patrick.net

I am getting mixed signals. Just talked to a friend who is looking for a home up in the Peninsula, he said inventory is going down while buying is up, and many seller raised price after their houses have been sitting for the last few months. Anyone from the Peninsula?

Well, I used to live in Los Altos/work in Palo Alto, and this is purely anecdotal, but I've thought many pen. towns have the highest amount of exuberant optimism in all the SF Bay. Think of all those dot-com seed companies and VCs. Scads of self-delusional entrepreneurial genius, now transfered to real estate. They'll be the last ones holding the bag (IMO).

I am getting mixed signals. Just talked to a friend who is looking for a home up in the Peninsula, he said inventory is going down while buying is up, and many seller raised price after their houses have been sitting for the last few months.

He is probably just giving in to fear. Just go to viewfromsiliconvalley.com, they have weekly sale stats for San Mateo county.

I am not from the Peninsula, but South Bay (Sunnyvale). Prices seem to be holding up well so far, much better than I would have thought. A comparable house just sold within 5k of asking, and asking price was not what I would call low. The asking price was only 6% less than what a much nicer home on the street sold for at the "peak" in October. The nicer home had been almost completely gutted and redone whereas the latest sale was an "as-is" with over $30k in plumbing repairs needed. Floorplans and square footage were the exact same- these are cracker jack 1950's ranch places, as is mine.

I just put my house on the market last week and had the first open house over the weekend. Something over 35 groups came through. I will report what develops. Wish me luck. Hopefully, I will be looking for a rental soon.