Random Surveys | ThePeninsulaRealEstateBroker.com

Belmont, Burlingame, Foster City, Hillsborough, Redwood Shores, San Mateo Home Sales 01/01/2012

January 2, 2012 1 Comment

© www.thepeninsularealestatebroker.com Happy New Year!

If you noticed that I haven’t posted anything in a few weeks it’s because my father passed away after a 5-month illness on December 11, 2011. We’ve lost another member of the Greatest Generation who fought in WWII. I will miss him dearly. As a result, I’ve realized that life is too short and will now only be publishing my statistics at the end of each month. Please also note some changes in the presentation of some of the data below. The changes will be noted where they occur in the blog. Please note that this survey contains data for Single Family Residences only.

The number of homes in the Active status is down to 163 homes for this time period in January 2012 compared to 195 homes for the same time period in 2011 representing a 16.41% decrease.

The number of homes in the Pending status is up for this time period in January 2012 with 145 homes compared to 135 homes for the same time period in 2011 representing a 7.41% increase.

The number of homes that Closed Escrow December 2011 has decreased 36.75% from last year with 74 in 2011 homes compared to 117 in 2010.

DECEMBER 2011 CLOSED TRANSACTIONS:

Belmont had 13 Closed Transactions. Five had a Sales Price over $1,000,000.
Burlingame had 10 Closed Transactions. Seven had a Sales Price over $1,000,000.
Foster City had 8 Closed Transactions. Four had a Sales Price over $1,000,000.
Hillsborough had 4 Closed Transactions. All four had a Sales Price over $1,000,000. Two of those four had a Sales Price over $2,000,000.
Redwood Shores had 1 Closed Transactions. It had a Sales Price under $1,000,000.
San Mateo had 38 Closed Transactions. Seven of them had a Sales Price over $1,000,000.

There were 74 total reported December Closed Transactions in these six communities.

51.35% of the Closed Transactions (38) were in San Mateo.
17.57% of the Closed Transactions (13) were in Belmont.
13.51% of the Closed Transactions (10) were in Burlingame.
36.49% of the Closed Transactions (27) had a Sales Price over $1,000,000.
02.70% of the Closed Transactions (2) had a Sales Price over $2,000,000.

31.08% of the total December Closed Transactions (27 out of 74) sold for the List Price or more.

PROPERTIES “IN CONTRACT” DECEMBER 01-31, 2011:

The following are some numbers from a survey that I don’t post in a spreadsheet or chart on this blog, but review with my office at our weekly sales meetings. Each week I do a report on “What has sold?” This survey represents all the properties in all Pending statuses and Sold status that have a reported “Sale Date” from the beginning of the month in each of the communities I survey. This information gives us a better indication of what types of properties and price ranges that are currently selling.

Belmont had 7 sales ratified. Two of them had a List Price over $1,000,000.
Burlingame had 9 ratified sales. Four of them had a List Price over $1,000,000. One of those four had a List Price over $2,000,000.
Foster City had 5 ratified sales. None had a List Price over $1,000,000.
Hillsborough had 4 ratified sales. All fiour had a List Price over $1,000,000. One of those four had a List Price over $2,000,000.
Redwood Shores had 2 ratified sales. Neither of them had a List Price above $1,000,000.
San Mateo had 48 reported sales. Five of them had a List Price above $1,000,000. One of those five had a List Price above $2,000,000.

There were 75 total reported December sales in these six communities.
64.00% of the reported sales (48) were in San Mateo.
12.00% of the reported sales (9) were in Burlingame.
09.33% of the reported sales (7) were in Belmont.
20.00% of the reported sales (15) had a list price over $1,000,000
04.00% of the reported sales (3) had a list price over $2,000,000.

DECEMBER 01-31. 2011 SHORT SALE DATA:

There are 24 total properties in the Active Status reported as Short Sales:

Top Three cities with Active Listings reported as Short Sales:

70.83% of the Active Short Sales (17) are in San Mateo.
12.50% of the Active Short Sales (3) are in Belmont.
08.33% of the Active Short Sales (2) are in Burlingame.

There are 21 total properties in the Pending Status reported as Short Sales: (THIS REPORT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE PAST AS IT REFLECTS ONLY THOSE PROPERTIES WITH A RATIFIED SALE WITHIN THE TIME PERIOD RATHER THAN PROPERTIES IN THE PENDING STATUS REGARDLESS OF WHEN RATIFIED)

Top Three cities with Pending Listings reported as Short Sales:

85.71% of the Pending Short Sales (18) are in San Mateo.
04.76% of the Pending Short Sales (1 each) are in Belmont, Burlingame and Hillsborough.

There are 4 total properties in the December Closed Sales reported as Short Sales:

50.00 of the Closed Short Sales (2 each) are tied in Hillsborough and San Mateo.

DECEMBER SHORT SALE SUCCESSES IN PERSPECTIVE:

14.72% of the total Active listings are reported as Short Sales (24 out of 163)
28.00% of the total Pending listings are reported as Short Sales (21 out of 75)
05.41% of the total December 2011 Closed Sales are reported at Short Sales (4 out of 74)

Miscellaneous Ramblings

It’s been very busy for several weeks. Please excuse me for rambling. Many times when I’m recognized around town by people who know that I’m a Realtor®, the first question that comes after ‘How are ya?” is; “So Pete, how’s the real estate market?” And before I can answer they say: “Bad, huh?”

My response is always the same: “Were you a buyer in the market from 2001 to 2007? Were you one of twenty offers, offered 35% over the asking price, no contingencies and included a trip to France for the Seller and their family, your stock options and your first-born child and still weren’t the successful bidder? Was that a GOOD market for you? Because if you’re a Buyer now, in some market places, it is a good market for you.”

There are some isolated real estate markets where there is a lot of buyer activity and unfortunately, everyone wants what everyone wants. Month-to-date Sold transactions in my survey show that of the 44 properties that have closed escrow 17 of them (approximately 38.6%) sold for the list price or more. One would suspect that the overbidding occurred as a result of the multiple offers or pre-emptive offers we hear about.

I wish I had originated the explanation of the two elements that make a home sell, but the articulation of this process came from Avram Goldman the former President of Coldwell Banker Northern California and Pacific Union Residential Brokerage. He said the first thing that motivates buyers is Immediate Emotional Appeal (IEA). This is when the buyer walks into a home, it’s staged perfectly, clean, tidy and bright and they fall I in love with the home. The second element is Immediate Value Appeal (IVA). Knowledgeable Buyers know the value of a home in specific neighborhoods or that meets certain criteria better than anyone. If they walk into a home and it “feels” like a $1,000,000 and they discover it’s priced at $975,000, they will sense the Immediate Value Appeal and when coupled with IEA, they most likely will put an offer on the home. If the home is priced at $1,050,000, despite loving the home, they will wait for the first price reduction and by then may lose interest. My guess is that the homes receiving the list price offers and overbids had both of those elements going for them. If one of those two elements is missing, the chance of getting a reasonable offer early on diminishes.

This week I’m sensing that our market is somewhat schizophrenic. Usually clients ask us if they should wait until spring to put them homes on the market. This year I can’t tell if it was because of all the rain or the volatile stock market, but the inventory surge seems to be happening now. (Well, it is still Spring for another week.) This week there are 403 homes in the active status. That is a 4.4% increase from last week and 7.5% increase over the same period last year.

Also in a trend that is different from what we’ve been experiencing, there are 214 homes in the Pending Status this week. This number represents a 3% decrease from last week, but up 9% from the same period last year. Not to beat a dead horse, but I’m giving it one more gentle kick; of the 214 Pending Sales 72 are Short Sales and 8 are Bank Owned. To put things into perspective, there were 254 homes in the Pending Status in the peak year of 2004. I didn’t track Short Sales or REO’s back then because they were basically non-existent. When you deduct the 80 Short Sales and REO’s from our current Pending Inventory, the remainder of Pending Sales is a mere 134, or 120 units less than 2004 (47%).

Other numbers to note are the 102 Active Listings in Hillsborough and 156 in San Mateo, both the highest I can recall in recent history.

Lastly, I attended two Short Sale/REO panel discussions last week. At one of them, I was told about the promising progress that lenders are making in expediting the Short Sale Approval process. With the exception of Wachovia (Now Wells Fargo), who claims that they can approve a short pay on their portfolio loans in 37 days or less, most lenders are saying that they’ve brought the average short pay approval time to 120 days. The question is can a Buyer get their purchase loan locked in for that long and the probable additional 30 or so days to close the transaction after the short pay approval? Yes, if you want to pay the price. But if you were going to pay the price, you wouldn’t be pursuing a home that requires a Short Sale.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy our beautiful pre-Summer weather!

6/13/2010 Spreadsheet

6/13/2010 SSREO

6/13/2010 Chart

6/14/2009 Spreadsheet

6/15/2008 Spreadsheet

6/10/2007 Spreadsheet

6/14/2004 Spreadsheet