Belmont Real Estate Market Update September 2011 – Moderate Sales

Most of San Mateo County is experiencing a bump in home sales in 2011, but some of the mid-Peninsula cities, such as Belmont, Foster City, and Redwood Shores have had noticeable declines.

In September 2011, 17 homes closed escrow in Belmont. Through the first nine months of the year, there have been 138 homes sold, down 12 percent from the prior year.

Sales may have been inhibited by a lack of new homes for sale. For the year, new listings are down 19 percent.  With sales and listings down, inventory has been trending sideways. A common measure of inventory is to look at the months of supply, which measures how long it would take to sell the current inventory at the most recent sales rate. In September it was 2.8 months, and for the year it has averaged 2.6 months, about equal with 2010.

Prices in the Belmont real estate market appear to be flat with average and median prices around the $900,000 level, and price per square feet just under $500.

Sellers are continuing to get pretty close to their asking price. The sale price divided by list price has averaged 99% in 2011, meaning that homes sold for 99% of their asking price. While this statistic is not perfect -- it doesn't take into account homes that were price reduced and then immediately sold -- it is relevant in that we know that when homes do sell they sell pretty close to the asking price. Determining the correct asking price can be tricky, and it helps to have a Realtor who is closely following the local markets.

Belmont can provide parents access to top quality public schools for a lower price point on a square footage basis than Burlingame/Hillsborough.  All of the elementary and middle schools in the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District scored well in the 2010 API testing, which measures student scores on standardized testing. The average score for the district was 904 (compared to 891 for Burlingame School District), and no school scored below 830. The statewide average score is 768 out of 1,000.

By The Numbers - Belmont September 2011

See below for all our September 2011 real estate market updates:

San Mateo County Burlingame and neighborhoods (Burlingame Grove, Burlingame Hills, Burlingame Village, Easton Addition, Mills Estates, Ray Park, Terrace) Foster City Hillsborough and neighborhoods (Upper Hillsborough, Tobin Clark Estate, Lower Hillsborough) Redwood City Redwood Shores San Carlos San Mateo