An interesting phenomenon has occurred in the Santa Clara real estate market. Inventory of homes has dropped and the days on market for homes has increased. An indication that the market has slowed down on both ends, buying and selling. While this may be a trend that we are experiencing in Santa Clara county as a whole, buyers should be informed of what the condition of the market really is.

In this current state buyer’s expectations are that they should be able to realize a good deal. The reality is that depending on what type of property the buyer is seeking he or she may not be able to get the type of deal they imagined. You see prices are down, and that has scared away some sellers. They have postponed plans until things pick up and as a result inventory is low. What is on the market are a lot of homes that are not selling due to location or

condition or other factors, but they just are not desirable. So when a home comes on the market that has a good location and is in move-in condition and is somewhat updated it will generate quite a bit of attention in this currently market and is likely to generate multiple offers resulting in a good price  for the seller.   So buyer’s looking for a good deal may need to focus on fixer upper type homes or try and get lucky with a short sale.

In the graph for inventory you can see that inventory currently is half of what it was last year during this time. Average days on Market has also increased to over 150 days, where it was below 100 days this time last year.

Like any market, this market will adjust to its conditions.  Buyers may start to get anxious and put in offers and the market may start to get heated, making buyers even more anxious.  Whatever the case it looks like the market will stabilize this year and may even experience some appreciation.