Market leads in ‘over asking’ home sales.
In Cupertino and Sunnyvale, dozens of homes sold for at least $200,000 above the listing price during past 30 days
As the national drought in home supply dragged into its 21st straight month, competition among buyers drove prices up once again.
And the fiercest competition was in the Bay Area.
A new report from Redfin shows that 73.7 percent of homes sold above the listing price in the San Jose metropolitan area in June. That was the highest per- centage in the nation, followed by the San Francisco metropolitan area (70.6 percent, second highest in the U.S.) and the Oakland metropolitan area (69.8 percent, third highest). They were followed by Seattle (62.3 percent) and Tacoma, Wash., (52.6 percent).
“Every record in market speed and competition that was set in May was broken again in June,” the report stated.
The Redfin report comes two days after the Mercury News reported on a rash of over-asking home sales in Sunnyvale and Cupertino. In the last month, more than 50 homes in those two cities sold for at least $200,000 over the asking price. One modest Cupertino house — 1,046 square feet — sold for $660,000 above its listing price.
According to Redfin, San Jose had the nation’s largest decrease in housing inventory, falling 42.2 percent in June from one year earlier.
The second largest yearover-year contraction of the home supply was in Rochester, N.Y., where inventory fell 29.7 percent. The third largest shrinkage happened in San Francisco, where inventory fell 26.6 percent.
With so few homes on the market, the law of supply and demand kicks in — particularly in a region like the Bay Area where the job force continues to expand along with the demand for homes. Inevitably, prices go up.
The nation’s median sale price rose 7.3 percent to $298,000 in June, Redfin reported.
Prospective Bay Area homebuyers paid a lot more. Oakland’s median sale price was $719,500, up 9.8 percent year- over-year. San Jose’s median price was an even $1,000,000, up 11.1 percent. San Francisco’s median price was $1,250,000, up 4.2 percent.
The “fastest” markets in the nation — where sales were struck most rapidly — were Denver, Colo., Portland, Ore., and Seattle, all tied at seven median days on market, followed by Grand Rapids, Mich. (eight days on market), and Boston, Mass. (nine days on market).
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