San Mateo County Market Update July 2011 - Sales Still Strong

After 501 single family detached homes sold in June, the highest monthly total in five years, the market took a breath in July in San Mateo County. But it wasn’t a very deep breath. There were 417 sales in July 2011, the highest total for July since 2008. Year-to-date, there have been 2,632 sales, which is 5% ahead of last year’s pace.

At the same time that sales have risen, listings have fallen. There have been 6% fewer homes listed so far in 2011 as compared to 2010. Fewer listings plus more sales equals tighter supply. We can see that by looking at the months of supply, which divides the number of active listings by the rate of monthly sales. For July, there was 3.2 months of supply on the market. It has been averaging around 3 months for most of the summer. Last summer, it was closer to 4 months. A tighter market means each home seller has fewer other sellers with which to compete.

The average days on market is a measure for how many days the average that home that sold was listed. In July it was 53 days. This is down a bit from the beginning of the year, but a little higher than last summer. Some of the listings from last year that did not sell when sales were down are finally finding buyers.

Price levels for an area like San Mateo County identify more where homes are being sold rather than whether prices are rising or falling. For example, the median price in January 2011 was $575,000, while in May 2011 it was $810,000. That would be a pretty big jump (and good news for home owners!). What happened is that in January, a higher share of homes sold in lower priced cities, while the opposite thing occurred in May. The median price in July was $745,000.  It has been around $750,000 for the past few months, which is slightly above recent trend. This matches with some of the detailed city-level data that we look at, which shows strong sales in some high-priced areas, like Hillsborough and Burlingame.

By The Numbers - San Mateo County July 2011