Peninsula Snapshot: Serious Buyers Market
That’s right, folks, there is an abundance of homes available in the Peninsula cities of Redwood City, San Carlos, Belmont and San Mateo, and the prices are significantly lower than last year. In fact, just one year ago, I wrote a post where the lowest priced SFR sold in the RWC/SC/Belmont area for $705,000. Now the lowest list price for a SFR is $234,900 for a 760 sf home in Redwood City, and the lowest priced listing overall is $210,000 for a condo in San Mateo.
Redwood City is seeing the biggest spread in price range, with small east side properties (many short sales) starting in the mid-$200’s and pricing out at $3,000,000 up in Emerald Hills. San Mateo has the most listings, with 63 more than its closest competitor. It also has the most bank-listed foreclosures. San Carlos has the least stale listings, with only 47% of listings on the market more than 31 days. Belmont takes the prize on the over/under—and I’m not talking betting terms here—with 27 properties under $1mil and 28 over $1mil in price, while San Mateo has 274 (82%) of its listing priced under $1mil.
The breakdown for each city (# of listings, SFR/Condo, price range, DOM) follows after the jump.
Redwood City
- 271 MLS Listings
- 6 Bank-Listed Foreclosures
- 250 SFR
- 27 Condos
- Price Range $234,900 to $3,000,000
- 192 Under $1mil
- 85 Over $1mil
- 98 0-30 DOM
- 179 Over 31 DOM
San Carlos
- 111 MLS Listings
- 0 Bank-Listed Foreclosures
- 85 SFR
- 26 Condos
- Price Range $349,000 to $2,999,950
- 58 Under $1mil
- 53 Over $1mil
- 59 0-30 DOM
- 52 Over 31 DOM
Belmont
- 51 MLS Listings
- 4 Bank-Listed Foreclosures
- 49 SFR
- 6 Condos
- Price Range $330,000 to $1,638,000
- 27 Under $1mil
- 28 Over $1mil
- 17 0-30 DOM
- 38 Over 1 DOM
San Mateo
- 334 MLS Listings
- 10 Bank-Listed Foreclosures
- 193 SFR
- 151 Condos
- Price Range $210,000 to $2,250,000
- 274 Under $1mil
- 70 Over $1mil
- 117 0-30 DOM
- 227 Over 31 DOM
RWC said:
Where did you get your figures for San Carlos? I only see 65 active SFR listings in San Carlos right now…
September 23, 2008 12:47 PM
susan.brady said:
For the total number of listings, I use Movoto. When I pulled this data (within the last 24 hours), there were 111 total. I just checked again and it says 92 listings total and 67 SFR. Could be that MLS listing updates took effect, but I do use the same system for finding data on all cities. Movoto for #s and breakdown by SFR/Condo and Redfin for DOM, range of price.
September 23, 2008 1:30 PM
RWC said:
I wouldn’t use movoto, then. If they’re high by nearly 20%, something is wrong with their site. The fact that it told you there were even 85 active listings sounds fishy. I have been looking in san carlos for quite a while and I can’t recall that the number has even come close to 80 this entire year…
September 23, 2008 2:14 PM
susan.brady said:
I just went back into Movoto to do an advanced search in San Carlos. The initial number of homes that came up was 105 (different from both the 111 and the 92 I found earlier). When I went to the LIST function, it listed only 88. So something very fishy is going on. But I did go through all 88 to make sure that they were all in San Carlos and that there were no duplicates. Here is the link from my search, altho not convinced it will work:
http://www.movoto.com/customsearchresults.aspx?searchid=8c3bdfe5-5ff3-4315-8815-c734eb87179c&logPage=CUSTOM_SEARCH_RESULT&logSearch=custom&highPref=1#
September 23, 2008 3:27 PM
lex said:
But almost most of the those listings are undesirable, or homes that are still overpriced. Seriously, can you find a 3/2 SFH, at 800K west of el camino Belmont, San Mateo, and San Carlos?
September 23, 2008 3:34 PM
susan.brady said:
Not sure if that was a challenge Lex, but here are a few that might fit the criteria:
First, San Mateo/Glendale Village could be a good choice. Its one of those exceptions to the east side.
Overall, your best bets:
231 Windsor, San Carlos My grandmother lived on this street for 35 years. Love the area.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Carlos/231-WINDSOR-Dr-94070/home/1070263
1136 North Ct, Belmont 3/2
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Belmont/1136-NORTH-Ct-94002/home/1533786
You also neglect to mention Redwood City.
3647 Glenwood – this is my stomping grounds. Worst house, great neighborhood.
September 23, 2008 5:24 PM
Colin said:
Looks like a “serious renter’s market” to me…
September 23, 2008 6:36 PM
RWC said:
Hmmm.. 111, 92, 88 all within 48 hrs? I can’t believe there’s that much stuff selling in San Carlos in this market.
Why don’t you use mlslistings.com? Isn’t that where all of the websites (including yours) pull their data anyway? It took literally a couple of seconds to pull up San Carlos, where it lists 88 active and pending SFR’s — just like Movoto eventually got…sort of.
Just a suggestion…
September 24, 2008 4:43 AM
susan.brady said:
While I have not used movoto in a while, it always seemed to be reliable. This is the first time I have experienced such a diversity in numbers. What I like is certain search specifics and the way it sorts. I’ll just stick to Redfin in future.
September 24, 2008 7:14 AM
lex said:
The windsor property is more unique and fit more for the likes of Yosemite Sam. It was actually priced at 799K earlier but couldn’t find any interest. The price/sq ft ratio however is very attractive.
I haven’t see the property on north road, but it looks like it’s going to need another 20-30K in cosmetic upgrades alone.
September 24, 2008 11:58 AM