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Health & Fitness

Market Trends: Redwood City Real Estate - Feb. 1, 2013

Cliff Keith has raised his family in Redwood City. He's been a member of City commissions and committees, and helped homeowners and buyers with their real estate needs, since 1976. Combat Veteran.

What most were thinking and talking about over the past seven days is 49er Football.

Most Redwood City home-buyers have 49er football fever. There wasn’t as much activity in home-buying, except for the really committed home buyer. This looks like it may work to their benefit, because the competition is not so fierce. This will change now that Super Bowl Sunday is over.

In the past seven days, Redwood City homes coming on the market for sale decreased to five. This is one less than last week, where there were six homes.

Find out what's happening in Redwood City-Woodsidewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The housing months of inventory available in Redwood City has steadily increased since reaching its low in mid-July, of 2.6 months to this week's, of 5.3 months. Last year at the end of September, the housing inventory increased sharply and has continued. This is good if you are a home-buyer because you have more of a selection of homes to choose from now. I don’t think you will see this continue much longer in 2013.

The average selling price for homes sold in Redwood City trended down this past week for the past five weeks to $861,000, from the previous week's price of $924,000.

Find out what's happening in Redwood City-Woodsidewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The total number of new listings, and homes that were added to the selection available to homebuyers from transactions falling out of escrow, was seven.  While the number of homes with pending sales, or which had removed all their contingencies and were ready to close escrow, was 13, which is down seven homes from last week. Closed escrow homes was eight, which was up one from last week.

Worth noting is that the sale price to list price ratio (SP:LP) has increased over last week's 99.8 percent with this week's coming in at 101.3 percent. January ended at 99.8 percent, 2012’s highest ratio was 106.2 percent,November’s ratio was 103.8 percent, October’s ratio was 101.5 percent, September’s ratio was 103.0 percent, August’s ratio was 101.3 percent, July’s ratio that was 101.5 percent; June’s was 101.6 percent and May’s 100.5 percent.

Finally, the average number of days for a home to sell in Redwood City is down this week to 26 days. Last week that figure was 34 days. The beginning of 2012 started out with it taking 96 days for a home to sell. This number of days for a home to sell has been on a downward trend, I believe, because of the lack of inventory of new listings being brought onto the market.  A good example of this is when I see a home for sale on Tuesday's "Broker’s Tour," and when I write "Market Trends: Redwood City" on Friday, that same house shows up as a pending sale. This tells me, if you are a home-buyer, heed these words: “You snooze, you lose!”  Sad, but true.

Last week the average price per square foot a home-buyer was willing to pay was down by $41.00 per square foot to $524! January’s price per square foot was $565. 2012 ended at $455. In November it was $501, in October it was $515. In September, that number was $549, in April that number was $461, May’s was $475, June’s was $481, July's was $509, and in August it was $551.

If you find this information helpful and can see how reading it regularly will save you time and money, you can read this on an ongoing basis.  Please visit my website and fill in your e-mail address on the right to receive a weekly free newsletter. The topics covered will be market trends, as well as other useful tips and ideas to help you with your real estate needs.

Also available are free lists of homes from the MLS. If you want notice about homes you are looking to buy you can click the “Free MLS” orange button to the right on my website and give the criteria of the home you would like to buy in the blank boxes.  I will arrange for your own Personal Organizer to send results when a new home matching your criteria comes on the market. You will have information every morning before you wake, or 4:00 a.m., whichever is earlier.

You will become part of the Cliff Keith’s Insider’s Club when you sign up for your Personal Organizer. The Insider’s Club members will have information from time to time about homes that will be coming on the market for sale in days, weeks, even months before everyone else knows about them. This is a huge advantage for you! It’s an added feature for those who want to have an early leg up on their competition.

Additionally, feel free to friend/like me on many of the social networks I am on. I’m also available on the phone, by texting, or by e-mail if that suits you better.

Want to reprint this post? You may do so, if you include the following credit line: "Cliff Keith is a California real estate broker, who has helped home buyers and sellers since 1976! Are you ready to save time and money when you purchase or sell real estate? Subscribe to Cliff’s free newsletter at http://www.sfbayhomes.com. #sfbayhomes.com

The information for "Market Trends: Redwood City" is compiled from data off the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and #SFBayHomes.com.

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