rate. This was a better showing than was expected, and November’s initial estimate was revised higher by 10,000 units, too. The end-of-year improvement came despite high mortgage rates, as consumers seem to be drawn in by ample inventory of homes available to buy and builder incentives such as price reductions and financing support. The supply of new homes at the present rate of sales edged down to 8.5 months; the actual (annualized) number of units ready to be sold was 494,000, the highest figure since December 2007, some 18 years ago and just before the financial crisis and Great Recession fully upended the housing market.
That’s not to say the housing market isn’t still upended in some ways; it is, but for different reasons now, like record high existing home prices and generationally-high mortgage rates. Both those items (plus the effect of holidays) damped the number of home purchase contracts signed in December. The trio of conditions resulted in the Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors record a 5.5% decline to close 2024, its first retreat since July. Since it can take 30-60 days for a signed contract to turn into a sale, we’d expect to see the impact of the decline in PHSI reflected mostly in February’s sales figures. Reckoning off the 4.24 million pace for December, this would see existing home sales drop back to about the 4.00 million level by then.
With mortgage rates high and fairly steady it’s not likely we’ll see any kind of sudden change in the number of folks applying for mortgages. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that there was a 2% decline in the number of requests for mortgage credit in the week ending January 24. Applications for funds to purchase homes eased by 0.4% for the week, while those to refinance existing mortgages dropped 6.8%. To get much by way of improvement in demand for loans, we’ll likely need to see mortgage rates drop back to perhaps 6.5% or so, if not lower.
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
| SJM 2-6-2025 | Santa Clara’s newest neighborhood — the Clara District — is coming to life with 2,000 new homes opening this year |
| SJM 12-10-2024 | California’s home insurance crisis: Which Bay Area neighborhoods have lost the most coverage By Jovi Dai |
| Tribune News Service 12-06-2024 | US cities cut red tape to turn unused office buildings into housing By Tribune News Service |
| REDFINE News 12-04-2024 | By Daryl Fairweather and Chen Zhao |
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 Corner
S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index Records 3.6% Annua Gain in October 2024
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 31, 2024: S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) today released the October 2024 results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices. The leading measure of U.S. home prices recorded a 3.6% annual gain in October 2024, a slight deceleration from the previous annual gains in 2024. More than 27 years of history are available for the 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 Prices & Sales Up in November
Sales of single-family, re-sale homes in San Mateo County rose 5.5% in November, year-over-year. There were 251 homes sold in San Mateo County last month. The average since 2000 is 398.
The median sales price for single-family, re-sale homes was $2,200,000. It was up 21.4% compared to last year.
The average sales price rose 14.1% year-over-year.
The sales price to list price ratio fell from 105.5% to 104.9%.
Inventory of single-family, re-sale homes was down 19% compared to last year. As of December 5th, there were 260 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 thirty-seven days to thirty days.
It took twenty-two 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 fell 0.5% year-over-year.
Year-over-year, the average sales price fell 8.6%.
Condo sales were up 37.5% year-over-year. There were 77 condos sold last month. The average since January 2003 is 122.
Inventory was down 2.7% year-over-year.
As of December 5th, there were 143 condos for sale in San Mateo County. The average since January 2003 is 350.
Days of inventory fell from sixty-four to fifty-four.
It took an average of forty-nine days to sell a condo last month.
If you are planning on selling your property, call me for a free comparative market analysis.
January 2025 Sales Statistics (SMC)
* Total inventory is active listings plus pending listings. Active listings do not include pending.
You can get more information at: http://avi.rereport.com/market_reports
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.