Although inventory rose on a year-over-year basis in September in all nine Bay Area counties according to the latest home sales report from the California Association of Realtors, buyer competition is still fierce in some of the region’s most desirable communities. And in these real estate markets, buyers will need to act particularly fast if they hope to succeed.
As in our sales-pace analysis of second-quarter MLS data, we examined third-quarter statistics to see where homes are selling the fastest in the 70-plus Bay Area communities in which Pacific Union operates. Check out the region’s 10 fastest-moving housing markets below, many of which also made the list in the second quarter of this year. (Note that this analysis includes only single-family homes.)
- Moraga: Homes in this family-friendly Contra Costa County city found a buyer in an average of 14 days. In the third quarter of last year, homes took nearly double that amount of time to sell.
- Los Altos: Buyers in the wealthy Silicon Valley enclave of Los Altos took an average of 15 days to close deals, although that’s slightly longer than the pace of sales recorded in the first two quarters of this year.
- Kensington: Homes in this small East Bay community sold in an average of 18 days. Buyers may have been motivated to act fast due to contracting home prices, with the $1 million median sales price the lowest in more than two years.
- Palo Alto: Competition for homes in always-hot Palo Alto continued in the third quarter, with homes selling in an average of 18 days. A dozen homes in the Santa Clara County city sold in a week or less.
- Piedmont: Homes in Piedmont have not lingered on the market for more than three weeks in any quarter since 2015, and that trend persisted in the third quarter, with buyers taking an average of 18 days to seal deals.
- Berkeley: Half of the Bay Area’s fastest-paced markets are in the East Bay, including Berkeley, where homes sold in 19 days, one day quicker than in the second quarter.
- Menlo Park: In Menlo Park, homes sold in an average of 19 days, with two $7 million-plus properties listed as being on the market for just one day.
- Oakland: In the seven Oakland ZIP codes in which Pacific Union primarily operates, buyers took 19 days to wrap up purchases. Homes in Oakland have sold in an average of less than a month for the past three years.
- San Mateo: With an average sales pace of 19 days, more than 20 homes in San Mateo were on the market for a week or less in the third quarter.
- El Cerrito: El Cerrito homes found buyers in an average of 20 days, identical to the pace of sales recorded in the third quarter of 2017.