Mountain View Market Conditions December 2015
- Much uncertainty in the market
- Sales plunge
- Inventory falls – but not as much
- Prices fall but…
- Homes still sold for 109% of list price
Questions about the global economy, interest rates and the election, combined with the usual holiday slow down helped keep buyers and sellers off the market in December. Sales fell precipitously and were at their lowest since January. Inventory also fell but not as much as sales. Prices also softened, except for the sales price to list price ratio which actually increased a little in December. The market continues to head to what appears to be a normal state, one where activity is less frantic and prices rise but not at the breakneck speed we have seen the past two years.
The median sales price in November was $1,710,000, $40,000 lower than in November. December’s median was still 21% higher ($295,500) than a year ago. The price per square foot has been up and down the past several months and that trend continued in December. This measure was down $54 (5%), from $1,118 in November to $1,064 in December. December was $27 higher than a year ago. Moving in the opposite direction was the sales price to list price ratio, which increased one percentage point to 109% in December from November. One year ago, the ratio was 111.5%.
15 sales closed in December; the fewest since there were six in January. Eight fewer sales closed in December than November but four more than a year earlier.
Ten fewer sales went to contract in December (14) than in November (24). That was the lowest number of pending sales since January but was still two more than in December 2014. Inventory fell for the third straight month, from 28 in November to 23 in December. That is still more than the 19 homes on the market a year ago. Relative to pending sales, inventory increased to 1.6 months at the end of December from 1.1 months at the end of November.
A softer market, at least relative to the recent past, resulted in the average time on the market increasing from 14 days in November to 28 in December. That was the second longest time on the market in 2015 – July’s sales were there for an average of 30 days.
Analysis by Price Range
Only three homes priced under $1.25 million were for sale at the end of December, one less than at the end of November. Pending sales were cut from seven in November to two in December. That left a 1.5 month supply at the end of December, compared to 0.6 months at the end of November. 13% of Mountain View’s inventory and 14% of its pending sales were priced under $1.25 million.
The $1.25 million to $1,999,999 price range saw inventory drop by five units to end December with 15. That was 22% of the total. ON the other hand, 70% of pending sales were in this segment. 10 sales went to contract in December, three less than in November. A 1.5 month supply was on the market at the end of December, unchanged from November.
In the $2 million-plus market segment, there was 2.5 months of inventory at the end of December, one more month than at the end of November. Inventory was unchanged from November at five units. Pending sales were cut in half, from four in November to two in December. This segment accounted for 22% of inventory and 14% of sales.
