Post-Thanksgiving Palo Alto Market Update

November 29, 2007

The time between Thanksgiving and the New Year — actually, often until early February — is traditionally a pretty slow time of the year. With most people’s minds on the holidays and skiing in Tahoe, not many are thinking of buying or selling, and many Realtors take advantage of the lull to kick back, maybe do some skiing themselves, and perhaps do some planning for the new year.

This year looks to be much the same, with perhaps even less to do for Realtors. Inventory typically drops dramatically between November and January: though there are few buyers out and about, there are even fewer sellers, so the available stock of homes gets steadily whittled down. With inventory already at around half of what it normally is, the holiday season this year promises to be even slower.

Inventory of homes for sale in Palo Alto, CA

As this chart from our friends at Altos Research shows, inventory of single family homes for sale in Palo Alto dropped from about 90 in November 2005 to about 40 in January 2006; similarly, it dropped from about 80 in November 2006 to about 25 in January 2007.

Here we are at the tail end of November, and inventory right now stands under 40. Not much of a selection for buyers, but what is out there probably will get steadily eroded, and the New Year may see only 15-20 homes still available.

Interestingly, both the most expensive and least expensive homes currently on the market are on Arastradero Road:

  • 730 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, is a tasty little 900 sq ft morsel on a lot size of just under 10,000 sq ft, brought to us by Celia Bella of Coldwell Banker. Price? Just under $1M.
  • Those with some Google stock options to spend might want to consider 1781 Arastradero, (also in Palo Alto) a mile West-Southwest of its junior sibling, brought to us by Meera Gupta, also of Coldwell Banker. Its views, 13 acres, 11,500 sq ft of living space (not, I suspect, including the guest house), plus seven bedrooms and 10.5 bathrooms will set your average Googler back a scant 43,000 shares, or $29,850,000.

No tag for this post.

Written by Kevin · Filed Under Consumer, Palo Alto 

Comments

Got something to say?





« Back to text comment