San Mateo-Foster City Real Estate News

If you live or work -- or want to live or work -- in San Mateo County, you're invited to join a unique discussion about long term housing solutions. The dialogue provides an opportunity to increase understanding, exchange perspectives, and express your views on housing choices in San Mateo County. A unique citizen-driven effort to engage the people of San Mateo County in decision making about housing issues has been taking place this year and it's called Threshold 2008. Threshold 2008 believes that by including more people in the discussion housing, San Mateo County's leaders will be in a better position to understand what decisions the informed public will support to sustain our communities. Threshold 20008 does not advocate for any specific policy agenda or development project. They provide an inclusive forum to build the public voice on housing choices.

Earlier this year Threshold2008 conducted a weekend of public discussions and then followed up with many online opportunities where San Mateo County citizens had the chance to talk about their vision for our County.  What may be the final opportunity for you to have your say will take place this coming Saturday morning on November 15th at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, 1700 South El Camino Real.  There's free parking and refreshments and you can join in the discussion between 10 AM and 12:30 PM.  There is a catch though, you have to preregister to attend.  It's easy to do.  Register at here or call 650-655-5851.

If you're interested in learning what went on at the Countywide Assembly read about it here.  Join in and be part of the public voice.  We have some serious choices to make for San Mateo County. Every single city in the County is involved with this process.  Don't stand on the sidelines.  Get involved!!  You can afford to devote 2 and a half hours to help make a differene.

Could Belmont Have Hit Bottom and Now Be Rising?

Tuesday is our Broker Tour Day.  We get a list of all new listings available for us to see on Tuesday by late afternoon on Monday.  Belmont, generally one of the hidden gems in our Fantasy Island had 10 homes over $1 Million Dollars today. Belmont had a total of 14 new properties on tour.  Thats saying something.

Altos Research sent me their latest data yesterday.  Last week the average priced home in Belmont was $1,085,968 and the median priced home was $999,000.  Bet that changes next week.  Only 3 properties sold and 1/3 of the listings had price reductions.  Altos tells me that Belmont is a Cold!Buyers Market.  Youd never know it looking at how prices have risen and inventory has climbed since the first of the year. 

Heres whats telling me that we might be past the bottom of the early 2008 market. Heres the Market Action Index. The Market Action Index illustrates the balance between supply and demand using a statistical function of the current rate of sale versus current inventory.

See the little curve upward at the end of the downward line?  Thats the first indicator that things have changed.  What happens next week, and again the following week will tell us more, but something is going on in Belmont.  Generally when the bottom end of a market improves thats a signal that the rest of the market is strengthening.  This is something Ill be watching and reporting back about. 

The price of single family homes is a function of supply and demand. Its simple economics at its best.  While Belmont is still a strong buyers market prices for new listings are coming to market at much higher prices than one would expect to see in a cold buyers market.  So what gives?

Inventory levels have been relatively consistent to sales but my bet is those new houses coming to market at these high prices may not sustain those prices for long.  I bet well see a lot of price reductions unless all of the buyers out there, waiting and waiting for something to happen, decide to make offers.

 We subscribe to Altos Research for all seven of the cities we cover.  If you want detailed information about your town, let me know. 

Belmont sits between San Mateo and San Carlos in the hills above El Camino Real.  It's the kind of town one either loves or hates because of it's unique homes.  They vary from small former summer cottages to huge mansions and these home can reside on the same street and block.  It's very rual in nature with loads of California oak tress and narrow roads running all over the hillsides. 

The median priced home in Belmont last week was $950,000.  The most expensive home on the market was listed at $1,888,000.  In Belmont it is still possible to find a resonablely priced home, for San Mateo County that is.

The average days on the market is the lowest of any of the towns we cover, 38 days.  There were 47 homes for sale last week and Belmont is a Warm Seller's Market. 

Homes sell for as little as the low $700,000's up to the high one million.  In the hills one can find some very special views that range from San Francisco down to the Silicon Valley.  Homes are generally around 1800 feet, lots can be large but unusable due to hill pitch, so they often are over several levels with multiple decks.

Belmont schools are good, the weather is mild and the commute either to the City or Valley is comvenient.  Altos Research has provide my data and if you want more give us a call.

As we begin to wind down my focus on San Mateo County and the cities we focus on, I'm going to talk about Belmont, 94002 today. Along with San Mateo, Belmont offers a good spread in housing prices. It's possible to buy an entry level home in the $600,000's.  Belmont sits between 101 on the east and 280 on the west . Most of the houses in Belmont sit up in the hills and many offer spectacular views of the Bay, San Francisco or the South Bay areas. The feeling of the town is much more rural than any of the other communities I've talked about with many streets narrow and lacking sidewalks.

The median price last week was $1,054,000. The median sized home is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home around 1800 square feet. Demand is increasing in Belmont, perhaps because it is considered affordable? More homes are coming on to the market and they're staying there longer. Prices have held pretty steady according the the Market Action Index. Altos Research tells me that last week there were 36 single family homes on the market for an average of 87 days.

Belmont is slightly in the Warm Seller's area at a 41 index. This means demand is relatively strong but the available supply of homes aren't necessarily being snapped up immediately. Belmont offers a good elementary public school district and the local hight school, Carlmont, which is a part of the Sequoia School District. It has an easy commute to the major employment centers around here.

Tomorrow, last, but not least, will be San Carlos.