Single family homes in San Mateo have held their own in pricing this past week. The Median price for everything sold was $699,000. There were 211 houses listed in the MLS showing an average of 124 days for these homes on the market. The most expensive house listed was for $2,795,000 and the least expensive was $349,900. At that least expensive price you can buy a house instead of a condo! Of course, this property needs work but never the less it’s a house on its own lot. Last week the median house had 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, was about 61 years old and is about 1500 square feet in size. San Mateo lots generally run between 4500 and 6500 square feet in size.
Okay, I hear you say to me, what does that mean for me? I’m a first time buyer and what does this mean and why should I care? First time buyers can get a choice of either an FHA loan – meaning you can put down as little as 3 1/2% down and finance the rest – or – get traditional financing with 20% down. We are beginning to hear about other financing programs coming back, so if you are serious about buying a house talk to your lender about the options you might have.
The market is up from the first of the year and up from the bottom of 2009. Traditionally real estate markets in San Mateo County are pretty sluggish around the new year since people are thinking about other things – the holidays and spending money in other places. 2010 was no exception if you look at the lovely Altos Research chart above this. The market started to take off in February and really got hot in March. All of you first time buyers trying to hitch your wagon to the federal program giving up to $8000 back in tax credits were out there bidding against each other. We saw lots and lots of multiple offers. The Federal program is gone but there is a nice California program that will be around for a couple of months. Once the money is gone, the program is gone. It’s a $10,000 tax credit spread over two years. I’ll write a bit more about this soon.
The Market Action Index is a nifty measurement exclusive to Altos Research, the company we subscribe to for our research on the local markets. It tells us how the market is doing for San Mateo. They say San Mateo is still a strong buyer’s market. They give it a Market Index of 19.4. The line going across the chart sits at 30 where we see the balance tip to a Seller’s Market. It’s moving up towards a more balanced market but with over 200 properties to select in San Mateo buyers have lots to choose from.
We know the San Mateo market. We sell this market and look at the homes all of the time. If you are considering purchasing a home here, let us help you make an educated choice. We can be reached by email or phone. Our contact information is on the right side of this post. If we’re online, you can reach us live by clicking on the Contact Us button. Alex and Lenore are experienced full time Realtors here to help you.
