Los Altos Hills Market Conditions January 2015
- Lack of inventory crimps sales
- Inventory up slightly but still very low
- Prices down but volume too low to mean much
The song remains the same in Los Alto Hills. Low inventory is making it a very difficult market for buyers and sales fall, with upward pressure on prices. This has been the consistent story here for well over a year and January provided little indication that any change is in the offing.
The median sales price in January was $3,140,000. That was nearly $2 million below December’s $5,060,000 bust till 22% higher than January 2014’s $2,557,500. The average price per square foot fell 22% ($265) in January, from $1,214 in December to $949. On average, January’s four closed sales, received 101% of their list price, up from 99.4% in December but down from 109% a year ago.
Only four sales closed in January, down from six in December and the fewest since February 2014 when three closed. January 2014 also had four sales.
We did have a slight increase in inventory in January, the first in four months. 16 homes were available at the end of the month, three more than at the end of December and the same number as a year ago. Five sales went pending during January, two more than in December and one more than in January 2014. Due to the dressed sales, inventory relative to pending sales increased from 1.9 months at the end of December to 3.2 months at the end of January.
Homes were listed for an average of 96 days in January, the most since September 2013 (102 days). The average was 41 days in December and 19 days a year ago.
Analysis by Price Range
There was no change in the inventory of homes priced under $3 million (three at the end of both January and December). One less sale went to contract in January (three) than in December (four). That left a one month supply at the end of December, up from about three weeks at the end of December. 60% of Los Alto Hills’ pending sales and 19% of its inventory was priced below $3 million.
Five properties priced from $3 million to $4,999,999 were on the market at the end of January, one more than at the end of December. Two sales went pending during January, unchanged from December. A 2.5 month supply was available at the end of January, up from 2.0 months at the end of December. This price range accounted for 31% of inventory and 40% of sales.
No sales of homes price at or above $5 million went to contract in January, compared to one in December. Inventory increased by two units to end January with eight. That was half of Los Alto Hills’ total inventory.
