I have been analyzing inventory lately to gauge the health of the real estate market in Santa Clara While analyzing inventory is important its also important to see the effects of inventory as it increases the amount of time that listings are sitting on the market.

As you can see the patterns for Santa Clara are almost identical.  The main difference of course is the number of days which has increased about 50%.  For Santa Clara sellers out there that means on average it will take you half the amount of time more than what it took to sell a home last year at a price adjusted for today’s market.

One thing to keep in mind is that this chart is about 2 months delayed.  What we can gather is that average days on market are lower this time of year than the rest of the year and should be trending downward.  As we approach the summer months we should see Average Days on Market begin to trend upward.

How will the days on market  affect prices?  As days on market increases expect sellers to drop their listing price to get their property sold.  Buyers are also less apt to pay full price and want to negotiate the prices down.  Some sellers will react differently and cancel their listing to hold out for a better market and therefore decrease the amount of inventory.