Arn Cenedella

Archive for the 'Real Estate Data' Category

The top 10 ways Not to sell your house !

#10

Don’t allow a keysafe to be placed on your home.

#9

Require by appointment only showings and insist that you the seller be home when the showings occur.

#8

Failure to spend any time or money getting your property in excellent showing condition.

#7

Refuse to remove your family tree mural with photos tracing your family’s history back to the Civil War. Refuse to have your teenage son and daughter remove their Gothic S&M paraphenalia from their bedroom walls.

#6

Don’t allow a buyer to view your back yard because your pit bull doesn’t like woman real estate agents with too much make-up and high heels.

#5

Follow the buyers and the agents around the house and point out every insigificant thing you have done to “improve” the property – most of which in reality the prospective buyers hates anyway – better to not point that out.

#4

List the house with your second cousin Joe from Sacramento because he has agreed to take a 1% listing.

#3

List your property below what you actually want to sell the house for in hopes of multiple offers – when the multiple offers don’t come – you are up the creek without a paddle.

#2

Demand that your agent hold your home open every weekend and run 1/2 page ads too.

#1

Price the property too high – I know it only take one buyer – but any buyer with money is NOT STUPID and they are going to buy the best house they can for the money.

 REMEMBER MARKETING IS 95% PRICE !

October Condominium/Townhouse Real Estate Market Data

Condominium townhouse inventory has increased in all communities other than San Carlos.

Sales price to list price ratio ranges from 98% to 101%.

This October data seems to indicate that the condominium and townhouse market is weakening realtive to the single family home market.

October Single Family Home Sales Stats

The above table shows representative market data from several mid-peninsula communities.

Average days on market ranges from a low of 15 days in Mt. View to a high of 42 days in Redwood City. Palo Alto also has a fairly short average days on market of 18.

In all communities with the exception of Palo Alto, more homes came on the market in October than sold in the same month. Inventory appears to be increasing.

The sale price to list price still remains very strong with a low of 98.8% in Redwood City to a high of 103.3% in Palo Alto.

California Real Estate has been a strong long-term investment

Coldwell Banker Real Estate has recently released a series of articles under the banner of “Reality Check” in hopes of providing factual data which consumers can use to more fully evaluate much of the information about the current real estate market found in the media.

Here are some of the facts outlined in one of the articles:

Per the National Association of Realtors:

Median home prices for existing homes have increased on average 6.5% each year from 1972 to 2005 and 88.5% over the past 10 years.

Per the California Association fo Realtors:

Over the past 37 years, the California Real Estate market has only dropped in only 7 of those years – 6 times at less than 3.7% and 1 times at 4.5%.

More locally…..

Median price San Mateo County 1991 was $328,889.

Median price San Mateo County 2007 is $950,000.

189% increase.

Median price Santa Clara County 1989 was $246,847.

Median price Santa Clara County 2007 is $860,000.

248% increase.

More to follow.

Menlo Park Market Update

The Menlo Park market has remained pretty stable over the past 18 months.

Average monthly sales have ranged between 30 to 35 per month.

The average sales price has held steady at a little above $1,400,000 and the median sales price has held steady at approx. $1,275,000.

 For data on other communities, please click the San Mateo County Market Data and the Santa Clara County Market Data links above.

Sunnyvale Market Update

The average number of monthly sales decreased significantly during 2006 – a 12 month average of 65 in April 2006 to a 12 month average of about 50 in December 2006. Since that time, the average number of monthly sales has remained fairly steady at 50 or so a month.

Average and median sale prices has increased slughtly during 2007.

For data on other communities, click San Mateo County Market Data and Santa Clara County Market Data.

Palo Alto Market Update

The monthly average number of sales in Palo Alto has remained fairly steady to slightly decreasing over the past 18 months.

The average and median sale prices have increased significantly over the past 18 months.

For data in other communities, click on San Mateo County Market Data or Santa Clara County Market Data.

San Carlos Market Update

The sales activity in San Carlos in 2006 and 2007 has been fairly similar.

The 12 month moving average for the number of sales per month peaked at around 26 per month around May and June and then the number decreased through the balance of the year.

Both the average and median sale prices have increased slightly during 2007.

For data on other communities, click on either San Mateo County Market Data or Santa Clara County Market Data above.

Weekly Market Watch

Here is this week’s market watch report from Rick Turley, Coldwell Banker San Francisco President:

 This report makes several good points:

 

1. Housing is a good long-term investment.

2. Housing is not just an investment but offers so much more.

3. Property values on the Peninsula have held steady and in some cases increased.

4. The current opportunity may present an excellent long-term buying opportunity.

 

 

It is perplexing and frustrating to continue to see news reports with people who could be considered little more than “real estate pundits” talk about only one side of the current real estate story. 

This week, the controversial stock market analyst Jim Cramer of Mad Money told viewers of The Today Show that “If you buy a home now, you will lose money.” He went on to add “there is no money and no programs for first time home buyers.  Down payment money is the biggest issue in the market, because young people don’t have any.”

Housing is a good long-term investment – it’s not a day-trading activity.  As we witness the steep increase in foreclosures among housing boom “flippers” who secured sub-prime, adjustable rate loans with no money down, we see the folly of playing the housing market like the stock market. 

Homes are not stocks. Most people stay in their home for about 6 years – they buy for the long haul to create a home for their family, not to buy, then turn around and sell six months later. Owning a home isn’t just about investment, although that’s certainly important. It’s also about building community, a place of your own, and having a part of the American Dream. For people who want to buy a home to live in, this is truly a great time to buy a home.  In some areas there may be more to choose from, mortgage rates are historically low and the economy is strong.  There are some investor opportunities out there as well, but it’s important to remember that the criteria regarding these buying decisions are different between the investor and the homeowner. 

In our area we have seen steady appreciation in home values over the last 30 years.  Regarding the median prices in many parts of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, most specifically in San Francisco and the
Peninsula, properties are not only holding steady, but actually increasing. The case could easily be made that waiting for prices to drop may make the realization of home ownership steadily more difficult.  Signs aren’t pointing to bargain basement pricing ever becoming the norm in our markets, though price is now, as always, an important consideration. Smart buyers are buying.  Smart sellers are selling.    

Witness the number of buyers visiting our more than 600 homes held open last week.  A
Berkley listing was seen by almost 100 visitors.  A
Walnut Creek listing received four offers and sold for three percent over the current asking price.  In

San Mateo
Park, a home received five offers and the lowest down payment among them was 50 percent. 
Palo Alto continues to report 100 percent multiple offers.  One
San Francisco office notes that the $2 million-plus market is “on fire.”  The upper end markets are clearly not sending a negative message – in fact, quite the opposite.  Last week San Francisco Van Ness closed both sides of a $7M property in a two week long escrow, and in the same week Woodside opened a new sale for $12M, sold by a fellow CB Menlo Park-El Camino agent, and the following day Woodside opened another $13M sale.  Again, the message is quite the opposite of the doom and gloom which make headlines.

I encourage people to get the facts from an experienced real estate professional, the person most qualified to discuss the merits of home ownership.  Not from a stock broker on television. Now more than ever, there is immense value in working with a real estate agent affiliated with a full-service brokerage, the professional who can guide clients through the financial elements of the real estate transaction from negotiating price to serving as a guide to the mortgage market.  At Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, we also have a strong, in-house mortgage partner in
Princeton Capital who can identify appropriate financing options for customers. 

Have a great week.

Rick

 

Rick Turley

President, San Francisco/Peninsula

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

tel 415.437.4505

[email protected]

The Media – The Sky isn’t falling (part 6)

Gary Watts made the following comments about the media which just loves to bash the real estate market any time it gets a chance – and most of the time it just makes the chances up.

The Media

Remember Y2K, Mad Cow Disease, West Nile Virus, Killer Bees, SARS, Bird Flu and now Housing?
Today’s media plays up bad economic news more than ever, which leads to misconceptions about economic realty. Our economy is extremely strong, with a 2nd Qtr. growth rate of 4%; corporate profits are superb; and personal income is growing more rapidly than spending – thus pushing up the personal savings rate!  All the while, the world economy is exploding.  However . . .

 The media says real estate is going down, yet July’s prices for single-family homes in California were up 3.2% from last year. From August of last year, the Bay Area’s median home prices rose 4%.
The media reports that foreclosures have now exceed the 1996 peak in the Bay Area, but they fail to mention that more than 495,000 homes and condos have been built in the Bay Area since then!
The media reported 53,942 notices of default for the 2nd Qtr – a near record high. They compare this figure to the 1st Qtr. of ’96, when 61,541 notices were filed -  but fail to mention that 2 million more homes have been built in California since then! (The lowest number was 12,417 – 3rd Qtr. of 2004.)
The media and the financial markets have greatly over-reacted. There are only $70 billion of loans with late payments, yet the financial markets have lost over $1 trillion in value! 

In on of my earlier posts, I lamented the over-reaction to the sub-prime crisis.

$70 Billion of loans are late on payments – it doesn’t mean anyone lost $70 Billion !

Say the lenders only recover 80% of all loans which are now late in payments, the lenders will have lost 20% of $70 Billion or $14 Billion. A lot of money no doubt – but I wonder how many Billions the lenders made in the past few years on sub-prime mortgages - I bet it well exceeds $14 Billion.

 And if my math is right, the loss in the financial markets of $1 Trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) over the potential loss to sub-prime lenders of $14 Billion ($14,000,000,000) is SEVENTY ONE times the potential loss to the lenders.

That is absurd !

Over and out until next time.