Median Home Prices and Sales in the Peninsula

The San Jose Mercury News has a nice breakdown (below) of the median sales price and number of sales for each zip code in the Peninsula (Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and Santa Cruz County). You can also see the percent change comparing this January to the same period in 2010. In the Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County) the median sales price for all homes was $460,000, a 2% drop from the same period last year. But looking at resale homes, we saw a 1.9% increase to $529,000. Looking at number of home sales in the area, there were 1,424 sales for all homes, a drop of 10.9% from last year; in resales, 987 sold, which was 5.6% less than last year. We'll soon see in the spring and summer months of 2011 if it picks back up, when the majority of sellers and buyers are on the market.

Overall, Los Gatos Los Altos zip code 94024 had the highest median sales price of $1,569,000, but Palo Alto/East Palo Alto zip code 94303 had the highest $/SqFt at $883. On the other side of the scale, San Jose zip code 95133 had the lowest median sales price at $230,000, and Gilroy zip code 95020 had the lowest $/SqFt at $195.

Bay Area Real Estate Shifting to a Seller's Market, U.S. Still Slipping

Bay Area home sales in August may have dropped to an 18-year low (an 11% decline from last year), but the median sales price rose 6.9% from August 2009, according to a report released by MDA DataQuick this September. And viewed with a wider lens, things have been steadily improving in the Bay Area:

Last month was the second in a row to post a month-to-month decline in the median, which so far this year has peaked at $410,000 in May and June. On a year-over-year basis, the Bay Area median has risen for 11 straight months, though before July those increases had been in the double digits – ranging from 10.6 percent to 31.0 percent – since last November.

The San Jose Mercury News posted two stories on the report, asking Are Silicon Valley homebuyers holding out for lower prices? and stating that although the market is falling, it's not falling as fast as it was.

While the real estate prognosis changes from county to county and even neighborhood to neighborhood, the big picture drawn by DataQuick's numbers shows things pretty much bouncing along, with the market neither going off a cliff nor shooting for the stars.

While on a national level, Bloomberg News took a gloomier viewpoint on the real estate outlook, reporting that home purchases in August were at their second-lowest level since 1963, when experts first started recording the data; and the median selling price of $204,700 was at its lowest level since December 2003.

The slide in U.S. home prices may have another three years to go as sellers add as many as 12 million more properties to the market. ... “Whether it’s the sidelined, shadow or current inventory, the issue is there’s more supply than demand,” said Oliver Chang, a U.S. housing strategist with Morgan Stanley in San Francisco. “Once you reach a bottom, it will take three or four years for prices to begin to rise 1 or 2 percent a year.”

Which is where currently the Bay Area differs from the rest of the nation. Stated at the end of the Mercury News article, the inventory of unsold homes is shrinking to the point where in the next couple of months Bay Area real estate could turn into a seller's market. _

Recommended Reading:

• Where Are We Now? 2000 to 2010 Silicon Valley Real Estate Report
• Silicon Valley Housing Market Trends – Second Quarter 2010 Update
• The Yearly Cycles Behind the Silicon Valley Real Estate Market
• When Not to Buy a HouseHow Much House Can I Afford? (Part 1 of 2)