It’s easy to see the numbers for June are much better for sellers than they were in May. Almost all indicators are up signaling a stronger market for sellers in June as compared to last month (click on the chart to see a full size version).
Looking at the same period over last year a similar pattern arises. Almost every indictor is in the seller’s favor.
More homes sold this June and at a faster rate. The percentage the seller received was a healthy 98% of their asking price. The month’s inventory—the time it would take to sell all of the homes currently listed at the current pace of sales—has dropped to a healthy 3.1 months—far below the national average of over 10 months.
Of course there’s one nagging indicator which isn’t easily seen, and certainly not reported by real estate groups or even the media. Although the median price is up in June 4.5% over May, the size home sold in June was a whopping 17% larger. Over the same period last year, the difference is even more staggering. So even though the median price is essentially the same as it was in June of 2008, the size home you get for you money has increased 25%.
What this all means is buyers are getting better deal this year than last.
Why then is the percent the seller received of their asking price higher than it was last year? Probably because sellers are pricing their homes more realistically; and although they are getting closer to their asking price as a percent, in real dollars they are receiving far less.
Looking at San Mateo County as a whole we see the same positive statistics. More sales, higher median price, fewer days on the market and less inventory. What is not available for the entire county is the median size home sold so we really have no idea if the median values are rising, or simply larger homes are selling. We tend to believe it’s the latter.
| May-09 | Jun-09 | Δ from May | Jun-08 | Δ from '08 | |
| Median | $840,000 | $878,000 | $38,000 | $877,000 | $1,000 |
| DOM | 46 | 25 | 21 | 43 | 18 |
| Month's Inventory | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Sales | 14 | 21 | 7 | 20 | 1 |
| Inventory | 62 | 62 | 0 | 61 | 1 |
| % Received | 98% | 98% | 0.0% | 91% | 7.00% |
| Median Size Home | 1,710 | 2000 | 290 | 1600 | 400 |
| Price per Sq. Ft. | $502.00 | $493.00 | $9.00 | $548.00 | $55.00 |