Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Trend Report:

Santa Clara County (SCC): Sales Price to List Price Ratio Continues Falling

The real estate market in Santa Clara County continues to soften. The sales price to list price ratio, or what buyers are paying over what sellers are asking, is just over 100%: 100.1%. The market is turning towards buyers.

Prices of single-family, re-sale homes fell year-over-year for the second month in a row. Year-over-year, the median price was down 10.1%. Compared to November, it was down 7%. The average price was down 7.1% from November and off 7.6% year-over-year.

Home sales were down 22.2% from last December. For the year, home sales were down 9.7%.

Inventory continues to expand. It has been higher than the year before seven months in a row. In December it was up 151.7% over last year.

As of January 5th, there were 682 homes for sale in Santa Clara County.

Nevertheless, Days of Inventory shed seven days to thirty-seven days in December.  Since January 2000, Santa Clara County has averaged ninety-four days of inventory.

It is taking thirty-four days to sell a home. That is the time from when a home is listed to when it goes into contract.

The median price for re-sale condos was down last month, year-over-year, for the first time since June 2011: -3.4%. The average price was down 4.2%.

The sales price to list price ratio dropped below 100% for the first time since March 2012: 99.9%.

Condo sales were down 10.1% in December. For the year, condo sales were down 12.1%.

Inventory continues to expand. It has been higher than the year before seven months in a row. In December it was up an astounding 1,309.5% over last year.

As of January 5th, there were 296 condos for sale in Santa Clara County.

Days of inventory fell five days to forty-one.

It is taking thirty-three days to sell a condo.

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

December 2018 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

Volatile Markets, Softer Rates To Start 2019 (SCC & SMC)

December 28, 2018 — Even with a lot of financial trades on machine-generated autopilot these days, holiday-shortened trading weeks leave little to be learned about underlying directions for stocks and interest rates. Odds favor that our next fairly clear signals will start to show in the first full business week of the new year, which doesn’t start until January 7.

In the interim, a period where economic data is typically thin is rather thinner this year, what with the partial government shutdown. For example, we were supposed to get a look at sales of new homes in November this week, but the Census Bureau simply has a large red announcement banner on its webpage: “NOTICE: Due to a lapse in federal funding this website is not being updated.” You can’t get any more blunt than that, and to the extent that the border-wall funding fight between President Trump and Congress persists, we may see all manner of delays in getting timely revelations of what’s happening in the economy.

One thing is certain, though. With all the turmoil in markets in recent weeks, the long-term Treasury yields that influence fixed mortgage rates have dropped a fair bit, and average offered rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages have slumped back to early September levels. Lower rates are great, but that they’ve come during the holiday season isn’t as useful as it might otherwise be in terms of supporting home sales; lots of potential shoppers are otherwise engaged and a percentage of potential home sellers will pull their listings for the season.

Also, lower mortgage rates might trigger more demand amid seasonally-lessened supply, but this disconnect means more home sales aren’t likely to happen. We’ll need these lower rates to hold for a while yet — at least several more weeks — to add much lift to home sales. Of course, adding to the existing market troubles of low supply and high prices is that the National Flood Insurance Program is temporarily suspended, too, so it may be impossible for some folks to get a mortgage closed right now.

That said, recently lower rates may kick refinancings up a bit, perhaps adding a little holiday cheer to at least some mortgage lenders. Higher interest rates for much of 2018 curtailed refinancing, and only modest levels of home sales have generally left them little to be happy about.

So 2018 comes to an end and 2019 looks to begin. Turbulent times lay behind and the immediate course ahead seems likely to be more of the same. The yield of the influential 10-year Treasury closed the week rather lower than where it began, but the stock market has been so erratic of late this may just be the result of safe-haven parking to get through the turn of the new year, and so may unwind somewhat when trading resumes next week. That having been said, it might be noted that the first week of 2018 featured the lowest average 30-year FRM rate for the year; certainly, it’s possible that this will be the case again for 2019. We’ll see about that, but for the moment it looks like another small decline for rates is on tap again for next week, probably a dip of a few basis points.

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

PHOENIX REPLACES SEATTLE IN TOP THREE CITIES IN ANNUAL GAINS ACCORDING TO S&P CORELOGIC CASE-SHILLER INDEX

NEW YORK, DECEMBER 26, 2018 – 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 October 2018 shows that the rate of home price increases across the U.S. slowed for the third month in a row. More than 27 years of history for these data series is available, and can be accessed in full by going to: https://bit.ly/2SUH06n

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

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San Mateo County (SMC): Sales Price to List Price Ratio Continues Falling

The real estate market in San Mateo County continues to soften. The sales price to list price ratio, or what buyers are paying over what sellers are asking, is just over 100%: 102.5%. In March, the ratio was 113.3%. The market is turning towards buyers.

The median sales price of single-family, re-sale homes fell year-over-year for the first time since March 2016. Year-over-year, the median price was down 1.5%. The average sales price was down 7.7% year-over-year.

Home sales were down 25.3% from last December. For the year, home sales were down 5.8%.

Inventory continues to expand. It has been higher than the year before seven months in a row. In December it was up 70.9% over last year.

As of January 5th, there were 282 homes for sale in San Mateo County.

Nevertheless, Days of Inventory shed five days to thirty-seven days in December.  Since January 2003, San Mateo County has averaged eighty days of inventory.

It is taking thirty days to sell a home. That is the time from when a home is listed to when it goes into contract.

The median sales price for re-sale condos was up 12% last month, year-over-year. The average sales price was up 20.6%.

The sales price to list price ratio was at its lowest level since May 2012: 101.2%.

Condo sales were down 16.9% in December. For the year, condo sales were down 12.4%.

Inventory continues to expand. It has been higher than the year before five months in a row. In December it was up 185.2% over last year.

As of January 5th, there were 77 condos for sale in San Mateo County.

Days of inventory fell four days to thirty-three.

It is taking thirty-eight days to sell a condo.

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

December 2018 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.