Interest Rates Begin Creeping Up Amid San Mateo Co Housing Market

 

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the housing market. Some people wonder if it’s starting to slow down or even if there’s another crash coming. From what I’m seeing, the market in San Mateo County is still hot. We’ve sold a number of recent listings and we’re still seeing multiple offers in San Mateo County. It’s still very competitive and homes often sell for significantly above comparable market data.

 

This isn’t to say we aren’t starting to see some pockets of slowdown. There are places that just aren’t as crazy and competitive as they were a couple of months ago. We know that interest rates are up. Until this past January, it was possible to get a 30-year fixed jumbo rate mortgage for around three percent. Sometimes it was a little lower and sometimes just slightly above three percent.

 

When interest rates started going up there was a big rush in the housing market, and we saw a drastic market price increase. Right now, interest rates are still hovering around four percent or even the mid-four-percent range. With some incentives, discounts, and special relationship pricing from certain banks, you may even be able to get a 30-year fixed mortgage jumbo rate for under four percent. 

 

Historically speaking, that’s still low when you compare a four-percent rate to some of the rates we saw prior to the 2008 crash, or even in the 1980s when rates were sometimes in the teens. So, the average interest rate has jumped up a little lately, but so far that doesn’t seem to be slowing down the market in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

 

 

For proof, let’s consider the single-family home market in San Mateo County. The latest data comes from April 2022. Keep in mind, that these could be homes that went on the market and had a quick close in the month of April, but much of the activity probably happened before April. It’s likely homes went up for sale in February, the offer was accepted in March, and the close of escrow was April, putting the data into April’s figures.

 

With that in mind, some of the numbers in terms of single-family homes were similar, year-over-year. There were about the same number of new homes to hit the market in April 2021 as there were in April 2022, plus close to the same number left on the market at the end of the month, as well as a similar number of homes sold during the month.

 

Homes did sell faster this year. It took just 12 days, on average, in April 2022, compared to 17 days, on average, in April 2021. Prices went up about 10-percent, year-over-year, bringing the average sales price to $2.7 million this April and the median sale price to $2.25 million. The price per square foot also went up.

 

Most homes are sold above the asking price. It was 14-percent, on average, over the asking price in 2022, compared to 10-percent over the asking price in 2021. The numbers prove the market is still hot and it’s still a sellers’ market in terms of single-family homes in San Mateo County.

 

 

In terms of condos and townhomes, there was roughly the same number of units that hit the market in San Mateo County in April 2022 as there were in April 2021. There was exactly the same number left in inventory at the end of the month, but there were slightly more condos and townhomes that sold in April 2022. We did find they sold a bit quicker in 2022, as well. This April they stayed on the market an average of 18 days, while it was 22 days, on average, in April 2021. 

 

We saw about a 10-percent increase year-over-year in terms of the average sales price. It was right around $1 million in April 2021 and $1.14 million in April 2022. Things were similar in terms of the median sale price. It was $957,000 in April 2021 and $1.086 million in April 2022. The median price per square foot jumped up about $100, year-over-year.

 

Condos and townhomes this April in San Mateo County also sold for slightly more, on average, above the asking price. It was an average of seven percent over the asking price in April 2022, compared to three percent over asking in April 2021. While the condo market took a big hit during the pandemic, we’re now in a strong sellers’ market for condos and townhomes in San Mateo County, especially looking over the first quarter of 2022.