A suburban city in the San Francisco Bay area San Mateo, California, shares the name of the county in which it lies. It is one of the area’s largest suburbs, home to a population of just under 100,000. Residents tend to be upper-middle-class on average, with the city having an annual household median income measured at around $80,000 in 2008.
San Mateo real estate reflects this, as houses are generally more than half a million dollars. The city has suffered from a battered real estate market since the economic downturn in the U.S. began, seeing a decrease in home values and an increase in inventory and foreclosures.
According to the xxx Association of Realtors, in the first quarter of this year, which includes January, February, and March, there were 210 new listings of San Mateo homes for sale and a total inventory at the end of the quarter of 173 single-family homes for sale. The quarter saw a total of 104 sales closed upon in San Mateo, up from the previous year, when that figure was just 77.
The homes sold during the first quarter spent an average of 46 days on the market before closing, an improvement from a year earlier when that figure was 66 days. Prices, too, have shown improvement year-over-year. The average sales price in the first quarter was around $848,000, up from around $763,000 a year ago. The median price was up significantly as well, at $727,500 from just $640,000.
Common-interest developments, or condos, in San Mateo, showed similar different, and less positive, trends. There were 138 new listings of condos for sale in San Mateo and the quarter saw total inventory of 141 condos for sale, higher than last year’s 101 condos on the market. There were 57 condos sold in the first quarter, down by just two sales annually.
The condos that sold spent an average of 85 days on the market before selling, up from 56 days on the market in the first quarter of 2009. Prices for San Mateo condos were down all around. The average price in the first quarter stood at around $417,000, down more than $50,000 from a year earlier. The median price stood at $350,000, down from $440,000 in the first quarter of 2009.
Looking more specifically at the statistics from March, the most recent month for which they are available, San Mateo had 83 new listings and an inventory of 173 single-family homes for sale. There were 45 sales in March and homes spent an average of 53 days on the market before selling. March’s average selling price was over $954,000 and the median selling price was $809,000.