Atherton Luxury Real Estate Prices on The Rise

Home sales and prices of Atherton real estate took a healthy jump for the year 2012 at a slightly above average 12 percent.  Atherton real estate has one of the highest average prices in the country at just over $4.5 million dollars.  So far in 2013, we are seeing a surge in mega priced homes that will be hitting the market soon in the over 50 million dollar range.  Atherton real estate is held by many a VC, CEO and tech giant who might be living behind those closed gates leading to properties well over one acre.

Woodside Real Estate Down, All Others Up

Woodside real estate figures were the only blip on the charts with negative numbers while all other areas of San Mateo County showed gains in real estate prices and sales numbers. Woodside has been stagnant except for a 100 million dollar sale by a Japanese businessman. The huge off market number did not affect the charts as the sale happened off MLS. San Mateo county real estate prices were at a healthy 10% rise across the board.

Microsoft’s Paul Allen Buys in Atherton

San Francisco 49ers fans have a new rival in town – Paul Allen.  Yes, the Seattle Seahawks owner has purchased a 27 million dollar mansion here in Atherton.  The home was sold to him by an agent in our Menlo Park office and despite being  a enemy on the football field, Paul Allen will be welcomed to the area.  With all the business happening here in the Silicon Valley, do you blame him? It was evident he would come after his Vulcan Capital announced the opening of their Palo Alto office to continue their expansion into the internet and technology sectors.

San Mateo Country Real Estate Sales Up in 2012

Homes sales in San Mateo County took a decent jump in 2012 with the number of sales up 10% for the entire county and the average price was up 7% to almost $995,000.  It’s amazing to think that it’s almost a million dollars to buy an average home anywhere in San Mateo country.

Silicon Valley Home Buyers: Techies Like To Design Their Own

There are lots of home buyers in the Silicon Valley who look to buy and fix, buy and flip or buy and tear down. Of course, a good percentage of buyers are really looking for a house just to buy and move in to, but with the prices and resale values the way they are, investors and people buying and selling for profit are everywhere. Palo Alto real estate leads the way with investors as there is a built in demand of buyers who are looking for homes due to the success of technology companies, foreign buyers and overall high income earners.

A recent article shows that a large percentage of buyers who work in the technology space are looking to buy and tear down, then design their own dream home. It makes sense as “techies” tend to be engineers, and engineers like to design and build things. So, why not build your own home? So, the next time you see a Palo Alto home for sale, think about the lot size and building opportunity to know if you could be going up against a Facebook or Google techie to buy the home. If it’s ripe for a rebuild, then you could face some stiff competition. For the full article, continue reading here.

Homes For Sale Listing Not Accurate on Popular Online Websites

Home buyers and sellers often quote Trulia, Zillow or Redfin as their main source of real estate information. If they are out looking for a home, they check these popular online sites daily to see what’s on the market. All real estate agents know that the information definitely isn’t up to date for homes along the peninsula as there is so much off market activity and it’s kept between agents who work the areas a lot, so the online sites don’t have a clue to what’s really for sale here.

A new report by Redfin proves what we agents have known for a long time – the information on these sites isn’t accurate at all. I personally have received calls about listings that have sold months ago and have grown to find it fairly normal, but I never understood how bad the statistics really are. The study found that approximately 36 percent of the listings on the websites were no longer active.

Wow, 36%!

That’s a big margin of error. Do they do it so they can keep potential buyers and sellers on their sites longer and sell more page views and advertisements? Do they do it because there is a shortage of inventory in many areas and they don’t want to look like there isn’t enough information to keep home searchers happy? I’m not sure what the reason, but read the full article here.

This gets back to a plug for using a local real estate agent who has the latest information plus the off market listings.  I would estimate 20-30% of the business in this area if done off market, so if you really want to find a house, call a reputable agent.  I can help you with your real estate needs in areas such as Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Atherton and surrounding areas.  There are also plenty of other good agents as well who are professionals and take their jobs very seriously.  Working with clients to buy and sell luxury real estate is a demanding job as there are high stakes and very successful buyers and sellers who only accept the best agents to handle their transactions.  Relying on these websites seems like a step in the wrong direction and in an area of intelligent, successful people, this isn’t always the smartest choice.

Save Money, Refinance Now

Mortgage rates are at an all time low and home buyers are getting a great deal right now as some banks are even buying down the rate on purchase deals. I know you are busy, but even though you don’t plan on buying anytime soon, it’s still a great time to refinance. Banks are tight on getting the average person qualified for a loan, but if you can get thru the paperwork, it’s a great time to save money. How much money can you save?
Read Complete Story.

Menlo Park Real Estate Price Per Square Foot Continues Growth

Menlo Park single family homes price per square foot continues to stay high for the year and are ranging from a high of $819 psf in June to $756 psf in August. Compared to the same month and quarter a year ago, that’s up 19.2% and up 8.6% from two years ago. The full chart is below.

As the nation seems to be on a real estate recovery, homes along the Peninsula are going from high to higher in price as we are well above the national average in all categories. Menlo Park luxury real estate is still considered a good buy as there seems to be a lot of real estate developers as well as fix and flippers out there looking for properties too.

Palo Alto Real Estate Sales Stay Hot in September

Sales for the month of September stayed hot in Palo Alto as increases across the board in sales and listing prices compared to the same period a year and two years ago.  Luxury real estate in the Silicon Valley is still in demand and buyers are still scooping up properties at all prices.  These statistics are for single family homes throughout Palo Alto and if you break it down by area, the increases are even greater for certain higher demand neighborhoods.

Homes for sale in Palo Alto discussions always turn to inventory.  Right now, there is a one month inventory for Palo Alto, which is very low.  The end of the year selling season hopes to increase supply to meet some of the high demand that is out there.

Palo Alto Off Market Sales, Why Are They Increasing?

As you all know, off market sales are increasing in all cities along the Peninsula and especially in areas such as Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Atherton, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.  There are many reasons and each seller and agent might have a different opinion on why they want to choose to sell their home off market instead of thru the MLS.  One reason that is being discussed frequently is the surge in popularity with the IDX sites, such as Trulia, Zillow, Red Fin etc.  Many agents are choosing not to syndicate their listings or even keep the home off market because of how those sites operate.  They are very informative for the consumer and have great information, however, the downside is that they are using our listings to sell advertising.  They are making millions of dollars off of agents advertising and hard work, while the agents typically don’t get anything in return.  It would be great to see some statistics on how many people actually buy a house because they saw it on Zillow or Trulia, but those statistics don’t exist.  So, the thinking is that 99% of the people who visit the sites aren’t making a purchase based on seeing the home on the site, but typically get the info from their agent.

Many agents don’t like it because the online sites charge other agents to put their picture/ad next to our listing so the consumer believes the advertised agent is really the listing agent.  So, agents who do a lot of business and get high end listings don’t always want somebody else’s picture next to their multi million dollar listing, so they are choosing to keep the home off market.

Is this the reason for the surge in off market listings in the area?  Who knows, but it’s one reason that the IDX sites are the center of discussion as the various MLS’s are hearing complaints from their members and the MLS’s are losing control of their listing data.  The future of these sights are unknown, but anybody who goes on them quite a bit also knows the information they provide is not always accurate nor up to date.  The only place buyers can get the real information is from their real estate agents, and that won’t change no matter what happens to the popularity of the online sites.  Do you use the various sites and have you ever made a purchase based on seeing it on Trulia or Zillow?