Housing Inventory Snapshot		February 26, 2012
	Average List Price	Median List Price	Average Days On Market
Santa Clara County, CA
Single Family under $1M	$575,550	$550,000	65
Single Family over $1M	$2,476,322	$1,749,000	76
Condo/Townhome under $600K	$347,107	$339,000	71
Condo/Townhome over $600K	$773,976	$729,000	68
San Mateo County, CA
Single Family under $1M	$609,546	$579,950	73
Single Family over $1M	$3,522,636	$1,899,000	89
Condo/Townhome under $600K	$364,787	$349,000	71
Condo/Townhome over $600K	$838,352	$699,950	83

The Saratoga Real Estate market has really picked up steam.  Over the past 2 weeks in February there has been 18 homes that has gone into contract. 

Homes that weren't selling previously are now sold.  There are two homes in particular that come to mind that gives me key indications of a changing market. 

First one is: 15145 El Quito Way which is off of Maude Avenue.  Small house only 1510 sf, 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, asking $1,450,000, fixer type and they had 13 offers.  Some over asking.

Second: 14631 Horseshoe Drive- again another fixer situation.   61 years old but livable. 2300 sf. on 32,000 lot.   Nice location.  Currently has 5 offers and asking $1,798,000.

As of today there are only 65 homes on the active market in Saratoga from $674,000 to $17,500,000.  I would call this a pretty tight market right now.  Feels as if it's picking up steam as demand is at present outpacing supply. 

There was an excellent article on the front page of the Mercury News this morning regarding the boom in commercial real estate leasing, and the shortage of space for companies that are hiring in the South Bay.  It further stated that developers are scrambling to build more R & D space.

 I think this is just another indication that we are at the early stages and on the road to an economic and  real estate recovery (at least here in the Silicon Valley area)

http://www.mercurynews.com/www.mercurynews.com/real-estate/ci_19923094#.TzQPzxpM2CM.email

Luxury home prices in Silicon Valley moved higher once again last month as the region’s high-end market continued to gain momentum, according to Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, the South Bay’s leading provider of luxury real estate services. 

The median sale price for a million-dollar-plus home in Santa Clara County reached $1,471,000, up 8.9 percent from a year ago and 6 percent from November, when it stood at $1,387,000.

While prices moved higher, luxury sales were flat as the year came to a close. Some 155 homes sold for more than $1 million, down fractionally from 158 sales in December 2010. Sales were down more sharply from November, when they stood at 232.

However, the number of multimillion-dollar sales climbed to 33 in December, up from just 22 a year ago.  There were 46 sales of more than $2 million in November.

The figures were derived from Multiple Listing Service data of all homes sold for more than $1 million last month in Santa Clara County.

“There continues to be solid demand for homes priced above $1 million in Silicon Valley and throughout the Bay Area, for that matter,” said Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. "We've seen really good activity in the upper end of the market for the better part of the past year. That’s a healthy sign for the overall market because history has shown that sustainable recoveries in the housing market typically begin with the luxury segment.”

Turley said the challenge for the South Bay’s real estate market continues to be a shortage of homes for sale, not lack of buyers.

“I think it’s important for sellers to get the message that the market is getting better in many areas and there are buyers willing to pay competitive prices for homes,” he said. “If you’ve been thinking about putting your home on the market, you shouldn’t wait any longer. It’s time to jump in.”

·         The most expensive sale in Silicon Valley last month was a five-bedroom, seven-bath 6,143-square-foot home in Los Altos that sold for $5.65 million;

·         Los Altos also boasted the most million-dollar sales with 34, followed by San Jose with 24, Palo Alto with 21, Saratoga with 19, Los Gatos with 18, and Cupertino and Mountain View with 11 each;

·         Homes sold in 65 days on average, up from 54 days the previous month and 59 days a year ago;

·         Sellers on average received 98 percent of their asking price compared to 99 percent the previous month and 97 percent a year ago.

The Silicon Valley Luxury Housing Market Report is a monthly report by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, a specialist in high-end real estate sales. Through its internationally renowned Coldwell Banker Previews® program, the company is recognized around the world for its expertise in the luxury housing market. 

Bay Area home prices expected to stabilize in 2012

After years of decline, housing prices are expected to stabilize or even increase in some parts of the Bay Area this year, according to a new forecast.

Stabilizing prices are a sign of a healthier market, even though homebuyers still face challenges -- tight credit, not many homes for sale and competition from investors paying cash.

In a report to be released Monday, Clear Capital, a real estate valuations company in Truckee, predicts that prices will remain almost flat this year -- compared with a 4.7 percent drop in 2011 -- in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metropolitan area, including Contra Costa County. Silicon Valley should see a 1.6 percent increase in home prices, compared with a 2.5 percent drop last year, the company said.

"This region overall is doing pretty well," said Clear Capital research director Alex Villacorta.

In three of the past four years, Bay Area home prices have declined from the previous year, including a dramatic 35 percent drop for the San Francisco metro area in 2008 and a 28 percent drop in Silicon Valley that year. Only in 2010 were there slight increases, followed by last year's drop.

"We haven't seen any stretches of normal activity for the last 20 years or so" in the Bay Area, he said, noting that prices had rocketed upward in the years before the decline. "It's really been a roller coaster, with exception of now, when things are settling and leveling off."

Nationally, the company sees a 0.2 percent gain in home prices in 2012, compared to a 2.1 percent drop in 2011. The San Jose area's expected performance was in the top third and San Francisco was in the top half of 50 major metropolitan areas analyzed.

Across the country, housing could help repair the economy, said economist Sung Won Sohn at Cal State Channel Islands. Sohn, who recently released his own economic forecast, is predicting a housing-led recovery for the U.S. this year based partly on low interest rates and renewed multifamily home construction, which usually brings gains in the overall housing market. And prices, he said, are about as low as they can go.

"No one is expecting a dramatic fall in house prices," Sohn said. "That gets people buying houses."

The Bay Area, especially Silicon Valley, is already doing better, he said, "because the underlying economy seems to be doing better. I think we will see a somewhat faster recovery in the Bay Area."

In the past two years, home prices bobbed up and down in response to government programs to encourage sales, as well as fluctuations in the number of foreclosures and short sales, in which homes are sold for less than is owed on them.

But agents say too few homes are on the market, and buyers still face tight credit.

"People are in escrow forever, and they finally give up," said Richard Calhoun of Creekside Realty. "That is what I see as the biggest hindrance on the market."

Investors paying cash for lower-priced houses remain a big obstacle for people like Nicole Collison, 25, a San Jose schoolteacher trying to buy her first home.

Motivated by the high rent she's paying and the market's current low interest rates and prices, Collison has looked at nearly 50 houses since October and bid on half a dozen of them, only to lose out every time to cash buyers.

"We're always outbid," she said. "It has been quite a challenge."

But she hasn't given up.

"We're going to keep at it. We're hopeful after the beginning of the year more things will come on to the market."

In the East Bay, about 20 percent of the homes are selling rapidly, said Unhei Kang with Grubb Co. in Berkeley. A nicely presented home in a desirable area will draw multiple bids, she said.

"I don't know what the future will hold, but to me it seems like it is stable. There are definitely buyers out there. Maybe it has to do with the low interest rates. A lot of buyers are feeling it's not going to get any better than this," Kang said.

The housing market is "spotty" in Contra Costa County, with some areas doing well and others not, said Barbara Safran, president of the Contra Costa Association of Realtors. "I think we've dropped about as low as it can get, unless some crazy thing happens in the economy and the world."

The median price for single-family homes dropped about 4 percent last year, Safran said, with condos dropping about 4.6 percent.

"We're predicting that it's probably going to stay the way it is for a while. I think we're going to continue to see a lot of short sales. The foreclosure market is still iffy. It's a question of how quickly banks are going to put out those foreclosures."