Los Altos real estate market report - December 2011

Talk about ending the year on a high note, the average sales price in Los Altos in November was $1,921,827 which is up from $1,775,630 last month.  The median is down compared to last month but that's being caused by several low-end sales.  We saw the same issue last month but more so in November and we'll see it again in December.  A few sellers have been dumping smaller homes at really low prices which skews the average and median numbers quite a bit.  Even with those in the mix, the market is showing a lot of strength.

This time of year is great for home buyers but inventory continues to be an issue. There were 23 new single-family homes listed in November and 30 homes sold.  That's a net 7 unit drop in inventory, not including listings can are cancelled or expired (25 of those last month).  I'm seeing homes that have sat for weeks finally getting offers at the end of November and into December because the available inventory of homes is so low.  We're not seeing many new homes come at this time of year and the number of homes remaining on the market is extremely low.  There is 2.4 months of inventory based on current demand.

The sales to list price ratio is down a bit to 97.4% which is typical at this time of year.  When homes that have been on the market a while sell, they do so at a discount.  The current trend is seasonal and even then, it's strong for this time of year.

What you can't see in the numbers is that the buyer demand in Los Altos is huge.  There are several agents complaining that they can't find appropriate homes for buyers.  Many "would be" buyers are opting to rent until they can find a home they'll be happy with.  This spike in rental demand means that buyers are queuing up for next year, most likely in the late Spring to early fall timeframes.  The point is that now is the time to buy, while prices are where they are.