October was a month of polar opposites for home and condo sales in San Mateo County. While home sales bumped up 1% from one year ago, sales prices increased 8%, and homes are spending less time on the market.
Meanwhile, condo sales dropped 14% from 2022, prices fell 8% YOY, and properties are sitting on the market for two weeks longer than last year at this time.
Although average mortgage interest rates have seen a slight decline over the past few weeks, they’re still twice as high as just one year ago. Meanwhile, median housing prices in the Bay Area are on the rise despite a 14% drop year over year. With this level of volatility, a fixed-rate mortgage makes more sense every day. But again, personal circumstances may do the deciding for you.
The numbers are in from March, and sales of single family homes remained slow in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, down as much as 40% year over year, with median prices 13% below what they were a year ago. But properties are spending more time on the market as buyers are still wary of high mortgage interest rates.
Let’s take a look at how median sales prices for houses stacked up county-by-county from Napa to Monterey in Q4 2022. As you can see, costs get a bit more affordable the further you get from Silicon Valley and the Peninsula.
The market continues to wake up on the cool side of the pillow, with inventory and median sales prices down year over year. Of course, the holidays are typically a slow period, and with the global economy still in recovery mode, we’ll see what the new year has in store.
