Number Talk: Smart Homes

Did you know? Smart home technology can save you 30 minutes a day and $100 a year. See more facts and figures in this infographic, and contact us with questions.

– The Geek

Number Talk: Flip Rate

Did you know? The “flip rate” in the U.S. just reached 10.9% of all home sales. That’s because flipping today is less risky and less speculative than it was a decade ago, and more corporate flippers are entering the market: 41.2% in 2018 compared to just 11.4% in 2005. Learn more

– The Geek

Morning Gratitude: Valentine's Day

Our life is sweeter because of you. Thank you for supporting us and our business. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

Did you know? Rising Valentine’s Day sales over the past 10 years point to increasing consumer confidence and a growing, robust economy. How does that affect the real estate market? Find out more

Number Talk: Market Dynamics

It feels like the market is heating up again. I recently worked with a fellow agent on a single-family listing in the Cuesta Park neighborhood of Mountain View. The home listed at $1.87M. Yesterday, on the offer date, we had 21 bids with the highest at $2.22M. As you’d expect, the seller accepted without contingencies. but we were all shocked by the competition.

Ever since September 2018, the market has seemed to slow, so why the sudden jump with this property? Well, there are a couple of factors at play here. First, if you look at the graph below, supply is very low compared to one year ago. When there is an extreme imbalance of supply and demand, you naturally see price hikes.

The second factor is seasonality. Late winter/early spring is generally a great time for sellers, as buyers start to look for houses after the holidays and before the spring break. And with inventory so low right now, it’s like a perfect storm!

Please contact us if you want to know the inventory level in your neighborhood or a particular city that piques your interest.

– The Geek

Number Talk: Bay Area Median Sales Prices

We hear a lot about “median sales price”, but what does that really mean? Well, the median is the middle number of a data set when you arrange it from high to low. That means the median sales price represents the price at which half the properties in an area sell higher and the other half lower.

Okay, so how is that different from the “average sales price”? The average sales price is calculated by adding up all the prices for home sales in a specific area within a specified time frame and dividing that total by the number of properties sold.

Median and average sales can be valuable sets of data for both buyers and sellers in helping them set their budgets. However, it’s important to remember that the average sale price may be skewed due to outliers in the data – i.e.properties sold at prices far higher or lower than typical for the area.