Silicon Valley Real Estate Snapshot - November 18, 2024 - Seb Frey, Silicon Valley + Bay Area REALTOR

Everyone wants to know…how’s the real estate market doing now, what with the election over, the week before Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season?

The good news for folks thinking about selling their homes is that there are still buyers out there. In fact, it seems as though overall there’s more buyers this year than last year at this time. I did a spot check on several counties on the MLS to see how many single-family homes have gone under contract over the past 30 days – this year, and a year ago. Here’s what I found:

San Mateo County

Year-ago: 349
This year: 345 (-1.1%)

Santa Clara County

Year-ago: 713
This year: 779 (+9.3%)

Santa Cruz County

Year-ago: 137
This year: 148 (+8%)

Monterey County:

Year-ago: 187
This year: 217 (+16%)

So in terms of the number of sales, the market is doing pretty well, significantly better than this time a year ago. Of course, sales volume is overall still low – we’re about 20% below the sales volume we were seeing pre-pandemic, and about 50% below the longer-term historical sale volume.

But how are prices doing? Check out the median sale price of single family homes in the past 30 days:

San Mateo County

Year-ago: $1,862,500
This year: $1,950,000 (+4.7%)

Santa Clara County

Year-ago: $1,750,000
This year: $1,950,000 (+11.4%)

Santa Cruz County

Year-ago: $1,290,000
This year: $1,351,000 (+4.7%)

Monterey County:

Year-ago: $1,093,000
This year: $950,000 (-13.1%)

So prices seem to be holding strong for the most part, too – although, bear in mind, any 30-days is a short period of time and there tends to be more volatility in smaller data sets – which is why when Compass does its monthly reporting, it uses a 3-month rolling average. So here are the sale prices in October 2024 per Compass, using a 3-month rolling average:

San Mateo County

Year-ago: $1,900,000
This year: $1,850,000 (-2.6%)

Santa Clara County

Year-ago: $1,810,000
This year: $1,900,000 (+4.9%)

Santa Cruz County

Year-ago: $1,210,000
This year: $1,300,000 (+7.4%)

Monterey County:

Year-ago: $970,000
This year: $950,000 (-2.1%)

Late in the year in 2024 – another in a run of challenging years – the Silicon Valley area real estate market continues to remain strong.

Interest rates remain stubbornly elevated – currently they are hovering around 6.75%, despite two recent Fed rate cuts. From all indications, they could be set to move even higher as the bond yield rates, most closely associated with mortgage rates, increase, as can clearly be seen in the image below:

US 10 Year Bond Yield Rates Chart

But it seems that the real estate market has priced in today’s mortgage rates, and the market keeps chugging along, if at something of a slower pace than in years gone by.

Of course, it’s anybody’s guess what 2025 will bring – so if you’re on the fence about selling over the holidays or waiting to see what January brings, you could hardly be blamed for landing on the side of selling now. There are clearly buyers out there and overall, pricing remains attractive for sellers.

If you’re thinking about selling or want to discuss the best strategy for you to get the best result possible, hit me up! Please reach out to me any time.