San Mateo Real Estate Price Report – January 2009

By Raymond Stoklosa · February 10th, 2009

San Mateo Real Estate Price Report

On behalf of The RayChel Realty Group, I am pleased to present the January 2009 edition of our MarketWATCH Report, a guide to San Mateo County real estate prices published on a monthly basis.

As we open 2009, there seems to be an air of hope surrounding the real estate market, but the market appears to still be finding its footing.

While we did get some good signs in the fourth quarter of 2008, the data this month is mixed at best. REOs and short sales have dominated the market, which may be a strong contributor to the price erosion we are seeing this month. Never the less, the data shows that sellers must continue to be patient, price their home right and be open to offering concessions to both the prospective buyers and agents. With so many homes on the market, the reality is that agents have a great influence on which home a buyer ends up choosing. Smart sellers are doing everything they can to give the buyer a compelling reason to buy their home instead of someone else’s.

Yet, there is good news to report as well. It seems that there is smart money moving back into real estate. Many transactions today are investor-driven as savvy investors see today’s buyer’s market as an opportune time to buy.

This is also a great market for first-time buyers. Credit worthy consumers who have a reasonable down payment and are looking to establish roots for the long term, can find the buy of a lifetime.

Thank you for reading our report. Should you be interested in more information or have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

To download a copy of this report, please visit the MarketWATCH tab at our sister site, San Mateo Homes Info.

Fast Facts

Single family home sales data continue its downturn – Both the average and median prices fell to $683,900 and $553,750 respectively. Just 6 months ago, in July 2008, the average price of a San Mateo County home was $1,040,623 and the median was $800,000 – representing a 34% and 30% decrease.
REOs and short sales dominate the market – Of the 163 single family homes sold in January, 87 of them, a remarkable 53.4%, were either bank owned properties (REOs) or short sales. This volume of distressed sales has most likely contributed to the erosion in the average price and median price calculations this month.
Homes for under 200K? – Only 10 of the 87 distress sales (11.5%) were above $600,000, the most expensive selling for $880,000, and 22 homes selling for under $300,000 (25.3%) the least costly selling for $166,000.
Taking longer to sell – Average days on the market moves up to over three months, 96 days as compared to 76 in January 2008. Note that the 96 days on market average reflects only homes that actually sold and does not include homes that failed to sell and were removed from the market.
Total sales volume take a tumble – While the number of closed sales is comparable to January, 2008, 163 vs. 152, the total sales volume – a statistics is often associated with consumer confidence – is down to $110,791,806 versus $183,335,371.