Belmont Home Sales – March 2012

Belmont Homes Sales on The Rise

After an extremely busy winter home selling season and an unusually active spring, these are the home sales in Belmont for March 2012.

The media hasn’t mentioned much about the multiple offers which are once again very prevalent, but then it usually takes several months of prolonged activity before sales become statistics. If you’re someone who would rather get ahead of the market, now’s a good time to assess your position in the housing market.

Belmont March 2012

NUMBER OF HOMES SOLD  – Belmont’s homes sales improved dramatically from March of 2011. Home Sales in Belmont were up 29%, from 17 sales last year to 22 this March.

DAYS ON MARKET  – The time it took to sell a home in Belmont dropped from 43 days last March to only 38 this year.

PERCENT RECEIVED – Sellers not only sold their home faster they also received closer to their asking price. The average seller this March received 101.6% of their asking price compared to last March when sellers received 99.4%.

REDUCING THE PRICE –  Last year 29% of sellers had to lower their asking price expectations by on average $43,000 to attract a buyer. This March only 14% [three sellers] lowered their asking price before obtaining an offer. Either buyers are willing to pay more, or sellers are listening to their agent’s advice on pricing their home.

MEDIAN PRICE  – The Median price was up from last March’s $840,000 to this year’s $899,000, though the size home one could purchase this year was also larger by 12%, essentially negating any perceived increase in the median home price. Interestingly, this does not ring true with what we are seeing; for which we offer the explanation that statistics alone cannot account for the condition of the homes which sold. If last year homes which sold were smaller but in much better condition than the homes which sold this year, the price per square foot would be much higher for homes sold last year–which happens to be the case.

The Belmont home market is very strong right now. Most homes are selling in multiple offers. We recently sold a home at 1528 Altura Way in Belmont. Listed for $915,000 we received four offers and it sold in ten days for $962,000. This week we closed escrow on our listing at 2605 Read Avenue. We listed that home at $820,000 and it sold in ten days with 10 offers for $882,300!

As always, you are welcome to visit our web page for detailed statistics on the Belmont housing market.

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario. 
*These are all the home sales in Belmont, CA for last month. Drew & Christine Morgan did not necessarily participate in any or all of these sales.

 

 

My Story. A Story About A Home in San Carlos

I visited a home in San Carlos today and the seller had this story posted for everyone to read. I found it moving…

My Story

Although I was “born” in 1969, my story really began 13 years before. One spring day, a young couple looking for the perfect spot to raise a family, came down the lane. They had seen many, many properties but the woman knew the minute she spotted the majestic oak that this was THE ONE.My Story in San Carlos

Don’t you want to see the house first asked the man, referring to the little, two-bedroom house that was, at the time, the only one on the property.

“Yes”, replied the woman as she plopped down under the oak, “But it won’t matter. I already know this is our home.”

And so it was. Soon they welcomed their first child, then another, and so on. The little house was bursting at the seams. But there was room to grow- underneath the grand oak tree. I swelled with pride when my family moved in. the eldest, on the verge of becoming a young woman, loved her private balcony and hiding away in the library that held shelf-after-shelf of her favorite books. The little red-headed boy chose the largest room because it looked out onto the huge yard he loved to explore, particularly his favorite plum trees that he knew would provide years of climbing and juicy plums ideal for neighborhood battles. The littlest, a brown-haired girl, was tucked away in the smallest bedroom, bedecked with a brand-new canopy bed that made her feel cozy and provided the perfect cave for her collection of much loved stuffed animals.

So, our life together began. As the years went on, I was filled to the brim with love, laughter, song, tears, and heartache –all the joys and sorrows that life brings. I embraced my family and loved watching them grow and change. But, one by one, the children began to leave. I was sad, but I knew that no matter what house the moved to, I was always Home. I was the place that held the Christmas tree; I was the kitchen that cooked Thanksgiving turkey; I was the pool that hosted birthday parties. But as time passed, their visits were less often, the couple stayed with me, but it became clear the others had, at last, found their own perfect homes in which to build new memories.

And one day the couple looked at each other across their now – empty table. Their bodies were bent and their faces weathered. They new, and so did I

“It’s time.”

Time to pass me on to another family, to build their own lifetime of memories, underneath the branches of my sheltering oak tree.

 

How Property Boundary Line Disputes Arrise

Assessing property boundaries is both an art and a science.

Disputes regarding property boundaries can arise for a number of Property Boundary Dispute in Belmontreasons. Properties can be difficult to survey. Rough terrain and human error may lead to miscalculation. Older boundaries may have been determined with poor instrumentation.

One common boundary-related problem occurs when a gap of land–known in the surveying industry as a hiatus–is found between properties and does not belong to either party. These gaps, as well as boundary overlaps, tend to occur when properties are resurveyed and discrepancies are found in either a subsequent survey (the junior survey) or with the original survey (the senior survey).

The federal courts have settled many property boundary disputes. Over time, established procedures have evolved for resolving these discrepancies.

In U.S. v. Weyerhaeuser Company (1967), the 9th Circuit Court decided that discrepancies in surveys did not matter and that the original monuments– the permanently placed survey markers in the ground–marked the boundary, and any resulting hiatus was deemed public land. The courts have consistently determined that hiatus land shall remain in the public domain.

Cases regarding overlaps are more complicated. Courts have consistently said that when two officially accepted surveys conflict, and the result is an overlap, the survey that is senior in time takes precedent.

When it comes to court cases involving property rights, the concept of “first in time, first in right” is firmly established. In Wirth v. Branson (1878), the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that once a property had been patented (title of ownership confirmed by the government) the government cannot convey that land to any second party.

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario.

 

PROFILE of a BELMONT HOME SALE

What was the profile of the average home that sold in Belmont last year?

  • The average home which sold had three bedrooms, two baths was 1,925 square feet in size and was located on a 6,430 square foot lotSold Home Sign
  • It sold for $879,450 in 44 days

BELMONT STATISTICS for 2011

 

  • There were 186 single family home sales in 2011
  • The average time a home was on the market before the seller received an offer was 44 days
  • 32% of Belmont homes sold over the asking price in just 19 days
  • 11% sold at the seller’s asking price in 29 days
  • 57% sold under the asking price and took 60 days to do so
  • 103% was the percent of the asking price the sellers received who sold their homes in 19 days
  • 96% was the percent of asking the sellers whose homes were overpriced received in 60 days

It becomes abundantly clear that the last thing any seller should want to do is overprice their home, yet more than half of the homes sold in 2011 were overpriced. These sellers also had to lower their asking price by on average $61,000 and then received 7% less for their homes than ones priced correctly.

If you are considering selling your home this year, choosing a local agent who knows the values in Belmont and then of course listening to what they tell you will go a long way towards putting more money in your pocket.

The information contained in this article is educational and intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute real estate, tax or legal advice, nor does it substitute for advice specific to your situation. Always consult an appropriate professional familiar with your scenario.