July 01, 2009
How’s the Los Gatos housing market now and over the last two years? The “supply and demand” graph gives a good visual clue as to the challenge of selling in this corner of SiliconValley. Relative to what’s on the market, only a few Los Gatos homes are selling. (Charts and data per Clarus Matrix, a perk of our MLS and real estate board.)
Pricing (or “home value”) is perhaps the most important thing to home owners. “What’s my home worth?” is the question. Prices are improving in some segments of the market – homes “in the schools” and under about 1 million are in very high demand and that may be pushing prices upward.
The “months of inventory” or absorption rate indicates how long it would take Los Gatos homes for sale to be absorbed by buyers if homes continued to sell at the current rate per month and no new inventory came on the market. (Less than 6 months is a sellers market, more than 6 a buyers market.)
The chart below would have us thinking that the sellers are very happy and that homes are fying off the market – the first chart, though, tells the broader picture of supply & demand. What IS happening, then? Some Los Gatos homes in some prices are selling really well, but many others languish.
Inventory is now declining. This is more acute in some price points and school districts than others, but overall, the available supply of Los Gatos real estate for sale is now noticeably less than at the peak.
The average days on market for Los Gatos homes for sale has jumped around quite a bit. We do seem to be past the peak – but with so much “up & down”, it’s hard to be sure. Let’s hope that the worst is behind us.
A look at all the charts collectively would seem to indicate that although the market is tough on sellers and great for buyers overall, as a whole the town may have already hit its bottom. We won’t know unless things are stable and continue improving for another year or so. And, of course, this is “general information” for our town. Your particular neighborhood could be behaving very differently since micro markets are very important here. Please call or email me for information on your particular market.
