San Jose Real Estate Inventory Way Down

Inventory of homes for sale in San Jose is down, way down. A reliable metric I like to use is called Months of Inventory (MOI). This will paint me a fairly accurate picture of how well homes are selling compared to the inventory of homes for sale. For instance, if there are 90 homes on the market in a given area and 10 homes per month are selling, that tells us that there are 9 MOI. Anything over 6 months is considered a buyer’s market, under 6 months, a seller’s market. Looking back to December of 2007, there was 14.5 MOI, definitely a buyer’s market. As of the end of May, there was less than 2 MOI, clearly a seller’s market. These numbers don’t lie. If you’re a buyer, be prepared to compete with other buyers to get the home you want. If you’re a seller, things are looking up for you, finally. For more info about your specific area, please contact me at garynobile@aol.com or www.GaryNobile.com

Why Appraisals Can Cause Grief

Buyers Take Note: Write your purchase contract to give you maximum flexibility to renegotiate or walk away. The market is very hot right now in the price point under $500k for single family homes. Here's a recent issue that is causing us grief in the real estate industry. As prices are rising, appraisers aren't keeping up with the market. To be able to get a home in this price range buyers are typically faced with multiple offers from other buyers. The successful bidder starts the loan process by getting an appraisal. The appraiser is basing their value on homes that sold a couple of months ago before prices went up and show an appraised value less than the agreed-to purchase price. The only way a lender will lend money on a home in this situation is if the buyer pays the difference between the appraised value and the contractual value in cash. If the contract was written properly, the buyer can also try to renegotiate the price with the seller or walk away from the deal, out $500 she spent for the appraisal. The other option is to communicate with the appraiser the current market conditions and request him to make adjustments, something they are often unwilling to make. Some say this is a good process to protect lenders. Some say this inhibits a free market economy because no one cared when prices were dropping.

Silicon Valley Higher End Home Prices Improve

1. By Sue McAllister, Mercury News, 6/19/2009

With costlier homes selling better than they have in months, the median price of Silicon Valley houses rose 9 percent in May, the biggest month-over-month jump since March 2000, according to a report released Thursday. In Santa Clara County, the median price of previously owned single-family houses that changed hands last month rose to $475,000 from $435,000 in April, according to MDA DataQuick, which gathers the data from public records. But May's median price still represented a 32 percent decline from May 2008. Since hitting a low of $420,000 in January, median house prices in the county have risen every month. That trend, said Quincy Virgilio, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, is "a good indication that our market is starting to stabilize.
"Folks who see the value in the higher end are jumping into the market," he said.