Months of Inventory or Absorption Rate for Cupertino Real Estate

Cupertino is a red hot sellers’ market, but primarily or the most in the lower price ranges.  The higher the price of the home goes, generally speaking, the cooler the market gets.  Part of this is because Cupertino is not considered a luxury market.  Luxury homes are far more likely to be found in Los Altos and Saratoga than in Cupertino. Even so, there are areas, primarily in the foothills and west of Foothill Blvd., where high end homes can be found.

Yesterday afternoon I ran the “months of inventory” by price point in the city of Cupertino.  The absorption rate, or MOI, will tell us how long it would take for the current inventory to be totally absorbed by the market of buyers if no other homes came on the market.  The shorter the MOI is, the hotter the market is.  (Houses and duet homes only, not condos or town houses.)Have a look:

Houses up to $500,000: n/a (there aren’t any)
$500,000 to $999,999:    .2 Month of Inventory or MOI (2/10 of a month)
$1 million to $1,499,999: . 61 MOI
$1,500,000 to $1,999,999:   2.75 MOI
$2 million to $2,499,999:  infinite (3 homes for sale, none closed in last 30 days)
$2.5 million to $2,999,999: 1 MOI
$3 million and up:  n/a

It’s a little bit of a fluke that the 2.5—3 million group was “1”. There was one sale and it was just barely over the line – it sold for $2,505,000.  Had it slipped just a little bit, the group prior would have had 3 months of inventory (1 closing for 3 listings currently active). The trend is pretty clear: the higher the price, the longer homes take to be absorbed into the market.  We can fairly think of this segment as 3 months of inventory, which isn’t bad at all but is not “red hot”.

Hottest of the hot are houses listed for sale at under $1,000,000 in the city of Cupertino – they are flying off the market at .2 months of inventory, or about 1 week!  It cools as prices rise.

Cupertino Median List Prices Compared to Neighboring Saratoga, Sunnyvale and Los Altos

We know that the median sales price in Cupertino has been climbing steadily since March 1st (reflecting sales beginning in early February). How does it compare to nearby areas?

Los Altos is selling for the most of these 4 areas, but list prices are now falling. Saratoga was dippping but now rising again. Sunnyvale has been somewhat flat recently but improving. But Cupertino’s prices are making the steepest improvement. Perhaps these low prices are the drivers for the crazy hot market activity. (more…)

San Jose’s Cambrian, or Cambrian Park, area is a very hot seller’s market.  Multiple offers are not uncommon, especially in the Union School District, where schools are trending upward.  My Cambrian Park Real Estate Report has just been published with the updated numbers from the closed sales in April. Please click on the link to see much more information there.

Prices are up nicely year over year! Inventory is crazy low – just 35 homes for sale in April compared to 57 in March and 84 in April 2011. Days on market is far lower too. All around, it is a deepening seller’s market.

Even stronger is the Cambrian condo market, which is skyrocketing!!!  Please see the Cambrian Condominium & Townhouse Real Estate Report for all of the numbers, but I’ll include a quick summary below.

Here again, notice the ratio of active to pending homes, the sale vs list price (over 100%), and most of all, the tremendous rise in both the average and median sales price.  Few homes closed escrow in February, so it is possible that these numbers are a little exaggerated.  We will know more in a month – if it’s a trend or if this is a fluke.

Now let’s work with Altos Research’s graphs and get a feel for the Cambrian realty market in “real time”.  These use list prices, whereas my REReport uses sold data.

First, the statistics by quartile for houses in San Jose 95118:

Next, the stats and trends by price quartile for houses in San Jose 95124: (more…)

How’s the Saratoga California real estate market?

Today we’ll look at the monthly sales numbers for Saratoga, CA 95070 and also view live charts reflecting homes listed for sale on the MLS. Both houses and condos/townhomes will be considered as will varying price quartiles via the live charts.

Monthly Real Estate Update for Saratoga – prices of houses rising:

As with much of the “west valley”, the Saratoga, CA real estate market is a seller’s market, but it does not appear quite so overheated as neighboring – and far more affordable – Cupertino right now. Unlike many other areas, though, inventory is a little looser and is up month over month (which is seasonally expected) and year over year (not a seasonal issue, of course). 

Here are the real estate sales statistics for closed sales in March 2012 among houses in the 95070 zip code (click on link to read the full Saratoga Real Estate Report for houses):

And February

The median sales price, which is the number indicating that half of the homes sold for more and half less than this number, has risen almost 8% from a year ago.  This implies that more expensive homes are selling – and possibly that home values are rising too. The average is also up about the same amount year over year.

Next, please find the basic statistics for closed sales in February 2012 among townhouses & condominiums in the 95070 zip code (see the Saratoga Real Estate Report for condos & townhomes):

And February

How’s the real estate market in the Willow Glen area of San Jose?  Like the greater Silicon Valley region, Willow Glen is comprised of many smaller micro-markets.  It will be different in north Willow Glen, Palm Haven or in a walk-to-town area than it will be in the Dry Creek area or St. Francis Woods neighborhood – let alone differences for school districts, price point, sale type (regular versus short sale or bank owned), zip code and home type!  It’s a patchwork of all these smaller markets, in other words.  What’s happening in one segment might be very different than in another.

Today’s post will be the broad view of Willow Glen and comments may not apply to your specific property – for info on your neighborhood, call or email me!

Disclaimers aside, overall it is a seller’s market in Willow Glen right now, but it’s cooler than other areas with better schools such as Almaden, Cambrian and Cupertino and not everything is selling (and certainly not getting the prices that many sellers want).  The best homes (best condition, pricing, marketing and regular sale) are selling in 1-3 weeks.

Below are the basic numbers, stats and trends from the closed sales of houses in March

and in February:

And next, of Willow Glen condos, where it’s been a cold buyer’s market but recently heated up:

Next, February…

  (more…)

Right now I’m working with a number of very frustrated home buyers.  Silicon Valley real estate inventory is painfully low, and in the lower price ranges especially, that means multiple offers are fairly common.  FHA home buyers, in particular, are getting out bid and out negotiated by all cash buyers, many of whom are investors.

How low is the inventory?  Let’s have a look at January’s inventory for houses & duet homes (“class 1″ or single family homes) over the last ten years in Santa Clara County (San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell, etc.):

2012  1,382
2011  2,007
2010  2,426
2009  4,759
2008  4,872
2007  2,698
2006  2,202
2005  1,285
2004  1,612
2003  3,119

The average January inventory of available houses over the last 10 years is 2,636.  At 1,382, January 2012′s available inventory of houses for sale in the San Jose area was just 52% of normal.  (more…)

Multiple offers have returned to many segments of the Silicon Valley real estate market.  We are hearing about them in Palo Alto, Cupertino, Mountain View – areas where newly minted IPO money is having an impact – but also in more modest, middle class areas such as San Jose’s Cambrian neighborhood. The trend appears to be spreading.

What Silicon Valley home sellers need to know and do to attract multiple offers

If you’re a Silicon Valley home seller, what do you need to know to try to get multiples on your home?  What should you beware of?  In short, here’s what needs to happen if you want to attract multiple offers on your home for sale:

1. The home must be turnkey, either fully remodeled or close to it – it must look like there’s nothing or very little for a buyer to do.  In addition to being turnkey, it must be squeaky clean and well staged! It needs to be comfortable – not too hot, not too cold. You want buyers and their agent to linger longer.
   
2. The price must be at or even under market value.  That is, you must be willing to price it aggressively.  Think it’s worth $1,050,000?  You might list it at $999,999 to get in under a major price threshold and to be the very best, most attractive property for the money. Yes, it might be under priced.  Over priced listings get either one offer at best or, more likely, none at all.
3. The property must be highly accessible. If it is hard to see, you probably won’t get multiple offers (and may get none at all).  (Please see articles on accessibility and on open houses.)
4. Finally, the property must be well marketed.  This includes a wide range of factors ranging from photographs, text, fliers, signs, and even the commission rate offered to the buyer’s side.

What Silicon Valley home buyers need to know and do to compete with multiple offers

If you’re a Silicon Valley home buyer, how do you win out in multiples without giving away all of your rights or overpaying for your house/home? (more…)

Often on this blog we look at specific, hyper local real estate markets in Santa Clara County (as with Saratoga, Campbell, Los Gatos, or even a larger city such as San Jose – or parts of it such as Almaden or Cambrian – or even subsets of any of those). Today, though, we’ll check in on Santa Clara County as a whole, which is home to 1.8 million people and many diverse markets.

The number of homes being sold in Silicon Valley is trending upward now. Prices, though, while higher than a month ago are down about 5.4% from a year before. Let’s see it visually:

Pricing of houses sold in Santa Clara County

Both median and average sales prices are shown in the graph below (which is from the printable version of my Santa Clara County Real Estate Report; you can also view an online version at popehandy.rereport.com). Note the trends with several “peaks and valleys” over the last five years or so.

To check on particular areas within the county, please visit my RE Report and select the city, town, or area within San Jose that you want to better understand.