Palo Alto Market Update, Feb 26th: Single Family Homes

Here's today's snapshot of the Palo Alto market--

123 active listings

25 pending sales

I'm in too much shock to deal with the sold homes. I'll get to that in my next post but I wanted to get this information out. 

What does this mean?

Last Dec. I commented that if Palo Alto's inventory got up to 120 active listings we'd be in trouble. Well, we are. There hasn't been this many homes for sale since 2001. We all know what happened then. The reasons for the decreased inventory are different than in 2001, but the results will probably be the same. I can only hope that sellers don't try to insult the buyer's intelligence, and that the buyers treat sellers with respect--even if they don't respect the asking prices. 

More on closed sales and price drops tomorrow. I'm off to the theatre tonight--my only occasional night off. Going to see "I Am My Own Wife" at the San Jose Stage Company, my very favorite area theatre.

If you're interested in finding the final selling price of any home, anywhere, you can do it on my website. Click here to get to my site. Once there, click on Cyberhome Home Valuation. You can then type in any address next to the search icon to get the  county records. 

If you need anything else or have any questions about the market, please contact me. I'm here to help.

Marcy Moyer, Intero Real Estate

650-619-9285

marcy@marcymoyer.com

Mountain View Market Update, Feb 20: Single Family Homes

Here's today's snapshot of the Mountain View single family home market--

88 active listings

18 pending sales

1 closed sale this month

What does this mean? There's been a big jump in inventory this month. Active listings are up by 16 but pending sales are also up by 7. The ratio of pending to active is not bad, at about 1 to 4.5 now, when the ratio at the beginning of the month was about 1 to 6 pending to active. If the ratios hold we shouldn't see too much change in prices but if inventory continues to increase without a similar increase in pendings we'll see more softening in the market. 

If you're interested in finding the final selling price of any home, anywhere, you can do it on my website. Click here to get to my site. Once there, click on Cyberhome Home Valuation. You can then type in any address next to the search icon to get the county records.

If you need anything else, please feel free to contact me. I'm here to help.

Marcy Moyer Intero Real Estate

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

Palo Alto Market Update, Feb 15th: Single Family Homes

As of today this is the snap shot of the Palo Alto market:

91 Active Listings

26 Pending Sales

 4  Sold listing in past week

What does this mean?  The inventory is stable from last week, but this was a holiday weekend so there may be another jump this week.  Pending sales are  up from 21 to 26 so percentage wise pendings are actually up a little more than active, but the overall ratio is still 1 pending for less than 4  actives--slightly better than last week.  Again, this is more of an over 2 million dollar problem.  There are 39 listings over 2 million and 5 pending sales, or a 1 to 8 ratio which is better than last week's 1 to 20 but still not great, especially since the highest price pending listing is 2.649.  There are 52 listings under 2 million and 21 pending sales, so a 1 to 2.5 (almost) ratio, which is not too bad and about the same as last week.

This week's closed sales are pretty interesting.

2980 Waverley St. Listed for 2.1 and sold for 1.932 4 bedroom/3 baths

1730 Guinda  Listed for 1.698 and sold for 1.630 3 bedrooms 1/5 baths

2326 Hanover  Listed for 1.195 and sold for 900K  2 bedrooms 1 bath

3059 Louis Rd. Listed for 899K and sold for 860K  3 bedrooms 1 bath

This week all the sales are lower than asking which, as you know, hasn't made me too joyful. However, this seems to be getting pervasive in Palo Alto, even in the lower price range. Stay tuned for more updates.

If you are interested in finding the final selling price of any home, anywhere, you can do it on my web site. Go to www.marcymoyer.com and click on Cyberhome Home Valuation. You can then type in any address next to the search icon and get the county records.

If you need anything else please feel free to contact me. I'm always here to help!

Marcy Moyer Intero Real Estate

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

www.marcymoyer.com

Palo Alto Market Update, Feb 10th: Single Family Homes

As of today this is the snap shot of the Palo Alto market:

      

     90 Active Listings

      21 Pending Sales

       4 Sold listing in past week

What does this mean? Inventory continues to increase. Active listings are up from 81 to 90. Pending sales are also up from 17 to 21 so percentage wise pending sales are actually up a little more than active sales. Even so, the overall ratio is still 1 pending for every 4.5 actives which isn't so great. Again, this is more of an over 2 million dollar problem. There are 40 listings over 2 million and 2 pending sales--or a 1 to 20 ratio which is, frankly, terrible. There are 50 listings under 2 million and 19 pending sales, so a 1 to 2.5 (almost) ratio, which isn't too bad.

This week's closed sales are pretty interesting.

866 Seale Listed for $3,498,000 and sold for $3,625,000 New construction

1029 Ramona Listed for $1,650,000 and sold for $1,350,000

608 Fulton Listed for $1,690,000 and sold for $1,395,000 

2576 Middlefiled Listed for $839,000 and sold for $745,000

What I find most interesting about this week is that for the first time since I have been a realtor Palo Alto has more active listings than East Palo Alto. EPA has 88 active single family home listings and Palo Alto 90. Usually there are at least twice as many listings in EPA as PA. I think this really backs up what I have been saying that the lower end of the market is very hot, while the upper end is ice cold.

If you are interested in finding the final selling price of any home, anywhere, you can do it on my web site. Go to www.marcymoyer.com and click on Cyberhome Home Valuation. You can then type in any address next to the search icon and get the county records.

If you need anything else please feel free to contact me. I am here to help you.

Marcy Moyer Intero Real Estate

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

www.marcymoyer.com

Boston Real Estate Blog

Just in case any of you Bay Area folks are thinking about real estate on the other side of the country, here's a link to a great Boston real estate blog that I really enjoy.

Homes in Boston Blog

It has tons of great info on homes in the Boston area and the real estate market there, as well as updates about local events. Definitely check it out!

Magic Theatre Update

Thanks to everyone who read my post about saving the Magic Theatre. The Magic Theatre's donation drive was a smashing success, hopefully in part because of the awareness fostered by the huge outpouring of media coverage and calls for donations that spread through the online world. The theatre raised far more than their $213,000 goal. The total numbers were close to $455,000. Pretty impressive considering the tough times. I'm so happy that the Magic Theatre has weathered the storm. Really, a big thank you to everyone who donated.

Still, there's plenty of dark clouds on the horizon for hundreds of small regional theaters across the country. Many have closed their doors or will be closing soon, and cutbacks have been very severe. I know I'm not the only one who sorely misses American Musical Theatre of San Jose. Perhaps in the future we can mimic the the same kind of banding together that the community displayed to help the Magic. I'm sure we can pool enough resources to keep theatre doors open! 

Here are some words from The Stanger's Slog section regarding Magic's rescue--

The Magic Theatre's emergency fundraising drive was a success, raising $455,000--counting a $100,000 matching grant that put the company well over its $350,000 goal--"from about 1,100 donors in something like 23 states," Board of Trustees President Missy Kirchner said in a Friday conference call with Artistic Director Loretta Greco. "We're still counting," she added. "Donations are still coming in."

That's good news indeed--I can't wait to see what the new season has in store.

Palo Alto Real Estate: Who's Selling in Palo Alto?

There's been a lot of speculation about what will happen to the market in Palo Alto. Will it drip 30%, drop 10%, improve in 6 months? Most of the argument against Palo Alto having a lot more decrease in home value is the thought that most people here didn't get bad loans and therefore don't have to sell. If most people don’t have to sell, the prices shouldn't go down too much. However, if more people selling do HAVE to sell that might bode sharper decreases. I thought it would be interesting and potentially very helpful to you to see (as best I can), who is selling. I have broken the listings up into over 2 million and under 2 million for the asking price thereby putting the listings into categories:

Over 2 Million:

10  New construction

5 Vacant

7  Owner occupied

 1 Short Sale (this is also new construction but I put it in short sale)

1 Rental

1 to be built

0 Bank owned

Under 2 Million:

10 New construction

14 Vacant

17 Owner occupied

0 Short Sale

0 Bank Owned

5 Rentals

1 Stanford property

 So what does this mean? Quite frankly I'm not entirely sure, but I believe that new and vacant properties are likely to have more flexibility in pricing than owner occupied homes. The single big exception to that rule would be short sales, but as you can see there's only 1 in Palo Alto. There is a much higher percentage of new and vacant homes in the listings over 2 million, so maybe it means there is more room for prices to drop in this segment. We’ll see. I will keep you updated about who's selling over the next few months and how that may relate to what the market is doing.

If you are interested in finding the final selling price of any home, anywhere, you can do it on my web site. Go to www.marcymoyer.com and click on Cyberhome Home Valuation. You can then type in any address next to the search icon and get the county records.

If you need anything else please feel free to contact me. I am here to help you.

Marcy Moyer, Intero Real Estate

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

www.marcymoyer.com

Sunnyvale Market Update, Jan 31: Condos

Here's today's market update for condos/townhomes in Sunnyvale--

92 active listings

27 pending sales

2 sales in the last week

What does this mean? Things are very similar to last week. There are 4 more active listings than last week but 2 more pending sales. We aren't quite at a 1 to 3 ratio of pending to active sales, but things aren't getting worse--so at this point, there shouldn't be big changes in condo prices.

If you're interested in finding the final selling price of any home, anywhere, you can do it on my website. Click here to get to my website. Once there, click on Cyberhome Home Valuation. You can then type in any address next to the search icon and get the county records.

If you need anything else, please feel free to contact me. I'm here to help you.

Marcy Moyer, Intero Real Estate

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

Sunnyvale Market Update, Jan 31: Single Family Homes

Here's today's snapshot of the single family home market in Sunnyvale--

132 active listings

51 pending listings

4 sold homes in last week

What does this mean? There isn't much change from last week, when there were 129 active and 54 pending listings. The sold number is a little less. In the under 550K market there's still more activity than in the higher end, but the pending to active ratio is a little worse than last week. My expectation is that once the conforming loan limit goes back to $729,500, which the 2009 Stimulus Package has promised to do, the market will be active up to the 800K mark.

If you are interested in finding the final selling price of any home, anywhere, you can do it on my website. Click here to get to my site--once there, click on Cyberhome Home Valuation. You can then type in any address to get the county records.

If you need anything else please, feel free to contact me--I'm always here to help you.

Marcy Moyer, Intero Real Estate

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285