The Real Estate Beat: It's Listing Season

Kevin Kennedy from RPM Mortgage called me last Monday to wish me a “happy opening day” and he wasn’t talking baseball. In fact, the day after the Super Bowl is the day many sellers have been waiting for, and buyers are eagerly awaiting the new inventory.

Another email greeted me with “Listing Season is Here.” And let’s hope so because buyers are eagerly looking for the new listings.

But Tour this week was not an explosion of new listings, although certainly a few nice new choices. In Lafayette (Tuesday's Tour), parking at each of the new open homes was a challenge. All of us were eagerly checking out the new inventory. Thursday’s tour included six new listings in Alamo, 22 in Danville, and 33 in San Ramon. Here are the current inventory numbers and the change from last week:

• Alamo – 64 (-1)
• Danville – 153 (+11)
• Blackhawk – 35 (+4)
• San Ramon – 130 (+6)
• Dublin – 87 (+8)
• Pleasanton – 120 (+9)
• Lafayette – 53 (+2)
• Orinda – 37 (+6)
• Pleasant Hill – 66 (-8)
• Walnut Creek – 110 (-2)
• Rossmoor – 93 (-3)
• Antioch – 167 (-32)

In Alamo, there were 11 sales in the month of January, with price per-square-foot ranging from $274 to $454, with a median of $370. Sales prices ranged from $575,000 to $2,618,00, with a median of $910,000 and an average of 69 days on market. I mentioned the details of 7 of those sales in other posts, but here are the final 4:

• 42 Vista Lane: $595,000, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1579-square-feet, .31-acre lot, built in 1953. This is a very original house–with nice potential (great location backing to Iron Horse Trail). Originally priced at $670,000 but sold for $575,000 or $364/sf.

• 375 Golden Grass Dr.: $1,650,490, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 4200-square-feet, .43 acre lot, built in 2011. This is one of the brand new homes near Monte Vista High School. Sold for $1,575,000 or 375/sf.

• 1017 Stone Valley: $579,900, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1321-square-feet, .57 acre lot, built in 1923. This was a bank owned home by the time it sold. It was on the market in 2010 as a short sale and was “pending subject lender approval” from September 2010 to April 2011 (in other words, forever). It did not obtaining lender approval and went through the foreclosure process and became bank owned. The bank’s original price was $674,900 and the home sold for an even $600,000 or $454/sf.

• 39 Cypress Point Ct.: $999,000, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2870-square-feet, 1/2 acre lot, built in 1963. This home sold as a short sale, but was originally on the market in 2010 for $1,285,000 hoping not to sell short. It sold at the current list price ($999,000) or $348/sf.

In other towns, the sales information for January looks like this:

• Danville – 26 sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $166 to $416 with a median of $300; sales prices from $190,000 to $1,475,000 with a median of $682,000 and an average of 30 days on market.

• Blackhawk – five sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $234 to $397 with a median of $287; sales prices from $735,000 to $2,525,000 with a median of $1,185,000 and an average of 84 days on market.

• San Ramon – 61 sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $131 to $353 with a median of $253; sales prices from $102,000 to $1,021,000 with a median of $466,000 and an average of 45 days on market.

• Dublin – 39 sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $165 to $337 with a median of $243; sales prices from $165,000 to $1,003,800 with a median of $412,900 and an average of 39 days on market.

• Pleasanton – 43 sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $172 to $492 with a median of $301; sales prices from $150,000 to $1,475,000 with a median of $565,000 and an average of 51 days on market.

• Lafayette – eight sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $252 to $646 with a median of $347; sales prices from $415,000 to $2,950,000 with a median of $892,500 and an average of 68 days on market.

• Orinda – There were only five sales in Orinda; four of them under a million and one priced over $2 million but without the sales price reported, which makes the range and median hard to say. The low price-per-square-foot was $319 (a one bedroom condo priced at $229,500) and the high price-per-square-foot was in the neighborhood of $500 for the upper-end home. Average days on market: 97.

• Pleasant Hill – 26 sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $126 to $317 with a median of $211; sales prices from $95,000 to $875,000 with a median of $331,500 and an average of 61 days on market.

• Walnut Creek – 55 sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $127 to $591 with a median of $255; sales prices from $75,000 to $1,515,000 with a median of $377,000 and an average of 53 days on market.

• Rossmoor – 42 sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $76 to $467 with a median of $143; sales prices from $58,000 to $1,050,000 with a median of $155,000 and an average of 81 days on market.

• Antioch – 93 sales, price-per-square-foot ranging from $22 to $141 with a median of $104; sales prices from $20,000 to $400,000 with a median of $179,900 and an average of 34 days on market.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been tracking the inventory in Antioch since 2007 (when they peaked at around 1,300 listings), and it’s been pretty steady right around 200 for the last year or more. Today’s low (down 32) from last week is the lowest I’ve seen it. And with 93 sales in January, no wonder. But are you wondering, like I am, what sells in Antioch for $20,000?

• 2117 Lemontree Way #4: a 2 bedroom, 1 bath condo with 925-square-feet. Bank-owned, includes a one car garage. The unit is upstairs, above the garage and shares a wall with only one other unit. HOA monthly dues are $360.

Interesting…especially with the rental market so strong right now.