Burlingame Park Real Estate - October 2013

Prices Up 15%+ in Past Year in Burlingame Park

Prices have risen by more than 15% in the past 12 months in the Burlingame Park real estate market. Buyers are regularly paying above $700 per square foot. Here are some highlights in this submarket as of July 2013:

• There was one sale, a 5 bed 2 bath 3,140 square foot home on Ralston. It sold for $2,368,995 after 18 days on the market. This was actually below the final listing price of $2,395,000. However, at $754 per square foot, the sale was representative of the new price levels in the area, where above $700 is the norm.
• Sellers continue to be incredibly successful. Only one listing has expired or been cancelled so far this year. Just a few years ago there was an average of one listing expiring/canceling per month.
• Inventory remains low. At the end of July 2013, there was only one active listing on the market.

Sales above the $1,000 per square foot mark are still rare in Burlingame. We may end the year with around 10 single family homes that sell for more than that threshold. The reasons why homes go for more than $1,000 per square foot is usually due to new construction, large lots and/or small homes with add-on potential. Burlingame Park has seen two $1,000 per square foot sales. The most recent was in October 2013, when a newly constructed 5 bed, 4 bath, 2,683 square foot home on Walnut Avenue sold for $2,850,000 ($1,062 per square foot). There are a lot of factors to consider, but given that the average price per square foot in the Burlingame Park submarket is around $775, this suggests a new construction premium in the range of $300 per square foot. Of course, the premium will vary based on the level of construction. The home on Walnut was relatively high-end. Of note, public records show that the property was sold in 1968 for $33,000, which based on the size of the home on the property at the time amounted to $12 per square foot. Property taxes on the just sold 2013 version of the property...not too far off from $33,000 per year.

While most of the submarkets in Burlingame are regularly seeing sales that are well above final list prices, Burlingame Park is acting more like neighboring Hillsborough, where sales prices and list prices are more evenly matched. This is not too surprising as Burlingame Park shares more of a border with Hillsborough than the rest of Burlingame. The average sales price to list price in Burlingame Park in 2013 has been 101% (helped by one listing that went 111% above the list price), versus 105% in all of Burlingame.

Prices have risen by around 20% in the past twelve months in Burlingame Park. The average price per square foot in 2013 has been $775, which is 20% above the 2012 level of $644 per square foot. The overall median and average price are up 40% to 60% year-over-year. This is misleading and is due mostly to the fact that larger homes happen to have been what have been listed in 2013. The average sold home in 2013 in Burlingame Park has been just over 3,000 square feet. In most years it is around 2,500 square feet. Larger homes have higher price tags. This is all part of normal random fluctuations that appear when looking at a single submarket, but something that prospective buyers may not be aware of if they are only looking at the headline data.

By The Numbers - Burlingame Park Real Estate for 2013