What Type Of Homes Are Selling In Los Altos?

According to MLSlistings, Inc. our local MLS search provider, Los Altos currently has 78 active listings for sale and another 20 homes that are under contract.  I thought I would do a little research to see what are the current buying habits of Los Altos home buyer’s. 

Note: this is completely unscientific but I hope it can shed light on what’s selling in town versus what isn’t. 

I thought I would look back over the last three months to see what type of home was selling and what type of home was sitting on the market longer.  Specifically, I wanted to see if homes that were in “move in” condition were selling faster (average days on the market) than homes classified as “fixer uppers.”

I’m not examining the home’s pricing, location or marketing, just it’s condition. 

My method included looking at all sales of single family homes in Los Altos that occurred between July 1 – September 15th.  The price point I used was homes priced between $1,300,000 – $2,000,000.  I broke down the housing categories into three areas:

1. Fixer-upper homes that had no remodeling but weren’t tear downs.  There were 19 homes that fit this category.
2. Homes that were in livable condition but not substantially remodeled.  I looked to see whether bathrooms and/or kitchen had been updated/remodeled.  There were 30 homes that fit this category.
3. Substantially remodeled homes.  There were 15 homes that fit this category.

It appears that substantially remodeled homes are selling slightly quicker than homes that aren’t.  Substantially remodeled homes that recently went into contract spent half the time on the market versus those that were moderately updated/fixer uppers.   However, the time difference is marginal. 

One interesting point to note is the Los Altos home seller should look at 3 weeks as the average time on the market a home, regardless of condition, should sell.  For those listings that are over 45 days, it might be time to adjust the list price or ramp up the marketing efforts.  Just a thought.

Does this mean that substantially remodeled homes will continue to sell quicker?  Is this an effect from the tightening of the available financing?  Is this a trend or an anomaly?  We’ll have to wait and see.  My best guess is that substantially remodeled homes will continue sell quicker over those that aren’t as most buyers today want to purchase a home that they won’t need to remodel in the near future.   But, I’m open to any other thoughts!