Real Estate Market | | Live in Los Gatos

The Monte Sereno real estate market

November 6, 2019November 6, 2019 by Mary Pope-Handy

Ranch style home on Elm Park in Monte Sereno, sold by Mary Pope-Handy

The City of Monte Sereno is quite small, with just about 4,000 residents, so the number of houses sold in any given month will always be extremely small.

For that reason, the data may appear to jump around wildly compared to Los Gatos or Saratoga, which each have about 30,000 people living there. Please take all the stats with a tablespoon of salt, and be sure to view the Los Gatos housing market data to get a more accurate picture of what’s happening with Monte Sereno homes (just add a little to the price tag as homes there tend to sell for a bit more than LG properties).

Also, there are only single family, detached houses in Monte Sereno: no apartments, multi unit housing (2 – 4 plex), no duet homes (attached single family homes). That will be changing soon, however, as the old La Hacienda property (formerly an estate, then a hotel and restaurant) at Hwy 9 and Austin Way will become incorporated into Monte Sereno and condos or townhomes built there.

First up for the market analysis is the Altos Research weekly profile for Monte Sereno (uses list prices, not sales):

This chart shows a slight seller’s advantage in the market, which is consistent with the rest of the area.

Monte Sereno Real Estate Report (click to view the Real Estate Report)

Trends at a Glance from the RE Report:

Just 6 sales in October, so not a statistically useful pool of data, but double that of last month and a year ago had only 1 sale in October! These kind of low numbers can throw off the whole chart, so take this data with a grain of salt. The sale to list price ratio grew a hair from last month, but is down significantly from a year ago. Days on market are short, usually indicative of a warmer market, and inventory is shrinking (likely in the seasonal trend). To dig a little deeper, I pulled up the 6 sales in October and saw that 1 of them sold for more than, 1 sold exactly at, and 4 sold under list price. One of the listings sold $50,000 over (and lasted only 1 day on market). For the 4 homes that sold under list price, one was an off market sale (0 days on market), and the average days on market for the remaining 3 was about 2 months and the average underbid around $96,000. One of them was on just 25 days and sold within $81,500 of list price, another was on for 112 days and sold at $124,700 below. The speed of the sale seems to correlate with the sale to list price ratio to some extent.

Trends At a Glance	Oct 2019	Previous Month	Year-over-Year
Median Price	$2,732,750 (-34.1%)	$4,143,750	$4,500,000 (-39.3%)
Average Price	$3,019,220 (-18.1%)	$3,684,580	$4,500,000 (-32.9%)
No. of Sales	6 (+100.0%)	3	1 (+500.0%)
Pending	4 (-33.3%)	6	2 (+100.0%)
Active	9 (-30.8%)	13	6 (+50.0%)
Sale vs. List Price	98.1% (+0.1%)	97.9%	102.4% (-4.2%)
Days on Market	35 (-33.3%)	52	12 (+188.9%)
Days of Inventory	45 (-64.2%)	126	180 (-75.0%)

And from last month:

Trends At a Glance	Sep 2019	Previous Month	Year-over-Year
Median Price	$4,143,750 (+38.1%)	$3,000,000	$3,650,000 (+13.5%)
Average Price	$3,684,580 (+37.8%)	$2,673,000	$3,655,000 (+0.8%)
No. of Sales	3 (-40.0%)	5	5 (-40.0%)
Pending	6 (+20.0%)	5	2 (+200.0%)
Active	13 (+8.3%)	12	6 (+116.7%)
Sale vs. List Price	97.9% (-0.7%)	98.6%	101.3% (-3.4%)
Days on Market	52 (+7.4%)	48	20 (+165.3%)
Days of Inventory	126 (+74.5%)	72	35 (+261.1%)

Los Gatos real estate statistics and market trends

November 29, 2019November 5, 2019 by Mary Pope-Handy

The Los Gatos real estate market for single family homes has been slowly cooling down a little – as a whole. Part of it is the luxury tier, which moves slower than entry or mid level priced properties. When the luxury price strata swells, it can skew the numbers to look like everything is cooling down, when that may not be the case.

Months of inventory in Los Gatos: a quick look

Just now I went to the MLS and pulled the number of active single family homes in Los Gatos 95030 and 95032 (59) and the number of sold and closed in the last 30 days (22) to check on the overall absorption rate or months of inventory. If we divide the active listings by the closed listings in the last 30 days, we get the months of inventory – so 59 / 22 = 2.68 months of inventory for the whole of MLS area 16 in Los Gatos. For our area, a balanced market is about 4 months of inventory, so this number shows the market is slightly in the seller’s favor. In other parts of the US, balance is at around 6 months.

If we shift to viewing just houses and duet homes offered up to $2 million, it’s a very different view of the market. In this case, there are 19 active listings and 5 sold in the last 30 days, so 3.8 months of inventory, very close to balanced but slightly in the seller’s favor. This is the entry level price point for Los Gatos 95030 and 95032. It’s a little lower for the Los Gatos Mountains.

(I have a separate post on the Los Gatos months of inventory that I’ll update soon, breaking it down by price point and high school district to better pinpoint the individual markets within LG.)

What is selling best in LG right now?

Of the 22 closed sales in the last 30 days, 4 were under $2 million (about 23%), 10 were between $2 and $3 million, 5 between $3 and $4 mil, 2 between $4 and $5mil, and 1 at over $5 mil. The high end price point tends to be at around $3,000,000 and up for this part of Santa Clara County.

For the houses under $3 mil, the average days on market was 42, the average list price was $2,337,242 and the average sale price just a little less at $2,266,036. For those transactions, the average living space square footage was 2,697 SF and average lot size 16,980 SF.

Los Gatos Trends at a Glance for 95030 & 95032

Next, data from the RE Report for Los Gatos (“in town”), in the Los Gatos Mountains, and for Los Gatos condos (only in town, none in the mountain communities). Below that will be live Altos Research charts, updated automatically each week. Altos uses list prices, not sold prices, fyi.

The real estate numbers below reflect realty data gathered the first week of the month for the past month in Los Gatos 95030 & 95032 (all areas / school districts), or MLS “area 16”. See the full REReport here. Prices are up both year over year and month over month, although the sale to list price ratio has dropped. Meanwhile days on market have dropped, and active listings are down with sales going up. Turnaround is quick and it’s an active market, but it’s still only a mild seller’s market.

Trends at a Glance

Trends At a Glance	Oct 2019	Previous Month	Year-over-Year
Median Price	$2,590,000 (+12.1%)	$2,310,000	$2,450,000 (+5.7%)
Average Price	$2,718,330 (+3.1%)	$2,636,620	$2,747,570 (-1.1%)
No. of Sales	28 (+12.0%)	25	25 (+12.0%)
Pending	35 (-2.8%)	36	37 (-5.4%)
Active	66 (-5.7%)	70	71 (-7.0%)
Sale vs. List Price	97.5% (-2.5%)	100.0%	99.0% (-1.5%)
Days on Market	36 (-26.4%)	48	44 (-19.2%)
Days of Inventory	71 (-12.9%)	81	85 (-17.0%)

And the month before:

Trends At a Glance	Sep 2019	Previous Month	Year-over-Year
Median Price	$2,310,000 (+12.9%)	$2,045,500	$2,000,000 (+15.5%)
Average Price	$2,636,620 (+9.3%)	$2,412,780	$2,417,500 (+9.1%)
No. of Sales	25 (-3.8%)	26	25 (0.0%)
Pending	36 (+12.5%)	32	42 (-14.3%)
Active	70 (-4.1%)	73	62 (+12.9%)
Sale vs. List Price	100.0% (+1.3%)	98.7%	101.0% (-1.0%)
Days on Market	48 (+39.2%)	35	25 (+96.1%)
Days of Inventory	81 (-3.6%)	84	72 (+12.9%)

Trends at a Glance for the Los Gatos Mountains

The RE Report has some info on the Los Gatos Mountains, but I do not believe it covers all of what we would have as 95033 or MLS “area 23”. You can see the mountains info market here:

Just 9 closed sales in the mountains in October, so I would not trust the general numbers that much. Better results would come from checking sales in your particular part of the mountains, such as Upper Redwood Estates, Chemeketa Park, etc., to see what the market is doing.

Trends At a Glance	Oct 2019	Previous Month	Year-over-Year
Median Price	$900,000 (+9.4%)	$822,500	$1,074,000 (-16.2%)
Average Price	$1,108,750 (+40.9%)	$787,062	$1,175,760 (-5.7%)
No. of Sales	9 (+12.5%)	8	14 (-35.7%)
Pending	12 (0.0%)	12	20 (-40.0%)
Active	50 (+11.1%)	45	47 (+6.4%)
Sale vs. List Price	95.1% (+0.2%)	94.9%	101.9% (-6.7%)
Days on Market	36 (-45.7%)	67	48 (-24.0%)
Days of Inventory	167 (+2.2%)	163	101 (+65.5%)

And the month before:

Trends At a Glance	Sep 2019	Previous Month	Year-over-Year
Median Price	$822,500 (-34.2%)	$1,250,000	$1,075,780 (-23.5%)
Average Price	$787,062 (-36.2%)	$1,233,210	$1,547,820 (-49.2%)
No. of Sales	8 (+14.3%)	7	10 (-20.0%)
Pending	12 (+9.1%)	11	20 (-40.0%)
Active	45 (+4.7%)	43	57 (-21.1%)
Sale vs. List Price	94.9% (-3.1%)	97.9%	99.2% (-4.4%)
Days on Market	67 (+66.3%)	40	44 (+52.1%)
Days of Inventory	163 (-11.5%)	184	165 (-1.3%)

Los Gatos real estate market trends by price point and high school district

October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 by Mary Pope-Handy

There are many factors impacting the Los Gatos real estate market, including the price point and the elementary or high school district. This post is updated every month or two. Today we’ll look at the Los Gatos realty market by pricing tiers and high school district using the months of inventory as a data point. The months of inventory, or MOI, is the currently active (for sale, no contract or pending sale) homes for sale divided by the number of homes using the same criteria which have closed escrow in the last 30 days.

These numbers were run today using MLSListings.com and it’s possible that a few more homes will be recorded as closed sales or new homes added to the market after I ran these numbers. One other disclaimer: sometimes the number of closed sales is very low or is at 0. This can be for many reasons. In some cases, there are a few which are sale pending and simply haven’t closed recently. In other cases, the market might actually be empty in those tiers, indicating a possible lack of demand or inventory. That being said, what do the numbers say?

Los Gatos real estate months of inventory in 95030 and 95032 combined

The overall MOI for the town as a whole with 95030 and 95032 zip codes shows a mild seller’s market, with post-summer cooling likely in what is a typical seasonal pattern. It is a bit of a mixed market when looking at the town as a whole, but less so when viewed by high school district or price point. We’ll see when the month is over, but already in many parts of Santa Clara County, the real estate market is returning to seasonal patterns with some cool pockets and some which remain hotter.

And here’s the same chart with data from last February. You can see that in mid-winter the inventory was smaller and moving slightly slower.

Looking back farther, here’s the same info for last November – the overall absorption rate isn’t much different from right now, and inventory and sales are neck-and-neck. Almost exactly a year ago, the market doesn’t look too different.

And a reference from April, when the market was red hot:

The real estate market for homes with the Los Gatos – Saratoga Joint Union High School District only

Now let’s view just the homes which are in the Los Gatos – Saratoga Joint Union High School District (or homes “in the schools” as locals say).Houses for sale with Los Gatos schools tend to be more pricey than those in neighboring school districts. This isn’t just the schools, but is also a function of being closer to downtown Los Gatos. The lowest priced homes in this area are seldom listed for less than $1 million.

Once again, we’ll compare it against last February. While the overall market is moving faster today than in February, here we can see that for homes in the Los Gatos School District were moving more quickly in winter. While the number of sales hasn’t changed much, inventory has gone up in this sector.

From last November, again, not a ton different between then and now.

Average & median sale prices in Los Gatos

May 3, 2019 by Mary Pope-Handy

My RE Report stats come out between the 5th and the 10th of each month, but I like to get a sneak peak, so crunch my own numbers some of the time. Today I wanted a window into Los Gatos real estate pricing. First, here are the average and median sale prices for the Los Gatos market in the two “in town” zip codes of 95030 and 95032 (for single family homes):

Next, the Los Gatos Mountains (MLS area 23, zip code 95033):

Additional market info to follow in just a few days!

Comparing the Los Gatos real estate market to others

April 15, 2019 by Mary Pope-Handy

Silicon Valley real estate market comparison: Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino and Los Altos on the Valley of Heart’s Delight blog, SanJoseRealEstateLosGatosHomes.com

Today we’re looking at the real estate market for houses in some of the “west valley” communities along the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains – areas where schools are good, crime is low, residents enjoy scenic views of the hills (or of the valley from the hills, depending on the location) and overall, a highly educated population not too far from Highway 85.

Please hop on over to my Valley of Heart’s Delight blog to check out how the Los Gatos market is doing as compared to Saratoga, Cupertino, and Los Altos.

https://sanjoserealestatelosgatoshomes.com/market-comparison-los-gatos-saratoga-cupertino-and-los-altos/

Pricing difference for Los Gatos homes “with the schools” versus Union or Campbell schools

March 14, 2015March 11, 2015 by Mary Pope-Handy

Recently I have noticed a couple of very high sales prices for properties in east Los Gatos with Union Schools, especially Alta Vista, Carlton, and Noddin schools. It should be noted that ALL of the elementary and middle schools throughout Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, and the Los Gatos Mountains are very strong and can boast excellent school test scores, notably good parental involvement, and pleasant campuses. Even so, homes closest to downtown Los Gatos and with the Los Gatos Union School District have always sold for a noticeable amount more than those outside of that area. Often the delta is 10-20%, but it can very a lot. On a couple of occasions recently, though, it seemed like at least some homes selling in the Union or Campbell schools are were gleaning prices more typically seen closer to downtown.

So I started to wonder – Is the gap between the two major areas (in the schools / not in the schools) shrinking? Let’s see by running the numbers in the MLS for one or two segments of the market.

Multiple Listing Service study criteria:

The search I created was for houses in Los Gatos (not Monte Sereno or San Jose on the border), zip codes 95030, 95032 (sorry, Los Gatos Mountains not included in this study); home age 20-60 years, lot size 6,000 to 10,000 SF. These are “normal homes” and not luxury or estate properties, of course.

Los Gatos 95030 and 95032 with Los Gatos Union School District
# of Listings: 9 AVG VALUES: age: 34 years days on market: 28 size of home: 1,798 SF size of lot: 6,342 price per SF: $901.94
average list price: $1,472,872 average sale price: $1,480,000

Los Gatos 95030 and 95032 with Union School District or Campbell Union School District
# of Listings: 15 AVG VALUES: age: 49 years days on market: 22 size of home: 1,912 SF size of lot: 8,416 SF price per SF: $712.23
average list price: $1,245,033 average sale price: $1,297,700

As you can see, it’s not really wise to use just “price per square foot” to compare these areas, because the age of the property and the lot size are significantly different. I approached it also by trying to target just the sale price at about $1.5 million, but the data was so limited that I could not exclude newer homes or smaller parcels. So let’s see what you can get in these two areas for that amount, or close to it.

Los Gatos real estate market months of inventory by price point and high school district

August 31, 2015December 17, 2013 by Mary Pope-Handy

December 17, 2013

Sorting out the local Los Gatos real estate market can be a bit tricky, but one of the best instruments for measuring performance is the months of inventory (MOI, or absorption rate). In this article we’ll consider the MOI houses in Los Gatos 95030 and 95032 by high school district and price point, since I believe those are the two main drivers of our residential real estate market.

Also, this time I’m adding in the pending sales as an indicator of where the market is going, too – just to cover the bases! Finally, since I did a similar study the first week in November, but without the pendings, I’ll keep those below the current tables for the sake of comparison. Overall, right now we have a brisk 2 months of inventory for houses in Los Gatos. But homes in the lowest price point are selling far faster – at about 10 days of inventory!! The MOI increases very clearly with higher price points, where it becomes increasingly challenging to sell.

About six weeks earlier, it looked like this chart below -the MOI is now a lot faster (4.19 then to 2.04 now) as inventory has shrunk by about a third and sales have increased (21 to 28 now). Perhaps most striking is the change in the luxury or high end market over the last six weeks. It seems far harder to sell a luxury home now as opposed to then.

Next up – homes “in the schools” with Los Gatos High School, then those in the Leigh HS and Westmont HS attendance areas. How will these numbers stack up compared to the town as a whole?

Please read the full article on my Valley of Hearts Delight blog