Arn Cenedella

Archive for the 'Menlo Park Real Estate' Category

Menlo Park Real Estate 2009 Q1 report

Trends At a Glance	Jan-Mar 2009	Previous Quarter	Year-over Year
Median Price	$915,000	$1,010,000 (-9.4%)	$1,532,500 (-40.3%)
Average Price	$932,096	$1,155,190 (-19.3%)	$1,763,270 (-47.1%)
No. of Sales	50	59 (-15.3%)	56 (-10.7%)
Pending Properties	18	7 (+157.1%)	26 (-30.8%)
Active	130	86 (+51.2%)	97 (+34.0%)
Sale vs. List Price	97.8%	97.9% (-0.2%)	99.9% (-2.2%)
Days on Market	53	42 (+27.2%)	40 (+32.0%)

Property values have not dropped over 40% in the past year as indicated by the change in average and median sale prices in Menlo Park on a year to year basis. Rather this data indicates that most of the sales now occuring in Menlo Park are in the lower entry level price range. The more expensive move-up homes are not selling as often as the more affordable homes. Buyers are taking advantage of lower prices and very low rates to get into Menlo Park especially for the schools.

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 4/5/09

Here are this week’s numbers:

14 new listings in Menlo Park this week.

12 new pending sales in Menlo Park this week.

127 current available listings in Menlo Park.

35 pending sales in Menlo Park.

27.5 % pending ratio

Menlo Park Real Estate Updated 3/29/09

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/22/09

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/15/09

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/6/09

Menlo P ark Real Estate Update 2/27/09

For real-time listing updates for Menlo Park sent to your phone, click here.

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/29/09

Here are this week’s numbers:

24 new listings in Menlo Park this week.

5 new pending sales in Menlo Park this week.

135 current available listings in Menlo Park.

25 pending sales in Menlo Park.

18.5 % pending ratio

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/22/09

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/15/09

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/6/09

Menlo P ark Real Estate Update 2/27/09

For real-time listing updates sent to your phone, click here.

Move up buyers stay home while 1st time buyers enter market

Teresa Boardman of St Paul Real Estate – ps she is a great photographer – recently wrote a post about “move-up” buyers in her market want to buy but since they existing home is underwater they can not sell their existing home. Hence they are unable to buy.
Many of her comments about the entry level being the strongest portion of the market with the “move-up” market being very slow or non-existent applies to the market on the San Francisco Peninsula.
Many first-time buyers are getting into the market – taking advantage of lower prices, very low rates and tax credits. Most sales are at the low end of the price spectrum with foreclosure REOs being a large percentage of all current sales. Hence median and average prices continue to go down.
The “move-up” buyer is sitting on the fence. Unlike your area, it is NOT because these potential “move-up” buyers are “under water” but rather they do not have confidence in the economy or the market to make a move-up in a market where moving up means selling for $1.5M and buying for $2M. These folks are just not interested in taking on $500K in additional debt when things look very uncertain. In addition since the price of their home has dropped, they may no longer have enough equity in their current home to put the 20% to 25% down needed to buy and finance their new home with a jumbo mortgage. So they are not “underwater” but lack the down payment to buy the larger house. I believe the “fear” factor is the bigger issue but lack of equity to make the downpayment on their purchase also contributes to the lack of activity in the move-up market.
Arn

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/22/09

Here are this week’s numbers:

10 new listings in Menlo Park this week.

5 new pending sales in Menlo Park this week.

121 current available listings in Menlo Park.

22 pending sales in Menlo Park.

18% pending ratio

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/15/09

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/6/09

Menlo P ark Real Estate Update 2/27/09

For real-time listing updates sent to your phone, click here.

Where are all the foreclosure properties?????

Many buyers are looking for foreclosures – in hopes – of buying a good deal.

While buying a foreclosure propertry (ie REO) may often be a good deal, you will not find many in the prime residential communities of the San Francisco Peninsula where the average home prices are well over One Million Dollars. One can find foreclosures in areas that were financed with sup-prime mortgages – these are typically areas where the peak price was $500,000, $600,000 and maybe $700,000.

Dave Blockhus Coldwell Banker Los Altos, for example reports there are only 3 foreclosure properties for sale in Los Altos.

When I get a change, I will run the numbers for Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Carlos but I suspect the numbers will be the same.

11 year history Menlo Park closed home sales January February 1999-2009

How does the number of closed sales in the  first two months – January and February - of 2009 compare to the first two months’ of the past 11 years?

The chart below gives us this data.

Over the past 11 years in Menlo Park during the months of January and February – on average 43 homes have closed escrow in the first two months of the year.

During the first two months in 2009, 28 homes have closed escrow in Menlo Park – about 65% of the 11 year average.

Menlo Park Real Estate Update 3/15/09

Here is this week’s update

15 new listings in Menlo Park

1 new pending sale in Menlo Park

117 total active listings in Menlo Park

23 current pending sales in Menlo Park

Menlo Park update 3/6/09

Menlo Park update 2/27/09

Menlo Park Real Estate Updated Friday 3/6/09

The numbers’ last week were:

19 new listings this week in Menlo Park

3 new pending sales this week in Menlo Park

101 active listings currently in Menlo Park

32 pending sales currently in Menlo Park

The numbers this week are:

13 new listings this week in Menlo Park

4 new pending sales this week in Menlo Park

111 active listings currently in Menlo Park

25 pending sales currently in Menlo Park

Is it a good time to buy?

That is the $64Million question on many folks’ minds.

Here is my “take”:
In my San Francisco Peninsula market, I would say:
Are there good values to be found? Yes.
Are we at botttom? Probably not. I expect contiuned downward pressure on prices. (In most San Francisco Peninsula cites, values are down maybe 10% to 20% from the peak in 06/07)
Is it a good time to buy? Yes: 1)  if you find a house you  really like  in the community where you want to put down roots 2) you have a long-term perspective – say 10 years and 3) your job situtation is pretty stable and 4) you buy comfortably within your financial means – this is not the time to stretch.

Jay Thompson The Phoenix Real Estate Guy provides a similar perspective on the Phoenix market which has been hit much much harder than our own market.

What say you?

What do my Homescopes blog buddies around Northen California have to say?