Again this week the trend continues...sales increased and inventory decreased across the county for Single Family Homes.  Last week inventory was 3828 with 2611 pending sales and this week inventory (data taken 5/4/09) dropped to 3672 with pending sales increasing to 2690 homes. 

Where are those sales concentrated?  I wondered this too as I've seen areas in the county selling with multiple offers and other areas with lots of inventory just sitting.  Real estate is very localized and so for statistics I've broken it down into MLS areas.

The data below shows Almaden Valley had a large jump in sales for April.  Almaden valley was one the areas talked about in past posts that was experiencing a lack of sales until April hit; obviously the increase in sales observed in  mid-April continued.  April's sales are almost exactly like 2008 April sales, so this data demonstrates that this market is settling out and hopefully prices will soon stabilize.

Cupertino is another area that had a significant increase in sales this past month, showing a 60% increase from March.  April sales this year compared to last year the same month are significantly higher.  Cupertino is in alignment with the country trend showing 2009 is a year of much more sales than recent years.

Saratoga also showed a slight breakthrough in April, but it still has not reached the 2008 April sales levels.  Buyers are being picky out there when shopping and are focused on value that they believe will be supported for 8-12 months from now, so Saratoga be ready for a little more price decline before your market settles down and prices stabilize since inventory is so large and sales are not at normal levels.

Santa Teresa and Morgan Hill ended up on the bottom of the list for sales changes seen in April.   These areas did show slight increases in sales though.  Not one MLS area had a decline in sales demonstrating the spring buying frenzy has begun, but is focused on key areas.

Another conclusion that can be drawn from this data is that the majority of sales are still focused in key areas, Alum Rock, Evergreen, Morgan Hill/Gilroy, and South San Jose (MLS Area 11).  All of these areas were hit very hard with prices from 2007 to 2008 and therefore are showing up as deals in the eyes of buyers.

Do you have any further questions or thoughts about this data?