Yes, inventory in Santa Clara County is slowly moving up, and may even hit 5000 before year end, but that isn't the whole picture of our housing market. While sales have slowed, the median price has continued to rise...up 9.3 percent from a year ago. This reflects what we're seeing in our offices. The mixture of homes sold has ticked upward as more high-end homes and fewer bargain foreclosures have changed hands. At least for now, foreclosure sales are down from over half of Bay Area resales to 26.7% currently. Many of these are still being picked up by all-cash investors, who now account for a quarter of these buyers.
Interestingly enough, we are seeing more movement of mid-priced homes as the market has slowed. The properties that are selling fastest in Sunnyvale and Cupertino are those priced between $650,000 and $850,000. Where buyers in the East Bay were rushing to take advantage of the tax credit before it expired, we didn't see as many of that group because of our higher housing prices.
So don't be too shaken by news reports that home sales are slowing. Our values are holding, and even increasing, and for local homeowners, that's good news to hear.
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