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.

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 Real Estate Stats for May, 2012

All the key numbers for Palo Alto real estate were up for the month of May 2012 compared to the same month a year ago.  The average list price in May 2012 was $2,359,000, which is up 37% from last years number of $1,721,000. The average sales price was up 21% as the average for this past month was $1,955,000 compared to $1,613,000 a year ago.   That is a huge jump for a one year period and shows the strength of luxury real estate in the area.  There has been a good six months of Facebook secondary market money out there buying homes, so that could be a good reason for the jump.

There was a total of 56 sales for the month that took an average of 16 days to sell.  Last year was 55 sales with an average of 21 days to sell.

There is some signs of relief as there were 75 new listings for the month compared to 58 a year ago, an increase of 29%. Buyer are finally getting some options to look at as inventory is at about 2.3 months of supply.  These next two months will be interesting to watch as there is still a lot of multiple bids happening, but will it still occur as much now that there is more inventory.  My gut tells me it will on the right homes, but not everybody will enjoy the multiple offer situations.

I’ll put out a video tonight that shows all the stats, check back later.

530 Irven Court in Palo Alto Sells 5% Over Asking Price

530 Irvin Court in Palo Alto was listed on February 20, 2012 for $1,598,000 and sold for $1,680,000 on March 12, 2012, a 5% gain in sales price from asking price.   The Barron Park home features 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, a gourmet kitchen with large island, full basement with media/game room, granite counters and a private yard.  The home is approximately 3,624 square feet.  Palo Alto real estate is continuing a robust first quarter of sales that are over asking price.

1382 Forest Avenue in Palo Alto selling price

1382 Forest Ave, Palo Alto in Crescent Park
List Price: $4,395,000
Sale Price: $4,400,000

New Construction 2 story home with 5 bedrooms, 4 ½ baths, +/- 3231 Sq. Ft. Home is East Coast style with Craftsman appeal. First floor has gourmet kitchen, family room, dining room, living room and guest suite/office. Second floor has the master suite, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Fully landscaped grounds with large deck in backyard. Listed on 2/8/12 and sold 2/17/12 and completed escrow 2/28/12. That quick of an escrow usually means the offer came from an all cash buyer as loans are taking 10-17 days just to get thru the system. Luxury real estate in Palo Alto is still selling well and homes in this price range don’t usually have the crazy number of offers that homes in the 1.2-2.0 range can receive.

Want to see the pictures of the home, click here on Sold Home Prices.

Open House This Weekend in Palo Alto

Everybody, don’t forget to come by the open house at 4105 Park Blvd in Palo Alto this Sunday from 1:30-4:30pm. It’s hard to find a home in the Palo Alto school district for under a million dollars, but we have it to show this weekend. 3 Bedrooms, 2 full bath, 1,450 square feet on a 7,000 square foot lot. It’s a short walk to the park and kids play area. Plus there is a large back patio with a huge hot tub. A great home for entertaining and families of all ages.

To see more about this property, click on the tour factory link

Thanks and I hope to see you there.

Palo Alto Real Estate Update

The numbers are strong for real estate in Palo Alto with this month’s sales figures.  Watch the video to see all key sales numbers for the month of January 2012 compared to January 2011.

Palo Alto homes sales going way over asking price in first month of 2012

Desirable Palo Alto started off the New Year with many home sales exceeding asking price by crazy amounts. The year began with a total of 21 sales in the first 3 weeks of the month compared to 17 total closings in January 2011 and, on top of that, many of the homes were sold significantly higher than the listing price.

Palo Alto luxury real estate is on fire right now and some of the homes were high double digits over asking and most had multiple offers.  I don’t believe this is a case of real estate agents under pricing the home with the hopes of multiple offers as all the homes have been priced very fairly for the size, location and condition.  I think it’s a case of buyers with pent up energy looking for homes and just not enough inventory out there.  Going back to my days of basic economics, high demand and low supply means… overbidding.

This is a good sign for sellers of Palo Alto homes, especially for the homeowners who have been sitting on the fence and waiting to get out from under water as now is definitely the time to sell.

There are more, but just a couple of examples of recent Palo Alto homes for sale with high ratios of sales versus asking price are:

185 Walter Hays listed at $1,398,000 and sold for $1,655,000 in 7 days (18.4 % over asking price)

769 Rosewood Drive listed at $1,050,000 and sold for $1,515,000 in 4 days (44.3% over)

971 Maddux Drive listed at $1,195,000 and sold for $1,361,000 in a week (14.1 % over)

I work on a lot of off market sales too and information throughout our offices are further verifying the asking price to sale price ratios listed above.  Off market, or off  MLS, are probably 20-30% of sales happening in Palo Alto, Atherton and Menlo Park, so make sure your agent is well connected to get you in the game, or call me.

Palo Alto Starts Off 2012 With A Surge of Home Sales

Palo Alto real estate is having a happy 2012!

Yes, I know it’s only been just over two weeks into the new year, but sales in Palo Alto have been very strong compared to the past couple of years.  The entire month of January 2011 had a total of 17 closed sales,  January 2010 had 23 closed sales and January of 2009 had only 12 closed sales for the entire month.  Well, so far in the first two weeks of January 2012, there has already been 19 closed sales as of  January 16th.  Obviously, it’s no guarantee that the rest of the month or year will stay on the same surge, but it’s definitely a good sign for real estate and the economy.

There is also a general buzz around our offices at the activity that is happening and the amount of buyers that are out there aggressively looking to buy or in the process of buying.  This hasn’t happened in several years so we are all working harder than ever to make sure our buyers don’t miss out on any opportunities, as they are going quickly! My guess is that this will cause prices to rise due to the number of buyers compared to the number of homes available for sale.  A good sign for sellers as I would suggest getting your home on the market within the next two months to take advantage of the situation.

If you are interested in listing your home for sale or finding a home, please give me a call.  The above numbers don’t include the very active “off market” transactions that are happening at a higher than normal rate as well.  We have a nice supply of those too!

Palo Alto Real Estate Takes a Breath

Palo Alto real estate is still hopping, however, the market has been cooling off a bit in recent weeks, as more homes are available and demand is less. Some prices even moved a bit lower as a result. Expect this trend to continue as more inventory hits the market.  Palo Alto has a lot of luxury real estate and is always an area in demand due to the tech executives and companies that call Palo Alto home.  In our recent reports, the median price in Palo Alto 94301 is $1,597,000 and average days on market is only 61 days.  Just a couple weeks ago, the median price was over $2.1 million so this shows the inventory in that sweet spot is fairly non existent.   The surprising number this week is the percentage of homes with a price decrease, which is 35%.  That’s a big number for such a strong area.  This means that the “in demand” homes have sold quickly and it’s probably the less desirable properties that are still sitting on the market.  It’s still a sellers market in Palo Alto and the average price per square foot is at $934 and I’ve seen homes that are asking way over that price per square foot, but are tending to sit if they go over $1,000.