Los Altos Hills Market Conditions February 2014

• Sales very low
• Inventory rises
• Sales too low for any conclusions about prices

Both closed sales and sales that went into contract were very low in February, making any conclusions about prices (or most other statistics for that matter) meaningless. Inventory increased some but remained below the level of a year ago for the second consecutive month.

The median sales price in February was $3,100,000, up from $2,557,500 in January $2,750,000 a year ago. Don’t go out and spend all that money just yet, though, because with only three and four closed sales in February and January, respectively, the sample size is too small for a valid comparison. The average price per square foot decreased from $1417 in January to $1013 in February. That was still higher than the $715 form a year ago. February was the third consecutive month with an average price per square foot over $1000.

Only three sales closed in February, one less than in January, which was already very low. By comparison, the average for 2013 was 12 closed sales a month and he fewest in any month was six. The number of pending sales remained low (see below), so we may not see a pick-up in closed sales for a little while here.

Five sales went pending in February, up from four in January. Like closed sales, these are low totals for Los Alto Hills. The average number of sales going into contract in a month for 2013 was 12, with the fewest being three (December). A year ago, there were nine sales that went pending. Inventory also remained very low, although it increased by three units to 19 at the end of February. 27 properties were actively listed a year ago.

The average closed sale in February was on the market for 59 days, up from 42 in January, but not far off the 62 from a year ago. Again, I caution putting too much inot the changes given the low number of sales involved.

Analysis by Price Range

Two homes priced under $3 million were actively listed at the end of February, the same as at the end of January but only a quarter of what was available a year ago. Three sales went pending in this segment, the same as in January but less than half of the total from a year ago (7). 11% of Los Altos Hills’ inventory was in this segment at the end of February, while 60% of the sales that went pending were for less than $3 million.

Homes priced from $3 million to $4.99 million accounted for about a third of Los Altos Hills’ inventory at the end of February and 40% of the sales that went into contract during the month. Six homes were actively listed in this price range at the end of February, two more than at the end of January. Two sales went into contract in February, one more than in January.

The biggest share of inventory in Los Alto Hills was priced at $5 million and up (58% at the end of February). 11 properties were actively listed in this segment at the end of February, one more than at the end of January. There were, however, no sales that went pending in this segment during February, which was also the case the prior two months.