March 06, 2013
The market is heating up in Los Gatos as of about 4 weeks ago with new sales commenced. These will not be reflected in the closed sales until early March, so please take the ‘solds’ info below with a grain of salt and keep the changed market conditions in mind!
Below please find the statistics and numbers for house sales in the town of Los Gatos (95030 and 95032), including county pockets, which closed in the month of February 2013. The median price is down both month over month and also year over year. It has been softer in Los Gatos than in many Silicon Valley communities right now.
| Trends At a Glance | Feb 2013 | Previous Month | Year-over Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $1,435,000 | $1,555,000 (-7.7%) | $1,442,500 (-0.5%) |
| Average Price | $1,506,570 | $1,704,850 (-11.6%) | $2,320,030 (-35.1%) |
| No. of Sales | 19 | 13 (+46.2%) | 16 (+18.8%) |
| Pending Properties | 36 | 18 (+100.0%) | 48 (-25.0%) |
| Foreclosures Sold | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 1 (-100.0%) |
| Short Sales Sold | 2 | 0 (N/A) | 1 (+100.0%) |
| Active Listings | 60 | 52 (+15.4%) | 86 (-30.2%) |
| Active Foreclosures | 1 | 0 (N/A) | 2 (-50.0%) |
| Active Short Sales | 1 | 0 (N/A) | 10 (-90.0%) |
| Sales Price vs. List Price | 97.4% | 99.4% (-2.0%) | 94.8% (+2.7%) |
| Days on Market | 88 | 34 (+160.7%) | 70 (+25.3%) |
Inventory is low all over – and Los Gatos is no exception, though inventory did go up a bit countywide from January 2013 to Feb 2013. How bad is it? Off 30% from a year ago (and inventory was low then: Feb 2012 was 86, Feb 2011 was 132 available houses).
Days on market: The figure for February of 88 days on market for sold properties reflects the DOM of houses that closed in February and most likely went into contract in January, or possibly December – both of which were “cooler” times than the shift we saw take place in early February 2013.
How long have the currently available single family homes in LG been on the market?
As of this moment, in 95030 and 95032 combined there are just 76 single family homes for sale. Most haven’t been on all that long, in fact, appx 64% or 2/3 have been on the market for 60 days or less, and exactly half of the available inventory has been on the market for 1 month or less. Let’s see the breakdown in one-month increments of the number of homes in each time bracket.:
0 – 30 days: 38 homes
31 – 60 days: 11
61 – 90 days: 4
91 – 120 days: 4
121 – 150 days: 2
151-180 days: 9
181-210 days: 1
211-240 days: 1
241-270 days: 0
271-300 days: 1
301-330 days: 1
331-365 days: 1
366 + days: 3 (oldest one almost 1500 DOM)
How long were the under contract single family homes in LG on the market?
I won’t repeat this level of detail for the Los Gatos houses which are sale pending or under contract (real estate agents: status 3 & 4), but the average days on market for those 17 pending properties is 26 and of these, only 2 were more than 30 days (1 sold with 49 DOM and another 191 DOM). In other words, when homes sell now, they are selling faster than the DOM from the closed sales in February would reveal. This will show up in March’s statistics next month.
Are there multiple offers in Los Gatos, and overbids?
Yes, there are some of each. I did a spot check of the sales for the last 7 days and the last 14 days and in both cases, the average sales price was higher than the average list price. For the last 7 days, there were 8 closed sales, 4 above list, 1 at list price and 3 below.)
Los Gatos condominium & townhouse sales (click on link for more info)
Dramatic improvement in the median and average sales price of condos and townhomes in town year over year as well as from the prior month.
| Trends At a Glance | Feb 2013 | Previous Month | Year-over Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $787,500 | $649,000 (+21.3%) | $601,000 (+31.0%) |
| Average Price | $708,900 | $659,286 (+7.5%) | $562,675 (+26.0%) |
| No. of Sales | 10 | 7 (+42.9%) | 8 (+25.0%) |
| Pending Properties | 9 | 11 (-18.2%) | 19 (-52.6%) |
| Foreclosures Sold | 0 | 0 (N/A)< /span> | 2 (-100.0%) |
| Short Sales Sold | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 1 (-100.0%) |
| Active Listings | 9 | 6 (+50.0%) | 24 (-62.5%) |
| Active Foreclosures | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 0 (N/A) |
| Active Short Sales | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 3 (-100.0%) |
| Sales Price vs. List Price | 100.9% | 102.1% (-1.2%) | 96.1% (+5.0%) |
| Days on Market | 10 | 18 (-43.9%) | 63 (-83.9%) |
The Monte Sereno real estate market
Monte Sereno houses (no condos in MS) – primarily 95030 but a smattering of 95032 also. There are so few homes in Monte Sereno (just 4,000 residents) that the sales numbers are very easily skewed. Disclaimers aside, here are the Monte Sereno market stats:
| Trends At a Glance | Feb 2013 | Previous Month | Year-over Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median Price | $1,600,000 | $1,813,000 (-11.7%) | $0 (N/A) |
| Average Price | $1,600,000 | $2,032,670 (-21.3%) | $0 (N/A) |
| No. of Sales | 1 | 3 (-66.7%) | 0 (N/A) |
| Pending Properties | 7 | 2 (+250.0%) | 0 (N/A) |
| Foreclosures Sold | 0 | 1 (-100.0%) | 0 (N/A) |
| Short Sales Sold | 0 | 0 (N/A) | 0 (N/A) |
| Active Listings | 9 | 6 (+50.0%) | 0 (N/A) |
| Active Foreclosures | 0 | 0 (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Active Short Sales | 0 | 0 (N/A) | (N/A) |
| Sales Price vs. List Price | 94.2% | 112.0% (-15.9%) | 0.0% (N/A) |
| Days on Market | 15 | 42 (-64.3%) | 0 (N/A) |
The Los Gatos Mountains real estate market trends and statistics – 95033 – houses, no condos or townhouses only – NO HOMES SOLD/CLOSED in Feb 2013, so no charts to share!
A more affordable, but beautiful, place to live is in the coastal foothills over the town of Los Gatos. The communities there are closely affiliated with the town of Los Gatos, if distinct! This area is always tougher to sell, and slower to appreciate. Prices here aren’t much better, and possibly worse off (depending on the area, price point etc.), than a year ago.
Altos Live Charts for Los Gatos 95030 and 95032 plus Los Gatos Mountains 95033 and Monte Sereno Real Estate
Next please enjoy the live Altos charts, which are updated automatically each week – each segment is a little different than the others (and the reports would be more diverse still if we broke these down further, by price quartile – – sign up below if you want these delivered to you via email each week).
As you can see, pricing is stronger in 95030 than in 95032. This may be due to the schools (only a little of 95030 is in the Campbell Union High School District, but a larger portion of 95032 is). The strong Los Gatos schools are a major driver of desireability – but not the only one. Many people want to have the “walk to town” element, even if their kids are in private schools.
