Alamo Market Snapshot

In the last thirty days, 17 homes in Alamo have sold that are single family detached. Of those, 3 were REO (Real Estate Owned by the Bank) and one was a short sale. These distressed properties account for 23% of the sales. Prices vary dramatically. A median or average price is hard to use as a yardstick. The range is from the mid 200's to the high 500's per square foot. Why such a range? Location, lot and upgrades are the factors that affect prices.

Zillow does not account for these factors. Zillow is a widely used website for people to determine quick values for properties. Type in the address and up comes the value according to Zillow. How is this done, especially since Zillow never sees the property inside or out? Actually, it is quite simple. Zillow takes an arithmetic average of the recent homes sold in the area in close proximity to the subject property and multiplies this times the square footage of the subject. This method might have some validity if all the homes in the area were similar in age, location, flat vs. sloped lot, upgrades, condition, proximity to busy streets, etc. In a subdivision this might have some credibility. In Alamo where those factors can vary widely from house to house, it does not have much accuracy.

The way to determine value is to have an appraiser or real estate professional look at a property and compare it to the comps in the area that are similar for size, location, condition and lot features. Valuing homes in Alamo is really more of an art than an arithmetic calculation. Watch for more to follow on the " shadow inventory" and what it means and how it affects the market. Contact me for additional information or for a free market evaluation of your home or for information on how to purchase a home wisely in this uncertain market.

Steve Martin
Eagle Real Estate Services
Owner/Broker 30 years, CRS
(925)876-8877
smartin@eaglres.com

This is a review of the current Alamo residential real estate market for single family detached homes. As of 1/21/2010, there are 78 homes on the market. 17% of them are bank owned (REO) or short sales. The average price per square foot is $440 per square foot. The median price for all listings is $1,662,000. The average days on market for these current active listings is 138 days.

There are currently 27 properties that are pending. 17 of them or 63% of them are bank owned (REO) or short sales. The average ASKING price per square foot for these homes when they went pending is $349 per square foot. The price that the home sold for is not published until it is closed and officially sold. Again, the price per square foot of $349 is the last list price of the home before it went pending. It is not the accepted price. The average days on market prior to going pending is 98 days. The median price of these pending homes is $1,099,000.

Within the last 30 days from December 21, 2009 to January 21, 2010, 13 properties sold. The median list price of these homes was $1,185,000 with an average price per square foot for the list price at the time the home sold of $357psf. The median sold price was $1,100,000 with an average sold price per square foot of $336.