Los Altos Housing Market: Feel the Heat

It has become a typical neighborhood scene on weekends: Your neighbors down the street are trying to sell their house, and the block is packed with homebuyers who want so much to be your new neighbors.

You are thinking, is the local housing market is heating up again?

Yep, your guess is being confirmed by the latest home sales report, which shows that the market is experiencing a solid rebound into the spring season.

Demand for housing is especially strong in Los Altos, where both the sales and price jumped sharply last month with as compared to 28 last year. The median home price also rose by a whopping 20 percent to $1,915,000 from $1,5975,00.

If anyone still has doubt about the strength of the market, take a look at two additional market indicators: how long, on average, a house is on the market before a contract is signed, and how much buyers pay compared to the list price.  

Last month, it took an average of 35 days to sell a home in Los Altos. And that was with the average skewed by a few properties that were finally sold after having been on the market for months.

In fact, most homes went under contract within one to two weeks. Additionally, most buyers paid over the asking price, by as much as 10 percent, in order to win the bidding war.

Los Altos Hills

Though not as dramatic, sales in Los Altos Hills were also strong. In March, eight homes were sold, which was 33 percent lower than the same time last year. But the median home price is up. The median jumped by 7 percent—from $2,383,334 last year to $2,5500,00. The average days on market was stable, but buyers, on average, did pay closer to the list price compared to the same time one year ago.

Spring is always a strong home buying season with buyers and sellers gradually returning to the market after the winter holidays; and families trying to move before summer.

But the market is particularly robust this year, with sales picking up even earlier than usual. With the local economy continuing to improve and lots of cash that has been waiting on the sidelines, it is hard to imagine the market momentum will slow down any time soon.

So how high the market is going to run before summer? Stay tuned and we’ll give you another update as soon as the April’s statistics are out.

March 2012 Home Sales Statistics

Single Family Residences

City

Sales

Change from last year

Average Days on Market

Median price

Change from last year

% of list price

Los Altos

36

29%

35

1,915,000

20%

101%

LAH

8

-33%

137

2,550,000

7%

96%

Source: MLS Listings

Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

Winnie Yip Fong, a Los Altos resident and a local realtor, prepares this monthly home sales report to keep readers updated of the local housing market. Email her to winniefong.realestate@gmail.com for any suggestions or comments. You can also follow her on www.twitter.com/SVHomes for more local real estate updates.