The Easter and Passover holidays in combination with spring break brought
an anticipated cooling of activity in many areas. However, there were
a lot of surprises in our markets as well, with hot spots in the communities
with the least inventory of new properties.
With the Easter holiday being a notoriously slow one for open houses,
the recent influx of groups touring properties was not expected to materialize.
But of our more than 240 homes held open, a number of areas saw surprising
attendance levels. A $1.9 million listing in Berkeley had a “mob”
of people go through. Agents “flocked” to open houses on tour
in the Greenbrae area. Redwood City reported an “amazing amount
of attendees,” and open houses remain a “hot commodity”
in San Francisco. Turnout was also impressive in Burlingame, Palo
Alto and Woodside/Portola Valley.
Multiple offers remain highly competitive in a number of areas. An
El Cerrito Hills property received nine offers. Larkspur saw a $1.6
million fixer receive four offers and sell well over asking. Palo Alto
reports that the majority of their sales are from multiple offer situations.
In San Francisco, a Noe Valley home received 26 offers during the
week, and the only listing that received only one offer received that
pre-emptively. Orinda too is very busy with multiple offer situations.
Listing inventory is still seeing incremental increases in most
areas, though not fast enough for the City and much of the Peninsula.
Danville actually saw four listings get sold from “coming soon”
signs. The Marin market remains “on fire,” with the $2 million
range being particularly strong - as one Greenbrae Sales Associate put
it, “$2 million is the new $1 million.” I toured new listings
in Palo Alto this Friday and felt the very same thing -most of the listings
I saw were asking $1.8M to $2.4M. The agents I toured with commented
it was the greatest increase for number of new properties on tour in
quite some time.
Eight offices saw an increase in listings during the week, while only
5 reported a decrease and 17 indicated steady listing inventory. And
while these holidays and the Spring break generally see a slowing in
sales, 15 offices maintained steady sales activity, 6 saw an increase
and only 9 reported decreased activity.
Buyers would undoubtedly be confused by misleading newspaper articles
such as those that appeared in the Chronicle this week. But the reality
of Bay Area real estate is that buyers are researching, recognizing
and grabbing a good deal when they see one – and are willing to
negotiate and fight for properties that are well-priced and in good
condition. They continue to recognize the positive value of Bay Area
real estate as a long term investment.
Rick Turley
President
Coldwell Banker SF/Peninsula
