Below please find real estate market reports for three Silicon Valley counties where I’m most active: Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and Santa Cruz County. First we’ll provide the data for single family homes, then condos and townhomes, for each region. (“Silicon Valley” is 95% within Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, plus a little of Santa Cruz County and a small part of Alameda County. Alameda County uses a different MLS system, and I don’t usually sell there, so am not covering it in my reports.)
Winter 2020-2021: Three Silicon Valley Counties
Santa Clara County Real Estate Market Report for December 2020
First, Santa Clara County – home to San Jose, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Santa Clara, Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, and a number of other cities and towns. This area has generally come up in price about 10% since last year, though in December the median sale price is over 13% higher in 2020 than in 2019! Since the month before, but the median sales price and list price remained close to stable with both up by around 10-12% compared to 2019. Homes took about a half-week longer to sell, in December compared to November, but compared to 2019 they’re flying off the shelves! Of course, it hasn’t been even growth. While 2019 had fairly typical seasonal patterns, 2020 experienced major changes putting pressure on the market stifling spring activity and creating a sustained high demand with severely low inventory. We’re currently at a time where seasonal cooling creates a softer market, but activity is stronger than usual driving both prices and the sales to list price ratio above the averages of 2019 without significant cooling compared to summer or autumn.
And the condominium and townhouse report for Santa Clara County:
This year shows about a 8% rise in sales price for condos and townhomes since last year, and about a 2% dip in median sales price and a relatively stable median list price from last month.
San Mateo County Real Estate Market for December 2020
Next, San Mateo County – home to Menlo Park, Redwood Shores, San Mateo, Half Moon Bay, and other Peninsula Communities. This area is generally more expensive than Santa Clara County, with variation, of course – a general rule of thumb might be 20-25% more costly. Comparing this county to the others in the current market report, San Mateo isn’t seeing the same demand as elsewhere, possibly due to the price tag. This area shows roughly a 3% increase in median sales price since last month and a roughly 15.6% increase from last year!
The condo and townhome report for San Mateo County:
Since last month median sales prices have fallen around 9% and plunged almost 15% since last year! This market saw clear cooling in the last quarter of 2020.
Santa Cruz County Real Estate Market Report for July 2020
And lastly, coastal Santa Cruz County. While Santa Clara County and San Mateo County are part of the San Francisco Bay Area, and considered to be “Northern California”, Santa Cruz County is part of the Monterey Bay and is “Central California” or “Central Coast”. This region is less expensive that Santa Clara County, so is an attractive destination for retirees who don’t really want to move too far from home, but benefit from less expensive housing. Santa Cruz County includes the highly regarded University of California at Santa Cruz, exquisite beaches, and plenty of wineries – among more reasons to visit, if not make it your home!
Single Family Home (houses, duet homes – not duplexes) in Santa Cruz County:
Santa Cruz shows around a 1-2% median sale price increase since last month, but rose nearly a whopping 20% compared to last year! This is a smaller market, so larger swings in data can be expected.
The condominium and townhouse report for Santa Cruz County:
Again, this is a very small data set so the market report may show more dramatic change than the market actually has. Sale prices decreased around 10% since last month and rose about 5% since last year. This may reflect more which sectors of the market are selling rather than the real values of properties across the county changing.
Related reading:
Looking to buy or sell a home in any of these areas? Please reach out to me for an appointment to chat by phone. If it seems like a good fit, we can arrange to meet in person and strategize your home buying or selling – no cost, no obligation, no pressure.
