Arn Cenedella

Archive for the 'San Carlos Real Estate' Category

Single Family Home Inventories are Increasing

The charts speak for themselves – inventory is increasing. Will sales increase to absorb the increasing inventory?

San Carlos Home Sales as a Percentage of New Listings

One way to track a market is to look at the number of monthly homes sales versus the number of new listings per month.

 Looking at this percentage of sales to listings can often provide more insight into the market than the actual number of homes sales. The number of home sales may be small – but is that because no one is buying (low demand) or no one is selling (low inventory). The number of homes sold is constrained by the number of homes for sale. It is hard to buy a house that is not for sale !

Looking at these figures, again we see the market is weaker in the first quarter of 2008 than it was in the first quarter of 2007. The number of home sales is March 2008 was approx. 80% of the number of new listings. The number of homes sales in March 2007 was approx. 50% of the number of new listings.

San Carlos monthly home sales

The number of homes sold in San Carlos in March 2008 shows the typical spring increase in the number of homes sold. However it should be noted that the number of sales in the first 3 months of the year is below the 2007 amounts.

18 homes sold January 2007 with 12 sold in January 2008.

15 homes sold in February 2007 with 12 sold in February 2008.

 38 homes sold in March 2007 with 26 sold in March 2008.

The obvious conclusion is that the number of sales in 2008 will be smaller than the number of sales in 2007. 

White Oaks San Carlos Fabulous New Listing

Sarah Hillhouse of Coldwell Banker has just listed 148 Colton Ave., San Carlos for $998,000. First tour is  Tuesday February 12th. This property will not be on the market long.

Colton is one of the best streets in White Oaks – it is only 1 block long so you get little or no through traffic. It is about a 5 minute walk to the outstanding White Oaks Elementary School.

This home contains 3 bedrooms 2 baths and has approx. 1550 sf of living space.

Both the kitchen and baths have been updated.

Here’s a picture:

I may be biased but I have lived in White Oaks on Alberta – about 2 blocks away – for 21 years. I have raised my two sons, now 17 and 21, in the same house. My sons went to White Oaks Elementary and Central Middle School. This is a great place to raise your family. San Carlos is a super family-oriented town – excellent schools – wonderful downtown – and very active community involvement in youth sports.

Buyers are out in large numbers looking for property

Chris Iverson a Palo Alto realtor and guest contributor to Kevin Boer 3 Oceans Real Estate has written a recent post about whether this is a good time to buy. Chris mentions how one of his new listings just sold with no contingencies after being on the market for 3 days.

I have just put a new listing on the market at 256 Fir St., San Carlos for $859,000.

The property was held open both Saturday and Sunday. I had maybe 40 to 45 groups through each day. 3 of these prospects had recently made offers on other San Carlos listings but did not get the winning acceptance. One of these properties had 9 offers on it and the other had 4 offers.

So if you take the 13 offers and subtract the 2 winning offers, you have 11 other buyers looking for a house in San Carlos priced between $800,000 and $900,000.

Bottom line, the buyers are out there and they are ready willing and able to buy a well-located property that is priced reasonably and offers long-term value.

For a look at open house activity on the San Mateo Coastside, please go to Marian’s blog, Marian Bennett Half Moon Bay Coldwell Banker real estate agent. Marian reports many more buyers out looking at a new listing of hers than she has seen in many months. Marian rates the weather as a 10 as I do.

Spring is here – the buyers will follow – inventory is still low – it’s a good time to get your home on the market.

On a similar note, my Menlo Park Coldwell Banker office had a very good week last week in sales. My office which is one of the strongest Coldwell Banker offices in the entire Bay Area has been averaging many 5 or 6 sales a week. Last week we had 11 sales from a San Carlos condo priced at $649,000 to an Atherton estate priced a $8,250,000.

256 Fir Street, San Carlos is on the Market

256 Fir Street will be open this Saturday and Sunday Feb 9th and 10th 1:30PM to 4:30PM.

List price is $859,000.

Virtual tour

New listing in San Carlos – coming soon!

This charming home is located on a quiet cul-de-sac.
Private view property but only minutes to downtown San Carlos.
2 bedrooms 1 bath living room dining room and kitchen on the main level.
Bonus level downstairs contains an additional bedroom, a den/office, and fill bath.
Hardwood floors and fireplace.
Attached 1 car garage.
Large redwood deck.
Updated kitchen. Fresh paint.
Flexible floor plan with possible in-law or au pair suite.

Open Saturday and Sunday Feb. 9 and 10 1:30PM to 4:30PM.

contact agent Arn Cenedella at [email protected].

San Carlos Real Estate Trends 2007

296 single family homes sold in San Carlos in BOTH 2006 and 2007 eventhough the numbers of listings decreased in 2007 from 440 to 381.

The median price for single family homes actually increased 11.9% from 2006 to 2007 to $1,077,500.

The number of single family homes sales has been decrasing while average and median prices continue to increase.

Just as with single family homes sales, the number of condominium and townhouse homes sales was basically unchanged from 2006 to 2007. (95 sales in 2006 and 96 sales in 2007)

The median price in San Carlos for condominiums and townhouses increased but at a lower rate 8.2% than did single family homes.

The San Carlos real estate market like most communities on the San Francisco Peninsula did fairly well in the overall down market in 2007. Sales remained fairly level from the prior year and property values increased.

A Tale of Two Cities

In previous posts, I have indicated that the strenght of the market is a function of the price range involved.  In my opinion, the market in 2007 has been strong properties priced at about $800,000 and above and weaker for properties below that price range.

To illustrate this point, let’s look at inventory levels in two cities, San Carlos (where the average price is about $1,200,000) and East Palo Alto (where the average price is about $600,000).

San Carlos

San Carlos inventory levels typically bottom out in January of each year. As with Menlo Park, the inventory level in January 2008 is higher and in the two preceeding Januarys.

East Palo Alto

Unlike most cities on the Peninsula, the CURRENT inventory level is HIGHER than at any point in the past 3 year. This graph clearly indicates the weakness in the East Palo Alto market. The inventory levels have been increasing since January 2007.

I believe the East Palo Alto inventory level is indicative of the damage the “subprime” crisis has done to the entry level market on the Peninsula. I would venture to say the overwhelming number of buyers who purchased the past few years in East Palo Alto obtained “subprime” mortgages. These mortgages are not available at the present time. Hence, East Palo Alto homes are not selling and perhaps many owners in East Palo Alto have put their homes on the market as the loan payments are no longer affordable.

Kevin Boer a Palo Alto real estate agent has looked at inventory levels from Burlingame to Los Gatos including Palo Alto.

New listing in White Oaks San Carlos

130 Alberta Ave., San Carlos was recently listed by Heather Hansen Alain Pinel ([email protected]) for $1,138,000. This is located on one of San Carlos’ best streets in the heart of the White Oaks area. This area has older good quality homes in an area with many large oak trees. Desirable White Oaks Elementary School is within walking distance. Most homes in White Oaks are now about 50 years old as the area was developed after WWII. Within the past few years, many of these older typically single story homes have been replaced with large new two story homes.

This home is a wonderfully updated 3 bedroom 2 bath home with upgraded and expanded family kitchen at the rear of the house. Living area is 1960 square feet and the lot is 6300 square feet.

This home sold within one week of coming on the market.

I will report sales price when closed.

Here are a few pictures of this fabulous updated home.