Santa Clara CA Homes For Sale

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Real Estate Market Trends

San Mateo County vs Santa Clara County Real Estate

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House Prices Converge In 2022

San Mateo County house prices vs. Santa Clara County house prices

For many years, San Mateo County house prices per sq. ft. were higher than Santa Clara County’s. In 2022, this changed, and the prices became very similar. With this occurring shortly after COVID restrictions being lifted, it was probably at least partially due to people leaving high-density areas such as San Francisco and working remotely.

Flat House Prices Near San Francisco

San Bruno house prices vs. San Mateo County house prices.

Cities near San Francisco, including Brisbane, Daly City, Pacifica, San Bruno, and South San Francisco, have had flatter house prices than San Mateo County averages.

Other Real Estate Trends Converge

San Bruno house age vs San Mateo County house age

The average age of a San Bruno house sold, shown by the strong red line in the graph above, increased more in 2019 than the average age of a San Mateo County house sold, shown by the faint red line. The median ages of the two areas track each other closely and rose steadily, indicating that fairly new houses had far fewer sales after 2019.

Considerations For Real Estate Trends

Rapid changes to real estate trends can occur for a number of reasons: economic crisis, interest rates, government housing policies, pandemics, speculation, etc. Some of the changes can be fairly short-term, such as the 2000 dot-com boom, while others have long-lasting impacts. Although a single event may trigger a rapid change, the impact on a city is modified by other factors.

Median Days On Market

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The roughly two-year-long pronounced difference in house price growth between Santa Clara County and cities near San Francisco invites us to examine other trends.

The volatility of “days on market (DOM)” makes it a trend that is harder to use when looking for changes in real estate trends. DOM is an important attribute to look at, however. It is what sellers, buyers, and agents feel. DOM is also widely available for Silicon Valley cities because our local MLS’s publish it and when listing agents begin listing a new home for sale, they will almost always look at it and share it with their home seller.

DOM has been quite low for Daly City houses since the beginning of 2023 up to the present (Dec 17, 2024). Even the median DOM shows significant volatility during this period, varying from about 11 days to almost 20 days.

Now look at DOM for a Santa Clara County city such as Sunnyvale. The median days on market for a Sunnyvale house has barely moved from 8 days to 7 days from the beginning of 2023 up to the present (Dec17, 2024). The median DOM had been low between 2012 and 2022 but showed noticeable volatility.

It would be easy to conclude that home sellers, home buyers, and real estate agents have good agreement for how much each house can be sold for.

What we see in Sunnyvale during this period is that 70 to 80 percent of houses are selling over list price, and the average sales price to list price has varied between 105% and 112%. It should be noted that average and median Sunnyvale house prices are very close to each other. The initial expected price does not seem as consistent as the agreed-upon price between seller and buyer.

It is hard to draw any conclusion about Sunnyvale’s (and several other nearby cities) median DOM other than that both home buyers and home sellers believe the best price can be reached within one week. Homeowners, whether current or prospective, have widely varying expectations and knowledge. It would appear that the real estate agents involved are providing information that is effective in reaching an agreement. The same does not hold as strongly for cities near South San Francisco such as Daly City. No connection is seen between DOM and house price trends at this time.