by Mary Pope-Handy | Mar 27, 2018 | Uncategorized

Top 10 Competitive Markets for Home Buyers by LendingTree
LendingTree, a company which helps match people to loans (think: dating app for mortgages), took the data received from over 1.5 million purchase mortgage loan requests from the 100 largest cities of the United States in 2017 and ranked their real estate markets in a unique way: by competitiveness. Spoiler alert: the top two most competitive cities in this study were San Francisco (#1) and San Jose (#2)!
Three criteria were used to determine the ranking for each city. The first was the number of buyers shopping for loans before finding the property. Next, the average down payment percent. And finally, the percentage of buyers who have prime credit scores (over 680).
Why were these criteria chosen? The more competitive the market, the more competitive buyers offers must be. In a strong seller’s market, having loan contingencies or a lower offer price will hurt your chances at having your offer accepted.
Keep reading below for a snipet of the top 10 most competitive markets from LendingTree’s article, and what it means.
(more…)
by Mary Pope-Handy | Jul 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
What does it really cost to buy a house in Silicon Valley? In Santa Clara County, the median sale price of houses is $1 million (May 2015) and the average sale price is just about $1,300,000. So you know it can’t be easy – these are for the whole county, not the areas with the best commutes, best schools, most charm, etc. And it’s worse if you go north, and into San Mateo County, where the median sale price is $1,325,000 and the average sale price is $1,660,000? (Please visit my RE REPORT for information on Silicon Valley real estate statistics. It is automatically updated each month.)
Today I’ll use the Altos Research charts to show the median LIST PRICES (sales prices often a little higher) of homes for sale in several Silicon Valley communities – just a sampling, not all of them, and then we’ll look at the median list price of just the lowest priced homes – those in the bottom 25% of pricing. Please note that the charts will be AUTOMATICALLY UPDATED each week, so this article should remain current.
The high tech epicenters: Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and Cupertino
Below please note the median list price of homes in the super highly desirable areas of technology intensity. These areas are always “sky high” relative to the rest of Santa Clara County (Palo Alto and Cupertino are noted for their exceptionally high scoring public schools, and Palo Alto has a very bustling, fun downtown area).

Next, what is the least you might expect to pay for houses in these same areas? Here’s a glance at the least expensive single family home segments. Palo Alto is just a hair under $1.95 million (these are likely mostly “fixers”), Cupertino comes in at $1.3 million, Mountain View again close behind at just barely under $1.3 million and Sunnyvale offers its most affordable homes at about $775 – $800k.

Please also see this article on another of my sites for more detailed information on the Cupertino real estate market:
http://sanjoserealestatelosgatoshomes.com/cupertino-real-estate-market-trends-and-statistics/
For more information on the Sunnyvale real estate market specifically, please read this article:
http://sanjoserealestatelosgatoshomes.com/sunnyvale-real-estate-market-trends-statistics/
Los Altos and Los Altos Hills
(more…)