Los Altos and Los Altos Hills: 2019 Real Estate Market Review

The year is off to a great start in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills and it’s exciting to see new homes coming on the market.  It’s a great time for buyers who can take advantage of more balanced market conditions and continued attractive interest rates.

2019 Market Update

The 2019 real estate market concluded with generally good results though not as robust as prior years.

Los Altos

There were 308 Single Family Residential (SFR) sales reported to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), up from 274 in 2018.  Other measures of market performance point to softer conditions:

• The Sale Price to List Price Ratio declined from 108% in 2018 to 100.9% in 2019
• The Median Sale Price declined from $3,400,000 in 2018 to $3,284,000 in 2019
• The Average Days on Market increased from 15 days to 24 days

 Los Altos Hills

The Los Altos Hills market got off to a slow start in 2019 with just 3 sales during Q1, down from an average of 13 for the preceding 3 years (2016-2018), and never regained momentum.  For 2019, 51 sales were reported to the MLS, the lowest number since 2008 when 51 homes were also reported sold.  This number is down from 68 homes sold in 2018 and 94 in 2017.  Other market measures point to softening conditions compared to prior years:

• The Sale Price to List Price Ratio declined from 100.9% in 2018 to 99.4% in 2019
• The Median Sale Price declined from $4,850,000 in 2018 to $4,200,000 in 2019
• The Days on Market rose slightly from 51 days to 54 days.

Below is a top-level summary of real estate market performance for single-family homes based on data from MLSListings.com.  Some homes sell without being marketed on the MLS and data for these sales is not included.

Number of Sales

Area	2018	2019	% Change
Santa Clara County	10,010	9,584	-4.26%
Los Altos	274	308	+12.41%
Los Altos Hills	68	51	-25.0%

(Source MLSListings.com)

For Santa Clara County this is the lowest number of home sales reported since 2008 when there were 9,161 sales.

Average Days on Market 

Area	2018	2019
Santa Clara County	20	29
Los Altos	15	24
Los Altos Hills	51	54

(Source MLSListings.com)

The Average Days on Market reflects the number of days from the date placed on the Multiple Listing Service to the date that an offer is accepted by the seller.

Median Sales Price

The Median Sale Price of single-family homes was down year over year:

Area	2018	2018	% Change
Santa Clara County	$1,330,000	$1,255,000	-5.64%
Los Altos	$3,400,000	$3,284,000	-3.41%
Los Altos Hills	$4,850,000	$4,200,000	-13.40%

(Source MLSListings.com)

Sales Price to List Price Ratio

Area	2018	2019
Santa Clara County	106.8%	100.9%
Los Altos	108.0%	100.9%
Los Altos Hills	100.9%	99.10%

(Source MLSListings.com)

We have included greater detail in our community charts shown below.

COMMUNITY CHARTS

Los Altos

Number of Sales by Quarter

Sales in 2019 got off to a slower start in 2019, but the 3^rd and 4^th quarters showed strong sales compared to prior years.  The number of homes sold in 2019 was 308, up from 274 in 2018.

(Source: MLSListings.com)

Sale Price to List Price Ratio

While the Sale Price to List Price Ratio averaged just over 100% for the year, the graph below showing the ratio by month for the past 5 years demonstrates the softening of the market in 2019 compared to prior years.  The graph also demonstrates that the ratio is typically higher in the first half of the year.

(Source: MLSListings.com)

 Median Sale Price

The Median Sale Price dropped to $3,284,000 in 2019 from $3,400,000 in 2018, consistent with surrounding Peninsula communities.

 

(Source: MLSListings.com)

Average Days on Market

The Average Days on Market reflects the time between placing a home on the Multiple Listing Service and offer acceptance date.  In 2019 it took longer for homes to sell, 24 days in 2019, compared to 15 in 2018.

(Source: MLSListings.com)

Los Altos Hills

 Number of Sales by Quarter

As noted above, the number of sales for 2019 in Los Altos Hills was 51, down from 68 n 2018.  Q4 sales exceeded the number in 2018 but remained below the number in prior years.  Sales in the first quarter were significantly below prior years.

 (Source: MLSListings.com)

Sale Price to List Price Ratio

While the number of sales rose during Q4, the Sale Price to List Price ratio declined.  Overall it averaged 99.4% for 2019, representing a slight decline from 2018’s average ratio of 100.9%.

(Source: MLSListings.com)

Median Sale Price

Consistent with other Peninsula cities the Median Sales Price declined in 2019.

(Source: MLSListings.com)

Average Days on Market

The average days to sell remained fairly constant in 2019.

(Source: MLSListings.com)

10 YEARS AGO

 The start of a new decade seems like a good time to look back at market trends 10 years ago.

	Los Altos 2009	Los Altos 2019	Los Altos Hills 2009	Los Altos Hills 2019
# of Homes Sold	281	308	58	51
Median Sale Price	$1,530,500	$3,284,000	$2,435,000	$4,200,000
Days on Market	66	24	102	54
Sale Price to List Price Ratio	96.0%	100.9%	95.0%	99.1%

Los Altos and Los Altos Hills are wonderful communities to call “home,” and homeowners there continue to benefit from a strong real estate market.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can help you with your personal real estate needs.  It would be a pleasure to be of service to you.