Los Gatos Home Sale Trends: it really depends on your segment of the market
How’s the real estate market in the Town of Los Gatos? The real estate market trends in Los Gatos varies from one price point and neighborhood to the next, from one type of housing to the next, and even between the town’s two zip codes, 95030 and 95032. Here we’ll take a view of the overall movement in the market; please understand that it may or may not apply to your particular Los Gatos home so please call or email me for specific information relating to your property.
Overall, Los Gatos continues to be a seller’s market, though not as deep as in other places in Santa Clara County (it’s wild in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto). Inventory is better than a year ago, inching toward more normalcy while remaining on the scarce side.
Today I pulled the data from MLSListings.com using their “statistics” tool (any Realtor can do this who’s a member of the MLS). The numbers below represent single family homes, or houses, in the Los Gatos zip codes of 95030 and 95032, all price ranges, school districts, home sizes etc.
Real Estate Market Trends in Los Gatos
The luxury market over about $3 or $4 million is usually more sluggish than the entry level homes, so what happens if we don’t go that high?
And now, same criteria but just homes under $ 2,000,000:
As you can see, the sale price to list price ratio for these 240 houses is a little higher and the days on market a bit shorter if we focus on just the homes offered at under $2 million. We could further refine this ad infinitum but Realtors often say that the best price will come with a fast sale (some sellers feel like if the home goes sale pending in just 2 weeks, it was too soon and they left money on the table). So let’s check it out. The next set is the same as above but only for homes that went under contract in 14 days or less:
Not only are the $2 million dollar or less homes the ones moving better, but the 130 of them (out of 240) that did sell within 14 days really moved fast (9 days on average) and with a much higher sale price to list price ratio!
This is why it is so key to drill down what’s happening to the micro market level. The monthly average for 95030 & 95032 in Los Gatos was 101.3% for all homes, but how very different it is for those under $2 million that sell within a couple of weeks! Home buyers and real estate investors who rely on only those general numbers will be 4% off (about the amount of a typical price reduction) – plenty enough by which to lose the sale.
What can throw your Los Gatos property’s home values:
- having a pool with a small backyard (pool removal may make you money) or NOT having a pool with an acre or more
- additions that you love but most buyers consider a detraction
- smaller than normal kitchen
- home in worse repair or lack of updating than typical
- being adjacent to something undesirable, such as a busy road, high voltage lines, or train tracks
- bad odors from pets, strong cooking, cigarette or cigar smoke etc.
If you are thining of buying or selling in Los Gator or nearby, please reach out to me and let’s talk about working together. To be successful and to get the most out of your transaction, it’s key to get the data that is relevant to the house in question and not just wing it based on zip code or city wide data. Los Gatos real estate and Silicon Valley real estate require a more sophisticated approach!
For those who want to do more research, here is a great resource
For info on Los Gatos or anywhere in Santa Clara County, San Mateo County or Santa Cruz County, please have a look at my online Real Estate Report.
