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Looking to buy a home in South County?
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This may be a good time to get out there and attend an open house or schedule a tour, as the number of homes for sale in Gilroy, San Martin and Morgan Hill has increased 31 percent over this time last year and home sale prices continue to rise.
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At the end of June there were 207 homes for sale in the region, compared to 157 in June 2015, and up 12 percent from the month before. There were 105 homes sold in June, seven of which were at the top-end, priced at over $3 million.
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The median sold price for June was $759,000, up 4.1 percent from $729,000 in June of 2015 and up 7.2 percent from $708,000 in May, making this a seller’s market. While Gilroy remains “the bargain center for Santa Clara County,” according to Susan and Rick Patereau from Intero Real Estate, especially to those being priced out of San Jose and the Peninsula, the veteran agents say the number of distressed properties (or fixer-uppers) available to buy have gone way down—they’ve only seen 2-3 of them over the last month, and homes priced under the $400,000 mark are getting increasingly rare.
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For those prices one would have to go back four to five years when the region was still in the grips of the housing market slump, when median home values in Gilroy plummeted to $385,000 in April 2011 and $386,000 in January 2012, according to Zillow.
In spite of the increase in housing inventory in all localities except San Francisco, according to the same June housing market report, there are still more buyers than available homes for sale throughout the Bay Area. Patereau says due to the stiff competition between potential buyers it is not unusual for an offer to be made immediately after viewing a home. “The last year and a half has been a total seller’s market,” says Patereau. “People can’t afford to look at 2-3 homes.” Do not dither, she recommends to home buyers, and you have to come in with pre-approval. Sellers are also not very likely to wait for a buyer to sell an existing home to finance their purchase. Patereau says it is not uncommon for a couple to sell their existing home and stay at the in-laws for a couple months while they purchase their new home. On the flipside, because of the tight market, sellers should have their homes “show-ready” to maximize their returns.
