California’s October housing market stabilizing, but still high competitiveness in Silicon Valley

California’s housing market continued to maintain a healthy sales pace above prepandemic levels even as sales have dipped from 2020, according to the California Association of Realtors. The San Francisco Bay Area market experienced some softening, but high competitiveness among buyers continues, especially in Silicon Valley.

Closed escrow sales of single-family homes in California totaled 434,170 in October, a slight dip of 0.9 percent from September and down 10.4 percent from a year ago. Despite the fourth straight yearover-year sales decrease, statewide home sales increased 13.4 percent year-to-date.

As the market moved further into the offseason, statewide home prices continued to level off below the $800,000 benchmark for the first time in seven months. At

$798,440 in October, the statewide median price was down 1.3 percent from September’s $808,890 and was up 12.3 percent from the $711,300 recorded in October 2020.

Local data from Mlslistings show October home sales softening in San Mateo County, where October sales fell 5 percent from September and were down 10 percent from September 2020. The October median price shot up to $1,915,000, a 2 percent increase from September’s median of $1,875,000 and a 16 percent rise from $1,656,629 in October last year. San Mateo County’s median sales price has increased 26.6 percent since the beginning of the year.

Santa Clara County’s housing market softened slightly with

1,095 homes sold in October, down less than 1 percent from 1,101 homes sold in September. The cities of Morgan Hill, Monte Sereno, Mountain View, Saratoga, Campbell, Palo Alto, Gilroy, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Sunnyvale had more closed sales in October compared to the previous month.

The October median sales price for a single-family home in Santa Clara County was $1,625,000, down 0.3 percent from September’s $1,630,000 and up 12.7 percent from the $1,442,500 recorded in October 2020.

The median price has increased 19 percent year to date.

The median price of $2,775,000 for a home in Los Gatos was a 13 percent increase from September, while Saratoga’s October median price of $3,680,000, was up 3 percent from the previous month. Other cities where the

median price of homes topped the previous month’s median were Campbell (17%), Morgan Hill (11%), Los Altos (3%), Gilroy (3%) and San Jose (1%).

The median salesto-list ratio for a home sold in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties edged up to 109 percent from 108 percent in September. In Santa Clara County, buyers paid more than the median over asking in Los Altos Hills (113%), Mountain

View (116%), Palo

Alto, (112%), Campbell (113%), Cupertino (117%) and Saratoga (110%).

“The growth in price appreciation has been stunning. Clearly sellers are continuing to see good returns even as we see the market stabilizing. Silicon Valley’s housing market continues to be highly competitive,” said Joanne Fraser, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors.

Fraser noted while the growth rate in prices is expected to slow, she does not see prices dropping. “Home

price growth will rise more slowly, but they won’t go backward. We still have a serious housing shortage.

Builders aren’t building nearly enough homes, especially in Silicon Valley.”

While economists expect mortgage interest rates to rise slightly and there is the potential that this could drive some buyers away, Fraser says rates are

still at historic lows.

The 30-year, fixedmortgage interest rate averaged 3.07 percent in October, up from 2.83 percent in October 2020, according to Freddie Mac.

“Don’t time the market, especially for homes in Silicon Valley. If you can afford to, buy now. Over time homes will appreciate,” said Fraser.