July 26, 2010
As of today, there are 163 single family homes (houses & duet homes) for sale in Los Gatos 95030 and 95032. In the last month, 29 homes in that same area closed escrow. So the months of inventory for Los Gatos houses for sale is 5.62, very close to the benchmark of a balanced market, which is 6 months. (There are also 48 sales which are pending without a release clause, but not all of these will close escrow.)
Here are some quick facts regarding the 29 homes which have closed escrow in the last month.
List price to sales price ratio
- the average list price to sales price is 98% (most homes sold for less than asking price)
- 14 out of 29 sold for less than list price (48%)
- 3 sold right at list price (10%)
- 12 sold for more than list price (41%)
Distressed sales (short sales and bank owned homes)
- 3 of the 29 were short sales (10%)
- 1 of the 29 was bank owned or REO (3%)
- distressed sales (3 +1) accounted for 14% of the solds
Days on market, home size and lot size
- the average Days on Market of these solds was 48
- the average length of escrow was 46 days
- the average square footage of the homes was 2552
- the average square footage f the lot was 15,788
Average list price and average sales price, median list & sales price, highest and lowest price of homes bought
- the average list price was $1,460,754
- the average sales price was $1,437,434
- the median list price was $1,308,000 & median sales price $1,275,000
- the least expensive home sold went for $800,000 (a 1 bed, 1 bath cottage)
- the most expensive home sold for $3,550,000
Price Points of sold homes in Los Gatos
Most of the homes sold between 1 and 2 million dollars. Here’s the breakdown by price points:
Over $3 mil = 1 home
Between $2 mil and $ 3 mil = 2 homes
Between $1 mil and $2 mil = 21 homes
Under $1 million = 5 homes
How fast are homes selling in Los Gatos?
The DOM was 48 as an average, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. While some homes sold only after many months, a number of them sold fast:
Within 1 week = 6 (21%)
Between 1 and 2 weeks = 4 (14%)
Between 2 and 3 weeks = 5 (17%)
Between 3 and 4 weeks = 2 (7%)
All DOM at or under a month = 17 = 59% of the sales. So the odds are very good that if your home is priced right, it will sell in the first 1-3 weeks on the market. The most sales of these “sold quickly” homes happened in the very first week.
What about all the homes that have not sold? What can the owners learn from this? First, your best chance of selling is early on in the listing period. If you get to the one month mark, the chances begin diminishing that you can sell without a price change. Do everything you can to make your home turnkey and super accessible that very first week or two especially!
What is key to sales success is generating a good amount of qualified traffic, again especially early in the game. In Los Gatos, having open houses and having the home open for the broker’s tour are both important (at least initially – less so after 2 or 3 weeks on the market). If you are not getting at least 3 to 5 showings per week, you may have a problem. (Disclaimer: this is “in general” and may not apply to luxury estates and certain other properties.) Having overly restrictive showing schedules makes it hard to show and hard to sell.
For homes priced below $2,000,000 it is really not a bad market right now for sellers or buyers – it is pretty balanced overall. In some areas there’s more competition then sellers would prefer, but in general these homes are moving when priced right, nicely staged and well marketed.
