Check out how Bay Area real estate is surviving

Check out how Bay Area real estate is surviving

In looking at the current real estate market, it’s helpful to start nationwide, then concentrate on our Peninsula cities.  Nationwide, new listings have dropped significantly, yet are slowly recovering.  Sellers are hesitant to list their homes for several reasons.  Firstly, not all home owners can move out of their homes prior to listing, which means they will have to make their homes available to buyers to walk through; in today’s Covid market place, a lot of home owners are reluctant to do this.  Secondly, with a lot of buyers losing part of their down payment through stock market losses, pay cuts, or job losses, many buyers are hesitant to compete in a multiple-offer market. As a result, average sale prices have been reduced in comparison to 2019; sellers are deciding to sit tight and wait until fears about the virus recede.  Basically, if sellers don’t have to sell now, they are waiting.  What this means is that new listings are coming to the market more slowly than usual for this time of year.

That said, we are in the somewhat unique position of living in the Bay Area; housing here isn’t as affected as other parts of the country.  But like the rest of the country, we have also seen that when new listings stop coming to market, overall supply — inventory — drops. There are fewer available homes for prospective buyers to purchase.  This is true in some parts of the Peninsula yet not in all.

A drop in active listings isn’t necessarily a problem, but it does create a supply/demand imbalance.  Take a look at the information in the charts below.  If there are considerably more active listings than pending (ones that have an offer in on them), then it’s a buyer’s market in that city, Atherton for example.  If the number of active and pending listings are more or less equal, then the market is balanced between sellers and buyers, Campbell for example.  If the number of pending sales far exceeds the number of active listings, then it’s a seller’s market in that city, San Carlos for example.  Reviewing the information, it’s clear to see that most of the 22 cities I’ve pulled up are doing brisk sales with a more or less equal market between sellers and buyers; the exceptions are Atherton, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto, where listings far exceed sales, in these cities buyers definitely have the upper hand.

Since San Jose is such a large city, I’ve broken the information down into its respective areas. San Jose is seeing steady sales with Evergreen, Santa Teresa, Almaden Valley, and Willow Glen having more or less equal balance between sellers and buyers; buyers definitely have more choice in Berryessa, and Central San Jose; and West San Jose, Alum Rock, Blossom Valley, and South San Jose are more of a sellers market!

If there’s a city on the Peninsula you’d like more detailed information on, please contact me, I’m here to help!