3/2/2020 - 3/8/2020

Last week, Freddie Mac registered a 3.29% 30-year fixed mortgage rate, the lowest rate since they they started the survey in 1971.  This comes after growing concerns about the economic effects of the coronavirus and a corresponding Fed rate cut.  It is contrasted by a plummeting stock market, which saw the Dow down by over 1,400 and the S&P sink 5% in the openings minutes of trading this morning.  

Despite the significant stock market woes, buyers seem to be (at least for the time being) buoyed by these historically low mortgage rates.  18 single-family homes went into contract in Redwood City last week, sending out inventory back down into the 30's.  Meanwhile, our closed sales were on the market for an average of just 13 days, and with a sizable sample size of 12 sales, registered a whopping $2.79 million average sales price.  

I would expect to see mortgage rates stay at record lows throughout these current stock market struggles.  What will be interesting to see, is whether these low rates persist after the stock market shows signs of recovery, and how that will impact buyer activity.

2/24/2020 - 3/1/2020

With the exception of 10 listings that have been on the market since the holidays, there has been great turnover in the Redwood City real estate market so far this year.  If you remove those 10 listings from the equation, the average age of our active inventory is only 12.5 days.  This is the result of strong demand that has likely been fueled to a degree by very low mortgage rates.  Rates continue to trend toward historic lows, and with fears about the Coronavirus growing, the Fed is contemplating another rate cut.  Should this occur, we could see even further dips in mortgage rates.  

In the meantime, everyone has their eyes on the stock market after it saw its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.  Where the Coronavirus is helping the real estate market by driving mortgage rates down, it could be hurting it just as much by taking money out of the pockets of would-be buyers who are heavily invested in the stock market.

2/17/2020 - 2/23/2020

A huge week for new listings gives us our first major inventory surge of the year.  23 homes were listed for sale last week, bringing our supply of single-family homes for sale up to 50.  This will be a welcome sight for buyers, whose demand has been keeping pace with supply so far this year.  

These next few weeks will be key to see just how strong buyer activity is.  Is a higher inventory level is sustained, we may begin to see a longer average days on market total, which is already hovering around a month.

2/3/2020 - 2/9/2020

This was a huge week for Redwood City in terms of new listings, with 21 new single-family homes listed for sale.  Yet, inventory once again failed to grow - due to 13 pending sales, an expired listing, and 7 contingent sales (which aren't reflected in pending numbers).  This week's data continues to support the idea that buyers are staying highly active in Redwood City.  

Only 2 closed sales this past week, and one of the sales seems to have been inputted into the MLS improperly, so our sales data is quite skewed.  1238 Connecticut Drive is sold for $1,950,000 after just one day on the market.  MLS shows is as a 980 square foot home, which would have meant that it closed at nearly $2,000 per square foot, a completely unprecedented number.  Upon closer review, it looks like that home actually underwent a significant renovation with a 1,000 square foot add on, bringing its actual price per square foot number closer to $1,000.  Just goes to show - you can't always take the stats at face value!

1/27/2020 - 2/2/2020

From 1 closed sale last week to 3 this week.  Small sample sizes limit our ability to make many meaningful inferences from the sales data.  Still, nothing terribly surprising from our prices.

Inventory has been fairly anemic so far in 2020.  This time last year there were nearly twice as many single-family homes for sale in Redwood City.  This is due in part to steady buyer activity, but is also likely reflective of sellers looking at the market with some uncertainty.  A slow end to 2019 could have some sellers waiting until Spring time, when the market typically heats up a bit, to list their homes for sale.

1/21/2019 - 1/26/2019

Alas, only 1 solitary sale closed this past week, rendering our average sales data for the week effectively null.  It's not all that surprising to see the sample size for closed sales to dwindle this time of year, since sales that are closing right now likely would have gone into contract during the holidays - a time that we've established sees a precipitous drop in real estate activity in general.

Our buyers continue to snatch up homes about as quickly as our sellers list them for sale.  The next few weeks of sales will start to tell us whether or not competition among buyers has been putting any upward pressure on prices.

1/13/2019 - 1/20/2019

We saw a spike in new listings leading up to the long weekend, but due to 7 pending sales and 5 cancelled/withdrawn listings, our inventory once again failed to grow.   Still, 13 new listings is an encouraging sight, especially given that there seems to be plenty of buyers circling to meet the supply.  

We did see some of our older inventory cleared off the market last week, with 4 of the 8 closed sales having been on the market for 2+ months, including one which had been on the market for 5 months.  Still, the average age of our inventory is at nearly 2 months, meaning there are plenty of listings that stayed on through the holidays that have yet to sell.  These homes may present buyers with more room to negotiate, as many of their sellers are likely eager to get a deal done.  It's important for buyers to remember that if a house you unsuccessfully pursued a month or two ago is still on the market, it might be worth getting back in touch with that seller to see if their price or terms expectations have shifted at all.