Coastal Real Estate and Lifestyles

They came from the Frenchman’s Creek neighborhood, Fremont, San Francisco, Sonoma, even southern California…tired of waiting for the bottom to hit, or starting the spring house-hunting…and many checking out our coastside communities on one of our “10″ days on my subjective weather meter.  Twenty-one groups came through my Open House in Frenchman’s Creek yesterday - the most in a long time!  They were upbeat, full of good questions, and ready to find their next, or first, home.  That number may not sound like a lot to my Palo Alto Coldwell Banker colleague, Arn Cenedella, who tells us about his 40-45 groups, but, hey, we’re excited!  And to the north, similar activity is being reported by Sonoma County country property expert, Coldwell Banker colleague, Pam Buda.

Are buyers noticing inventory shrink compared to last Fall?  Will we see a traditional spring spike in homes for sale now that we’re post-SuperBowl — even though we’ve still got 28% more inventory that a year ago at this time?  Consequently, we are still in a Buyer’s Market with an 8 month inventory absorption rate for HMB and a 10 month absorbption rate for the entire Coastside (Half Moon Bay, El Granada, Moss Beach, and Montara).  If you’re not working with a Realtor yet, now may be the time, as there are many “pocket listings” out there now…and some Coastside properties do not follow trends. 

Here’s a look at available inventory over the last year in Half Moon Bay alone: