By Clyde Noel
Town Crier Correspondent
Welcome to a real buyer’s market if you’re looking for a house. At the end of last week, there were 127 homes for sale in Los Altos, 47 in Los Altos Hills and more than 80 in Mountain View.
Of more interest in the real-estate market is foreclosures. Mortgage lenders and realtors report that currently there are seven foreclosures taking place in the immediate area. The reason is a loss of stock options and taxes on stock options when exercised.
The number of unsold homes continues to rise as prospective home buyers wait to see whether prices keep falling and whether there are more layoffs in Silicon Valley. Realtors report it will be a very interesting summer.
George Monaco, Coldwell Banker manager, said it is a buyer’s market, especially in the upper end - properties worth more than $1 million. “Affordable homes go quickly. Those priced around $600,000 to $700,000 don’t stay on the market long, especially if they show well,” Monaco said. “Homes priced over $1 million take longer to sell unless they come down in price.”
Bob Morton, Coldwell Banker realtor, agrees the upper end of the real-estate market is soft. “We are seeing as much as a 20 percent reduction in the upper-end homes from the time they were listed,” Morton said.
Gary Wheeler, Alain Pinel manager, said, “Sellers looking to sell their home for $12 million in Los Altos Hills have reduced their price to $7 million. Anything over $1.5 million will take a long time to sell in today’s market.”
Data from REInfolink, the multiple listing service for Santa Clara County, reported 682 homes closed escrow in April, a 10 percent drop from March and a steep 40 percent fall from last year.
Homes for sale in the county total 4,208, compared to only 1,499 last year.
Among homes in the county priced at more than $1 million, there is a 240-day supply on the market.
Kirk Mahncke, realtor with Seville Contempo Fine Homes & Estates, said if you’re looking for a house you should be hitting the streets right now. “This is one of the best opportunities to move up to a bigger house. There are more people looking to move up than in several years,” Mahncke said. “More quality homes are on the market now than at any time in the last four years.”
Homes on the market that are overpriced - if buyers can figure out which ones they are - are once again receiving bids for less than the asking price.
Baidra Prochnow, realtor for Mary Prochnow Realtors Inc., commented buyers can now work for something they want because there is room to negotiate. “Those bidding wars have disappeared, and people are starting to negotiate again,” she said.
The slowdown in sales has been a trend since January, and April was the first month the median price was less than the one recorded the previous month.
Among the highlights of the first-quarter data collected by the California Association of Realtors, the 10 communities with the highest median home prices in California during the first quarter of 2001 were: Los Altos Hills, $2.5 million; Hillsborough, $2.4 million; Monte Sereno, $1.8 million; Saratoga, $1.35 million; Belvedere / Tiburon, $1.3 million; Los Altos, $1.225 million; Woodside, $985,250; Los Gatos, $852,500; Pacific Palisades, $841,000; Beverly Hills, $832,000.
The median price of homes, according to REInfolink, means that half the homes sold for more than the median price and half sold for less.
Shelly Potvin, realtor with Seville Contempo Fine Homes & Estates, said people listen to a lot of stuff from the media and the radio on how bad things are and it’s not true. “Interest rates are low, there are a lot of choices in what you want and there isn’t a better time than right now, and some homeowners are becoming anxious to sell,” Potvin said.
Mary Prochnow, a well-known Los Altos commercial realtor, said commercial real estate is also slow right now. She said there are still several vacant locations on Main and State streets in Los Altos, but a tenant has been found for the building the Los Altos Golf Co. vacated at 215 Main Street.
