San Mateo-Foster City Real Estate News

It's been a while since I posted any information about the Burlingame real estate market.  Altos Research sends me reports weekly on all of the seven sister cities we cover but frankly the market has been so slow it hasn't been worthwhile posting these until now.  Spring has sprung.  We are beginning to see listings come onto the market, and lots and lots of people are out looking at homes.  Hopefully, to buy them.  Burlingame only had 38 homes for sale last week.  It's gotten better this week - a whopping 41!  Shoot off the rockets, we're off to a good start!   Seriously folks, that's not a lot of houses for sale, is it?

Let's look at what Altos told me on Monday.  The median price for all houses listed in the city of Burlingame, was $1,360,500.  Prices have held over the past weeks.  The average price was only a little above the median - it was $1,363,509.  We even have one house for sale at $735,000 which is something we have not seen for a long, long time.  Like most places in San Mateo County, the average days on the market has jumped considerably, to 92.  We shouldn't complain about that since that's pretty normal for real estate sales in previous years and is downright short for some areas in the country. 

Houses aren't really big here, not too many Mega Mansions, so average square footage is a reasonable 1900, or so, and that's with a 3 bedroom 2 bath home around 68 years old.  Likely it's been redone recently, with new kitchen and bathrooms.  Garages are usually only 1 car.  These are old homes, remember?

What we are seeing is the higher priced homes sell faster.  There's less pressure on the buyer at higher priced levels for loan qualifications.

The price per square foot on a house in Burlingame has plaeaued and remained pretty much steady since September.  Sure there were peaks and valleys but not the way it once was.  That's good for buyers but we are still talking about $700 per square foot!

Burlingame house prices have dropped dramatically in the past two years, as this chart shows so well.  Prices dipped a bit last week but not enough to make it an indicator of things to come. 

Since we have some new listings this week, and prices are higher with them, next week's data will show this. 

What does it mean to you, as a buyer or home owner in Burlingame?  Does it say that we, the Realtors in the community, can't price a home property and now they're staying on the market longer?  No, of course not.  The market has changed and people are taking their time.  There is money to lend but you had better be able to qualify and substantiate your qualifications.  Nothing new here -- it's just like the old days when you had to do that. 

In my mind, when a house costs as much as it does around here, the buyer needs to take their time and research the neighborhood.  The pressure is just not as great as it was to write that offer immediately. As I have written before, we are still seeing some multiple offers but not many, and the house must be unusual to garner them. 

Burlingame is still one of the prettiest cities on the Peninsula.  It has great schools, a wonderful community, good shopping, and an easy commute north to the City or south to the Valley.  What more could you want?  Many people compare Burlingame to Palo Alto in feel.  It's sure a better value than Palo Alto. 

If you'd like to see this report in full contact me and I'll be happy to send it to you.  We have these for Millbrae, Hillsborough, San Mateo, Foster City, Belmont and San Carlos. 

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