Los Altos Market Conditions January 2015
- Inventory rebounds
- Price indicators slip for second month
- Closed sales fall but nearly double year ago
- Pending sales flat
After being historically low last month, the inventory of homes for sale in Los Altos got a nice lift in January, propelled by homes priced over $2 million. While the lack of inventory has hampered sales of late and generally put upward pressure on prices, most price indicators actually fell in January. I don’t know if it was just an aberration but trends of the past two months have relieved some of the pressure here.
The median sales price fell for the second straight month in January. At $2,350,000, it was 5% or $125,000 below December’s $2,475,000 but was still 22%, or more than $400,000, higher than a year ago. The price per square foot and sales price to list price ratios also fell for the second consecutive month. January’s price per square foot fell $74, from $1,136 in December to $1,062 in January. January’s price per square foot was $99 higher than January 2014’s. The average sale in January was for about 104% of the list price, down from 106% in December and 114% a year earlier.
Closed sales remained relatively strong, given the low level of inventory of the past few months. 15 sales closed in January, down from 18 in December. January’s sales were nearly double January 2014’s eight.
13 properties were actively listed at the end of January, 10 more than at the end of December and three more than at the end of January 2014. 13 sales went to contract in January, unchanged from December. That meant there was a one month supply at the end of January, compared to about a week last month and three weeks a year ago
The number of days properties were listed here remained low. January’s sales were on the market an average of 11 days, down from 24 in December and 37 days a year ago.
Analysis by Price Range
There was no change in the inventory of homes priced under $2 million (one property). Pending sales were cut in half in this segment, from six in December to three in January. About one third of a month’s supply relative to pending sales was available at the end of January. This segment accounted for 8% of Los Altos’ inventory and 23% of its pending sales.
More homes priced from $2 million to $2,999,999 were on the market at the end of January (five) than any month since September. No homes were available in this price range at the end of December and four one year earlier. Five sales went pending in January, one more than in December. 39% of both inventory and pending sales were in this price range.
The inventory of homes priced at or above $3 million also increased by five in January, from two at the end of December to seven. That was 54% of Los Altos’ total inventory. Pending sales increased by two, from three in December to five in January. 39% of the city’s sales were in this segment. Inventory relative to pending sales doubled, from 0.7 months at the end of December to 1.4 months at the end of January.
