Santa Clara County (SCC): HARP® Ending This Year
HARP® will end December 31, 2018.
Introduced in March 2009, HARP enables borrowers with little or no equity to refinance into more affordable mortgages without new or additional mortgage insurance. HARP targets borrowers with loan-to-value (LTV) ratios equal to or greater than 80 percent and who have limited delinquencies over the 12 months prior to refinancing.
To see if you are eligible, go here:
https://www.harp.gov/
Market Statistics
The Silicon Valley real estate market continued to slow in August with single-family, re-sale home sales and prices lower than the month before.
Nevertheless, sales and prices were higher than the year before. The median price for homes was up 11.6% over last year, while the average price was up 10.4%.
The sales price to list price ratio, or what buyers are paying over what sellers are asking has been declining and is now at it’s lowest level since February 2017. Nevertheless, it remains in the triple digits: 104.0%.
Days of Inventory rose five days to forty-six days in August. That’s the highest the indicator has been since January 2017. Since January 2000, Santa Clara County has averaged ninety-four days of inventory.
It is taking twenty-one days to sell a home. Home sales were down, year-over-year, for the fourth month in a row. Sales fell 21.8% from last August.
The number of homes for sale is at its highest level since October 2016.
As of September 5th, there were 1,182 homes for sale in Santa Clara County.
The median price for re-sale condos was up 25% year-over-year. The average price was up 18.7%.
The sales price to list price ratio was 106.0%.
Days of inventory rose eleven days to 44. There are 419 condos for sale in Santa Clara County.
It is taking eighteen days to sell a condo.
August 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
Big investment firms have stopped gobbling up California homes (SCC & SMC)
By: Cal Matters
Astronomical prices are forcing a rising share of California families to postpone buying a house. As a result, the state’s record-low homeownership rate has been a boon to one growing segment of California’s housing market: single-family home rentals.
Between 2005 and 2015, the number of owner-occupied homes in California shrunk by nearly 64,000 units, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Meanwhile the number of renter-occupied homes increased dramatically.
California now has 450,000 more homes used as rentals than it did a decade ago. Compare that to the 1990s, when the number of rented homes grew by less than 120,000 while the state added 700,000 homes owned by the people who live in them.
The rising tide of single-family rentals has renewed attention on who actually receives the rent payments that nearly 2 million Californians make each month. Lawmakers and first-time homeowner advocates have been scrutinizing a relatively new form of landlord: private investment firms that snapped up thousands of homes during the foreclosure crisis and now rent them out.
With nearly one in four California homes now purchased in all-cash, these well-financed institutional investors have also been blamed as unfair competition against families bidding on starter homes. So how much are institutional investors impacting California’s housing prices? The data says not so much now..
The rest of the article is much too long for this space. You can access it here: https://tinyurl.com/y8ucd9fc
It is well worth the read as it also discusses the impact of foreign buyers on the local market.
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
The Mercury News September 6 2018 | New IRS rules cast doubt on California’s federal tax-cap workaround By Kathy Murphy |
The Mercury News September 5 2018 | Anxious tenants face more Bay Area rent increases By Louis Hansen |
East Bay Times March 2018 | New study: SFO, Foster City, other SF Bay shoreline areas are sinking, at risk for major flooding Paul Rogers |
Real Estate Matters | Representing both buyers and sellers: A conflict of interest? Read more about Dual Agency By Michael Repka |
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 NATIONAL HOME PRICES: ALL 20 CITIES UP YEAR-OVER-YEAR
NEW YORK, AUGUST 28, 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 June 2018 shows that home prices continued their rise across the country over the last 12 months. More than 27 years of history for these data series is available, and can be accessed in full by going to https://goo.gl/87bRc7
U.S. Housing Markets Moving Into Rent Territory for First Time in Over 8 Years: Report
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San Mateo County (SMC): HARP® Ending This Year
HARP® will end December 31, 2018.
Introduced in March 2009, HARP enables borrowers with little or no equity to refinance into more affordable mortgages without new or additional mortgage insurance. HARP targets borrowers with loan-to-value (LTV) ratios equal to or greater than 80 percent and who have limited delinquencies over the 12 months prior to refinancing.
To see if you are eligible, go here:
https://www.harp.gov/
Market Statistics
The San Mateo County real estate market continued to slow in August with single-family, re-sale home sales and prices lower than the month before.
Nevertheless, sales and prices were higher than the year before. The median price for homes was up 9.7% over last year, while the average price was up 5.2%.
The median price for homes peaked at $1,770,000 in April and is now at its lowest level since January.
The average price for homes peaked in May and is at its lowest level since January.
The sales price to list price ratio, or what buyers are paying over what sellers are asking had been declining but turned slightly upwards in August. It gained 0.1 of a point to 109.2%.
Days of Inventory rose sixteen days to forty-nine days in August. Since January 2000, San Mateo County has averaged eighty-one days of inventory.
It is taking twenty-one days to sell a home. Home sales were off, year-over-year, 20.4%.
As of September 5th, there were 480 homes and 87 condos for sale in San Mateo County.
August 2018 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.