Palo Alto CA Market Update, June 28th: With a Neighborhood Twist!

Active Listings: 110

Pending Sales: 49

There has been a jump in inventory this week ahead of the fourth of July holiday. Since there will not be a lot of new listings this week due to the holiday some of this inventory may be sold off, or maybe not. I will keep my eye on it.

I thought the neighborhood breakdown was interesting so I am going to do it again.  So here is the neighborhood breakdown:

Downtown:  5 Active  2 Pending                                      one less pending

Professorville:  3 Active  2 Pending                                 exactly the same

Community Center:  6 Active  3 Pending                       more listings

Crescent Park:  5 Active   4 Pending                               one more pending

Green Gables:  9 Active  8 Pending                                one more active one less pending

Old Palo Alto:  11 Active   3 Pending                             one more pending

College Terrace:  Active 8  Pending 4                           two less listings

Ventura:  6 Active  1 Pending                                       two more listings one less pending

Midtown:  15 Active  3 pending                                   six  more listings

South Palo Alto: 23 Active  14 Pending                       five more listings and one more pending

Barron Park:  Active  10   Pending   0                         one more listing one less pending

Green Acres:  4 Active  2 Pending                              two less listings

Palo Alto Hills:  5 Active  1 Pending                           one more listing

So what does this mean?  Still better ratios in north than south. Barron Park is still slow.  Crescent Park is better and Community Center worse than 2 weeks ago.  I will keep this up for a while, so we can track the neighborhood trends.

Here's a link to last week's neighborhood-focused market update, so you can see how things have changed: Palo Alto Market Update, June 15th: With a Neighborhood Twist!

And here's another link to a market update I posted a year ago--it's really interesting to compare! Last June the number of pending and active sales were almost identical to this week's.... Palo Alto Market Update, June 27th (2009): Single Family Homes.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

marcy@marcymoyer.com

www.marcymoyer.com

D.R.E. 01191194

650-619-9285

The Facts About Palo Alto Short Sales and Foreclosures

There's a lot of chatter on real estate blogs about the steep increase in foreclosures and short sales in Palo Alto. Unfortunately many sites post stats from a company called Realty Trac which tracts everything from a Notice of Default through a listed bank owned property.  Many things can happen before a home with a Notice of Default actually gets to be sold by the bank, but unless you read the fine print carefully it is easy to confuse a house that is behind a few months in payments with an actual bank owned property on the market for sale.

Most bank owned homes as well as short sales (where the seller owes more than the home is worth and the lender/lenders have agreed to accept less than the amount of the mortgage to release the debt) are sold through the MLS.  So to see how many of these distressed sales have hit the market in the last year I went to the MLS and looked.  

Here is what I found for single family homes:

Bank owned properties sold in last year:              4

Current Pending sales of Bank owned:                 2

Short Sales sold in last year:                               3

Current Pending Short Sales                               1

Current Active Short Sales                                 1

For condo/townhomes the numbers are:

Bank owned sold:                                             2

Bank owned pending sales:                               1

Short Sales sold:                                              3

Short sales pending:                                         4

Short sales active:                                            2

As you can see this is not a huge number, especially since the total number of homes sold in Palo Alto in the last year is 369, making distressed sales account for less than 2%.  There have been 97 condo/townhomes sold in the same period making the distressed sales about 5% of that market.  These numbers are not enough to have any impact on the price of homes in Palo Alto at this point.  The percentage would have to increase several fold before Palo Alto prices are affected by distressed properties.  I am not saying that this is or is not going to happen, that is a discussion for a future post, just that it has not happened yet.

Marcy Moyer

Keller Williams Realty

D.R.E.  01191194

marcy@marcymoyer.com

www.marcymoyer.com

*Photo Credit: found this hilarious picture at the website for The Sacramento Bee. 

Palo Alto Market Update, May 5th: Single Family Homes

As of today this is the snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:

69 Active Listings

65 Pending Sales

Price Point Break Down:

Under 1 Million

5 Active Listings

21 Pending Sales

1 mil to 1.5 mil

25 Active Listings

24 Pending Sales

1.5 to 2 mil

11 Active Listings

24 Pending Sales

2-3 mil

17 Active Listings

9 Pending Sales

3mil +

12 Active Listings

4 Pending Sales

This time last year:

148 Active listings

47 Pending sales

Things have really changed since last year. There is half the inventory as last year, which goes along with the recent California Association of Realtor Stats that report that in Ca. homes over 1 million last year had a 21 month supply of inventory and now there is a 10 month supply of inventory. So, at this moment in time the market is better, even in the over 3 million dollar price point when last year the ratio of active to pending was 40 to 1 over 2 million. 3 to 1 is much better, but I do not know if we have really hit bottom for this segment. My guess is no, but I will have more knowledge about that in the coming months.

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

Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

www.marcymoyer.com

Palo Alto Market Update, April 19th: Single Family Homes

As of today this is the snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:

79 Active listings

51 Pending sales

Breakdown of Price Points:

Under 1 million: 6 Active Listings / 14 Pending Sales

1 to 1.5 Mil: 31 Active Listings/ 19 Pending Sales

1.5-2 mil: 14 Active Listings/ 8 Pending Sales

2-3 Million 12 Active listings/ 10 Pending Sales

3+ mil: 13 Active Listings/ 3 Pending Sales

What does mean? The market overall is pretty healthy. There is virtually no change since my last update on 4/11/10. Under 1 million is very competitive, 1-2 million is trending seller’s market, but most surprisingly, 2-3 million is pretty healthy again this week which I will now declare a trend. Over 3 million is still anemic and probably the best chance for a bargain. So it seems there are still a lot of people who want to move to Palo Alto, and there is competition for homes. With the increased optimism over the potential for more jobs in the Silicon Valley there is a good chance that this may make the real estate market more active. There are people who are thinking that the upper part of the market will start to recover soon. I have not seen it in the stats yet, but it is possible it could happen. I believe that if the upper end is ready to recover will we see an increase in pending sales first.

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 Keller Williams Realty

marcy@marcymoyer.com

650-619-9285

www.marcymoyer.com

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, March 30th: Single Family Homes

As of today, here's the market update for single family homes in Palo Alto--

79 Active listings

58 Pending sales

Breakdown of Price Points:

Under 1 million: 8 Active Listings / 9 Pending Sales

1 to 1.5 Mil: 27 Active Listings/ 20 Pending Sales

1.5-2 mil: 14 Active Listings/ 8 Pending Sales

2-3 Million 17 Active listings/ 8 Pending Sales

3+ mil: 14 Active Listings/ 3 Pending Sales

What does mean? The market overall is pretty healthy. Under 1 million is very competitive, 1-2 million is trending seller’s market, but most surprisingly, 2-3 million is pretty healthy again this week which may be a trend. Over 3 million is still anemic and probably the best chance for a bargin.

· 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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, Jan 7th: Single Family Homes

49 Active Listings

32 Pending Sales

As 2010 begins we have very little inventory, interest rates are not too bad, and housing prices are probably close to 20% lower than at this time last year. So what's the difference between now and other times when inventory was this low?

Let's start with the similarities. If a house is priced very low it will get multiple offers. There was a house on Bowdoin that listed for $728,000 and got 21 offers. It sold over $900,000. I don't know the final price, but I have a client who offered over 900K and that was not the highest offer. The house was probably worth $850-900K but pricing it so low incited a feeding frenzy that made it sell higher than what I think it was worth. This isn't my idea of how to sell real estate. Call me lazy, but I have no interest in dealing with 20 offers, and it is such a waste of time for so many people. Nevertheless, it's still true that a home priced way below market value will get many offers.

But what about the other homes on the market? This is not 2007, even though the inventory level is similar. Money isn't too expensive, but it's still not easy to get. Down payment and reserve requirements are high, banks are tight fisted with our bail-out money, and appraisers are tight on their appraisals. It's not uncommon to have an appraisal come in 10% less than what experienced realtors think a house is worth. Buyers don't have irrational exuberance and are definitely not jumping at any house in their price range that fits some of their needs. They want value for their hard-earned and ever harder to obtain financing. Job security is non-existent for many people. I think this will be an active year in Palo Alto real estate, with more homes changing hands, but I don't think there will be a lot of appreciation. And of course, as I have been saying for months, the over 2.5 million segment has not hit bottom yet.

· 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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, November 21st: Single Family Homes

As of today this is the snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:

73 Active listings

49 Pending sales

So, active listings continue to decrease while the number of pending sales have remained the same. The decrease in active listings is pretty typical for this time of year. I do not expect to see an increase in listings until January. If the pending sales stay the same or increase we will end the year with a strong housing demand that is not being adequately met in the bottom half of the price range in Palo Alto. Here are the interesting numbers for this week:

Under 1.5 million:

Active 27

Pending 38

There are more pending sales than active listings in this group and the gap is growing. That is an extremely healthy segment of the market.

2 million to 2.5 million:

5 active and 4 pending sales. This is also a very healthy segment.

Over 2.5 million:

23 active listings and 4 pending sales. There are now 2 pending sales over 2.6 million, one of which is 3.2 so this is a little better than last week., but in general nothing much is going on over 2.5 million.

Again, my prediction for the upper end market is still the same as last week, and the previous week, and the months before that. I think that we are going to start to see some short sales if the seller’s have overleveraged their homes and need to sell. Banks are starting to streamline the short sale process and the credit hit is not nearly as severe as a foreclosure. Added to that is the fact that the debt relief is not taxed by the feds leads me to believe that we will not see a wave of foreclosures in Palo Alto, but maybe a trickle of short sales if the employment picture does not pick up or if a homeowner needs to leave the area.

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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, November 13th: Single Family Homes

As of today this is the snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:

83 Active listings

49 Pending sales

So, active listings continue to decrease. Pending sales are also down a little, but only 3 less than the decrease in active listings. Here are the interesting numbers for this week:

Under 1.5 million: Active 31 Pending 37 There are more pending sales than active listings in this group. That is an extremely healthy segment of the market.

2 million to 2.5 million: 5 active and 5 pending sales. This is also a very healthy segment.

Over 2.5 million: 21 active listings and two pending sales. The highest price pending sale is 2.6 million so there are still no pending sales over 2.6 million. This continues the pattern that the high end of the Palo Alto market is dead. There is no arguing this fact, so do not try. Sure, there may be a few off market sales, but in general nothing much is going on over 2.5 million.

My prediction for the upper end market is still the same as last week, and the previous week, and the months before that. I think that we are going to start to see some short sales if the seller’s have overleveraged their homes and need to sell. Banks are starting to streamline the short sale process and the credit hit is not nearly as severe as a foreclosure. Added to that is the fact that the debt relief is not taxed by the feds leads me to believe that we will not see a wave of foreclosures in Palo Alto, but maybe a trickle of short sales if the employment picture does not pick up or if a homeowner needs to leave the area.

· 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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, Single Family Homes: November 3rd

Here is today's snapshot of the Palo Alto market for single family homes:

86 Active listings

56 Pending sales

So, active listings continue to decrease. Pending sales are also down a little, but not as much as active listings have decreased.

Here are the interesting numbers for this week:

Under 2 million: Active 59 Pending 45 a great ratio!

Over 2 million 27 active and 11 pending which on the face is not bad but there is more:

Over 2.6 million: 20 active listings and ZERO pending sales. This will probably change in the next week, but the pattern of the upper end of the market being slow has not changed.

2 million t 2.6 million: 7 active listings 11 pending sales This is a very healthy segment right now.

My prediction for the upper end market is still the same as last week. I think that we are going to start to see some short sales if the seller’s have overleveraged their homes and need to sell. Banks are starting to streamline the short sale process and the credit hit is not nearly as severe as a foreclosure. Added to that is the fact that the debt relief is not taxed by the feds leads me to believe that we will not see a wave of foreclosures in Palo Alto, but maybe a trickle of short sales if the employment picture does not pick up or if a homeowner needs to leave the area.

• 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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, Single Family Homes: October 25th

Here's today's snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:

93 Active listings

61 Pending sales

What does this mean? Inventory has decreased again, down to a more favorable number for sellers, especially in the under 1.5 mil range, and pending sales are up. To me the big news is that between Sept. 1, 2009 and Oct 10, 2009 there were 43 single family home sales on MLS. Of these, three homes sold over $2,000,000 and 40 sold under $2,000,000. That is not good news for sellers in the over 2 million market. That segment has a long way to go before we see any real recovery. However, as of today there are 8 pending sales between $2,089,000 and $2,198,000 which is good for that segment. There are still only 4 pending sales over 2.2 and the 49 remaining pending sales are all under 2 million. My prediction for the upper end market is that we are going to start to see some short sales if the sellers have overleveraged their homes and need to sell. Banks are starting to streamline the short sale process and the credit hit is not nearly as severe as a foreclosure. Added to that is the fact that the debt relief is not taxed by the feds leads me to believe that we will not see a wave of foreclosures in Palo Alto, but maybe a trickle of short sales if the employment picture does not pick up or if a homeowner needs to leave the area.

• 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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, Single Family Homes: October 13th

Here is today's snapshot of Palo Alto's single family home market:

102 Active listings

55 Pending sales

What does this mean? After a big increase in inventory after Labor Day the inventory has decreased again down to a more favorable number for sellers, especially in the under 1.5 mil range. To me the big news is that between Sept. 1, 2009 and Oct 10, 2009 there were 43 single family home sales on MLS. Of these three homes sold over $2,000,000 and 40 sold under $2,000,000. That is not good news for sellers in the over 2 million market. That segment has a long way to go before we see any real recovery.

• 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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, September 29th: Single Family Homes

• As of today this is the snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:

107 Active listings

51 Pending sales

What does this mean? After a big increase in inventory after Labor Day the inventory has decreased by 10 and the pending sales have increased by 8. This is not because of long escrows because the average length of escrow in the last 3 months is 29 days. This is because there are so few short sales and bank owned properties in Palo Alto. These sales are the ones that take so long to close. The middle section of the market, homes listed between $900,000 and $1,500,000 are the ones with the most activity and offers. In this segment there are 40 active listings and 29 pending sales which is a great ratio. Interest rates are still low and there are certainly buyers out there wanting to living in Palo Alto, and now that prices have dropped 20% the market seems to be picking up.

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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, September 16th: Single Family Homes

As of today, here's the snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:

115 Active listings

43 Pending sales

What does this mean? There was a huge increase in inventory last week. The PA broker’s tour was the biggest it had been all year. This may be a fluke as many people do not put their homes on the market in August so the first week after Labor Day has a lot of pent-up sales. I will know more next week regarding how the pending sales are doing, whether they're still brisk or if there's a slow down. Also it will be interesting to see how many new listings come on the market in the next 2 weeks. If we continue to see huge increases then the gains in the market we saw over the summer will probably not hold. If the inventory does not continure to increase and pending sales keep up then we should go back to a healthy though not overheated market.

• 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

DRE 01191194

Palo Alto Market Update, Single Family Homes: Sept 6th

Here's today's snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:
86 Active listings
50 Pending sales

What does this mean? The inventory of active listings continues to decrease, and the pending sales continue to increase. I think that we are experiencing significant change in the under 2 million dollar market. We have seen a number of multiple offers in Palo Alto and I think by Sept we may start to see that there is an up tick in the prices in the lower than 2 million dollar market.

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

Palo Alto Market Update, August 25th: Single Family Homes

Here's your weekly snapshot of the Palo Alto single family home market:

94 Active Listings

53 Pending Sales

It has been a month since my last update. I apologize! No excuse really, just needed a break. So here are my thoughts. The inventory is definitely getting closer to a buyer's market territory. Under 80 is definitely a buyer's market in Palo Alto. I don't think we will necessarily get there soon because August is always a low inventory month. However, the active to pending ratio going below 2 to 1 is a sign to me that things are getting better for sellers. But if you look at the over and under 2 million breakdown things are very uneven. There are 23 active listings over 2 million and 6 pending sales. Not a great ration, but not horrible, just short of 4 to 1. Under 2 million there are 71 active listings and 47 pending sales, better than 2 to one. What I find more interesting than the ratio of active to pending is the ration of over and under 2 million. There are more than 3 times the number of listing under 2 million as over, which for Palo Alto is a big change. It seems that Palo Alto has gone through a big correction without having had large numbers of short sales and foreclosures.

Sold stats are coming soon!

If 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