If you believe your home’s value is below the assessment provided by San Mateo County, you may petition the County to reduce your assessment and thereby reduce your property taxes.

If you have purchased a home within the past 3 or 4 years, its value may very well be below your purchase price.

If this is the case, please go to: http://smcare.org/assessor/homeownerresources/form_declineapp.asp

I need to be clear – just because your home’s value has dropped, you are not automatically entitled to a property tax reduction. So if you bought your home 10 years ago for $800,000 and at the peak it was worth $1,100,000 and now is worth $950,000, you WILL NOT be entitled to a reduction.

One is only entitled to a property tax reduction if the San Mateo County assessment is above what you believe the current market value is.

The request can be made over the web and if you need any comparable sales to bolster your case, just let me know.

Let’s take a look at the San Carlos real estate market over the past two years.

All data is for single family homes.

The median price for single family homes in San Carlos in all price segments has declined slightly over the past two years.

Let’s look at median price per square foot of living area.

The median price per sf in San Carlos has declined slightly over the past few years. It is interesting to note that the lowest median price per sf is found in the lowest San Carlos range. This is understandable because the price per sf metric does not take into account the land value of each home. The lower price range houses typically are smaller and therefore the land vaue for such properties will be a higher percentage of the total value compared to larger more expensive homes.

Le’ts looks at inventory levels for single family homes in San Carlos over the past two years.

We find inventory levels in San Carlos to be slightly different than inventory levels in Menlo Park and San Carlos. There was not a big drop in inventory levels at the end of 2009 as found in many other cities. It is also interesting to note that inventory levels in 2010 were higher than those in 2009.

Let’s take one more look at the market action index. 30 is a balanced market. Below 30 is a buyer’s market. Above is 30 is a seller’s market.

Market action index in San Carlos has been fairly flat over the past two years. The market action index across all price ranges is no higher than 20 which indicates a continued buyer’s market in general. The middle price ranges in San Carlos are currently the most competive in San Carlos – this would be for homes priced between $900,000 and $1,200,000.

The San Carlos single family home market had an excellent second quarter in 2010.

Roll cursor over chart below to get numeric data.

Here are the market metrics:

Median price in San Carlos increaeed 3.1% to $895,000 from $868,500.
Average price in San Carlos increased 6.8% to $985,159 from $922,456.
The number of homes sold in San Carlos jumped 108.3% to 75 from 36.
The number of pending home sales in San Carlos increased slightly 6.7% to 32 from 30.
Average days on market in San Carlos dropped slightly 3.2% to 34 from 35.

Twice as many homes sold in San Carlos in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the first quarter.

There were several good listings in White Oaks today on tour.

1966 St. Francis Way is listed at $719,000. 2/1 1270sf house 5500sf lot.

Solid good bones good quality rancher with good room sizes.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 81031730 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

1966 St Francis Way is now pending – one week on market!

As I noted, an excellent value for a superb location in White Oaks.

There were two new listings on Kelton Avenue, one of White Oaks’ nicer streets – only two blocks long with little thru traffic – walk to White Oaks Elementary.

231 Kelton Avenue is listed at $949,000. 3/2 1,540sf house 5,750 lot sf.

Nicely updated and in wonderful condition. Charming.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 81031765 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

231 Kelton Avenue also has sold right away – excellent updated 3/2 on on a great street.

253 Kelton Avenue is listed at $1,180,000. 4/2.5 2,504sf house 4,400sf lot.

Two story home with additions. Lots of square footage.

This listing will be an interesting case study on the White Oaks market. This property was last purchased in October 2007 for $1,180,000 and was put back on the market in June 2008 at a list price of $1,289,000. Property has been off and on market for since that time and is now listed at the sales prices in 2007.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 81031038 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

Below you can see median price in the 2nd highest of four price quartiles.

In October 2007,  median price in this quartile was $1,300,000.

Now it is $1,050,000.

Here is the data for the 3rd out of 4 quartiles.

8 new single family home listings came on the market this past week in San Carlos.

To view these new listings in San Carlos, click here.

9 single family homes in San Carlos went pending sale this week.

59 single family homes in San Carlos are currently for sale.

37 single family homes in San Carlos currently have pending sales.

62.7% pending to active ratio in San Carlos.

For San Carlos market data, click here.

Tracking recent monthly sales data in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Carlos indicates the real estate market is getting stronger and more competitive for buyers.

I have been tracking percentage of sales at or above list price since the start of the year.

Data for the first four months of the year can be found here.

May 2010 Sales at or above list price

• 30.9% in Menlo Park, down from April’s 36.6%.
• 57.4% in Palo Alto, up slightly from April’s 56.2%.
• 75.0% in San Carlos, up from April’s 70.0%.

May 2010 Average Days on Market

• 40 average days on market in Menlo Park
• 27 average days on market in Palo Alto
• 14 days on market in San Carlos

Both metrics indicate the San Carlos market is stronger.

I am interested in why the data is different between these three cities.

Any ideas as to why this is happening?

San Carlos homes are at a lower price point than homes in Palo Alto and Menlo Park.

Perhaps the data indicates higher demand in the more affordable price ranges.

I will need to take a closer look, at the raw data below.

Menlo Park May 2010 sales data

Palo Alto May 2010 sales data

San Carlos May 2010 sales data

How’s the Market in Menlo Park?

How’s the Market in Palo Alto?

How’s the Market in San Carlos?

Transfer taxes on the sale of real property are collected by San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Francisco Counties.

These transfer taxes are paid in escrow and are part of buyer and seller closing costs.

Typically, the County transfer tax is $1.10 per $1,000 of value and are generally paid by the seller.
So upon sale of a $500,000 house, the seller will pay a transfer tax of $1.10 x 500 or $550 to the County.

Some cities also have City transfer taxes.
On the San Francisco Peninsula; San Francisco, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Mt. View and San Jose have City transfer taxes.
Generally, city transfer taxes are spilt 50/50 between buyer and seller.

The City transfer tax in Palo Alto, Mt. View, and San Jose is $3.30 per $1000 of value.
So on a $500,000 sale in these cities, the City transfer tax is $3.30 x 500 = $1650.
Buyer pay $825. Seller pays $825.

The City transfer tax in San Mateo is $5.00 per $1,000 of value.
So on a $500,000 sale in San Mateo, the City transfer tax is $5 x 500 = $2500.
Buyer pays $1250. Seller pays $1250.

So if you are buying or selling in those cities, be sure to take into account these City transfer taxes.

7 new single family home listings came on the market this past week in San Carlos.

To view these new listings in San Carlos, click here.

9 single family homes in San Carlos went pending sale this week.

48 single family homes in San Carlos are currently for sale.

44 single family homes in San Carlos currently have pending sales.

91.7% pending to active ratio in San Carlos.

For San Carlos market data, click here.

Every parent wants to send their children to excellent schools.

School rankings play a big role in property values – the better the schools – the higher the property values.

2009 API scores have just been published and no surprise:

Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and San Carlos rank very well.

Click on City below to see API scores for each school in the City:

Menlo Park

Menlo Parks shows an average API of 931 with a low of 918 and a high of 940.

Palo Alto

Palo Alto shows an average API of 919 with a low of 861 and a high of 982.

San Carlos

San Carlos shows an average API of 896 with a low of 861 and a high of 917.

Sequoia Union High School District (which covers Menlo Park to Belmont)

High schools in this in this district have API scores from 740 to 827.

The San Carlos real estate market is very hot right now.
70% of the single family homes in San Carlos that closed escrow in April 2010 sold at or above list price.
Buyers are taking this opportunity to buy into a great community at very good prices.
It is unusual to have 3 new listings located west of El Camino come on the market with list prices below $800,000.
Given recent market activity, I expect all three to sell quickly and with multiple offers.

Here they are:

212 Park Avenue, San Carlos    2/1 $769,000

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 81022256 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

We're sorry, but we couldn't find MLS # 81022667 in our database. This property may be a new listing or possibly taken off the market. Please check back again.

If you would like to see these properties or others in San Carlos, just let me know.