Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Trend Report:

Santa Clara County (SCC): The Median Sales Price for Homes Continues to Drop

The median sales price for single-family, re-sale homes in September was down for the eighth month in a row and ten of the past eleven months, year-over-year. It fell 2%. It was up 2.9% from August.

The average sales price was down for the tenth month a row, year-over-year. It fell 7.5%. On a positive note, it was up 2.9% compared to August.

The average sales price broke a ten month streak of being lower than the year before by rising 2.6%. It was up 4.4% compared to August

The sales price to list price ratio stayed at 100.4%.

Home sales fell 17.6% from August, but they were up 2.1%, year-over-year. There were 719 homes sold in Santa Clara County last month. The average since 2000 is 987.

After fifteen months in a row of Inventory being higher than the year before, it dropped 2.4% last month.

As of October 5th, there were 1,313 homes for sale in Santa Clara County. The average since January 2000 is 2,778.

Days of Inventory, or how long it would take to sell all homes listed for sale at the current rate of sales, rose nine days to 53 days compared to August. The average since 2003 is 89.

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 sales price for condos rose 0.8% from August, but, it was down 0.6% from last September.

The average sales price rose 0.6% from August, but was down 2.5% from last September.

The sales price to list price ratio stayed at 100.0%.

Condo sales were down 10.4%.

Inventory continues to expand. It has been higher than the year before sixteen months in a row.

As of October 5th, there were 617 condos for sale in Santa Clara County. The average since January 2000 is 757.

Days of inventory rose to sixty-five.

It took an average of thirty-three days to sell a condo last month.

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

September 2019 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 Trim Mortgage Rate Uptick (SCC & SMC)

Sep. 27, 2019 — Just a week after mortgage rates staged their biggest increase in several years, fresh concerns about the U.S. political climate spooked investors, and at least some money sloshed out of riskier investments and back in to the relative safety of sovereign bonds. This flare of demand helped push down yields and mortgage rates, with the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage taking back a bit more than half of the prior week’s increase.

It’s not uncommon to see rather more volatility in markets once we pass the Labor Day holiday, when quiet summer markets give way to a quickened pace of activity. Last year, for example, a very flat summer pattern for rates gave way to a several-week spike that saw rates kick more than a third of a percentage point higher. We may have been on a similar course, but the announcement this week that House Democrats will be opening a “formal” impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s actions injected a new degree of uncertainty into the climate, and the corresponding measure of caution expressed by investors took the legs out from under the recent increase in yields and rates.

Last week’s flare in mortgage rates (on top of a smaller one the week prior) had the expected effect on mortgage applications. In the week ending September 20, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 10.1% decline in applications for new mortgages, with a 3.1% decline in purchase-money apps accompanied by an unsurprising 15.2% decline in those for refinances. The change to the first group broke a 3-week string of gains; the second group has only two small positive weeks since a huge upward spike in early August. Since then, the trends for refinancing have largely been diminishing despite still-favorable mortgage rates.

There is no doubt that low mortgage rates have increased interest in the housing market. The National Association of Realtors reported that their Pending Home Sales Index moved 1.6% higher in August, an advance indication that existing home sales may continue a mild upward pattern, but limited inventories of homes available to buy will likely continue to be a tempering factor.

However, nothing to buy in the existing home market, rising incomes and more means improving times for sales in the new construction market, where sales of new homes rose 7.1% in August to a 713,000 annual pace. July’s initial figure was also revised higher, so this uptrend is even enhanced to a degree. Stockpiles of unsold new homes had gotten a little bloated earlier this year, rising as high as 6.7 months of supply, but solid sales since May driven by builder price cutting has trimmed that back to just 5.5 months in September. Thinning inventories amid solid demand usually means rising prices, and rise they did, with the median price of a new home sold rising by 8.8% compared to those sold in July. As well, builders need to get busy again, as the 324,000 units built and ready to be sold was actually the smallest number since September 2018.

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

Coming soon

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 Prices Continue to Decline

Prices for single-family, re-sale homes were down for the fourth month in a row, month-over-month. The median sales price fell 2.3% and the average sales price fell 3.8%. Year-over-year, the median sales price fell 7.0%, and the average sales price fell 11.4%.

The sales price to list price ratio dropped from 104.2% to 103.5%.

Home sales fell 12.2% from August, and, they were down, year-over-year, by 2.6%. There were 294 homes sold in San Mateo County last month. The average since 2003 is 398.

Inventory was down for the second month in a row. Last month, it was down 2.2% over last year.

Days of Inventory, or the amount of time it would take to sell all homes for sale divided by how many homes have sold, rose eighteen to fifty-eight days.

As of October 5th, there were 583 homes for sale in San Mateo County. The average since January 2003 is 1,287.

It is taking twenty-seven 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 rose 2.3% year-over-year. It was down 9.2% from August. The average sales price fell 4.1% from August. Year-over-year, the average sales price dropped 4.4%.

Condo sales fell 9.8% year-over-year.

Inventory continues to expand. It has been higher than the year before fourteen months in a row. It gained 35.7% over last September.

As of October 5th, there were 175 condos for sale in San Mateo County. The average since January 2003 is 350.

Days of inventory rose to sixty-nine.

It is taking only twenty-one days to sell a condo.

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

September 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.