Author Archives: Chris Iverson

Q2 Woodside Market Update

The numbers:

The market run of 2013 continued through Q2 in Woodside, with the median price up 21% ($1,800,000 vs. $2,175,000 in Q2 2012) as a result of continuing buyer demand and low inventory, much as we have seen across Silicon Valley.

Looking at Woodside overall, the number of days to sell fell slightly compared to a year ago at 40 vs. 45.

The number of homes for sale were down 13% compared to last year (90 vs. 103), but pending sales (+18.5%) and sold homes (32.3%) were up relative to Q2 2012.

*** Note: This is data based on MLS transactions. About 30% of sales in Woodside happen without the home being listed on the MLS (like mine), especially for the more expensive homes (not like mine). This data is good for spotting trends, especially in the “mainstream” market under $10M, but isn’t all inclusive.

Definitions:

Woodside is really six markets (my nomenclature and descriptions):

The Glens is a neighborhood off of Canada Road about ½ mile north of downtown that was originally vacation cottages and housing for the workers at the surrounding estates. A neighborhood of 185 homes, The Glens has its own MLS area (which makes market tracking easy) and homes are on 6000sf – .75 acre parcels, and sell for $1.2M – $2.5M. As the entry neighborhood for Woodside, and in the Woodside Elementary School District, The Glens has had a huge run up in prices over 2012 and 2013, some 20% over the last two years. Those are Palo Alto numbers!

Central Woodside is the rest of the flat area surrounding downtown from Portola Road in the south up to Olive Hill Road on the north side. While part of this area goes to Portola Valley schools, the properties are generally 2 – 10 acres, pretty usable, mostly zoned for horses, and supply and demand is pretty consistent across this broad area, with great variations for individual properties.

Emerald Hills is an unincorporated area of Woodside north of The Glens overlooking Canada Road and with views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This neighborhood is in the Woodside Elementary district and is characterized by narrow winding roads and a very rural feel. Prices range between $1.5M and $3.5M

Woodside Heights is east of 280 and south of Woodside Road. The homes here go to Las Lomitas schools in Menlo Park and are generally on acre parcels. Prices range from $2M for an original condition ranch home to $10M (asking) for the Buck Estate.

Woodside Hills is on the east side of 280 and north of Woodside Road. Very similar to Woodside Heights feeling cut off from town by the freeway and Redwood City schools. There are a number of large homes in this neighborhood and it does offer views of the Bay. Noise from 280 and Woodside Road are persistent challenges.

The Mountains is everything west of Woodside Road west of town going up to and including the Skywood Acres and Skylonda neighborhoods near Woodside Road and Skyline. These neighborhoods are great for people who don’t mind an extra 15 min commute to live away from the hustle and bustle of city life and have larger properties, with the potential for towering redwoods and panoramic views. You get a lot for your money up there as most suburbanites often consider it too remote, but you can get to go to your vacation cabin in the mountains every day.

Properties are on 6000sf to 20 acre parcels and can go from a neighborhood to a “off the grid” cabin on a private road in the woods. Wells, septic tanks, water reservoirs for fire fighting and backup generators are par for the course up there. The occasional wild boar or other wildlife sighting should be expected too. Compared to the flats of Woodside, market times are longer, often 6 months, and prices range from $800,000 for a cottage in the woods on a small plot to $10M+ for larger retreats surrounded by open space.

What happened:

Because of the variety and where most people are interested, I’ll focus my comments on the flats of Woodside, so The Glens, Central Woodside and Emerald Hills. If you are interested in information on other areas, send me an email or call.

We saw a number of larger sales in Woodside during Q2, including several homes that were on the market in 2012 that didn’t sell, that sold this year as the rising market came to them. With the run on real estate values over the last two years across all of Silicon Valley, even perennial laggards Portola Valley and Woodside are seeing rising prices as a limited inventory of homes is met with increasing demand.

More buyers who traditionally would have focused on Menlo Park or Palo Alto have been expanding their searches to Portola Valley and Woodside as prices have soared in closer in markets, the larger homes and more land available for similar prices in Portola Valley and Woodside have become relative deals. The numbers are a bit skewed as the price range of Woodside is huge. The least expensive home in Woodside sold for $888,000 and the most expensive $117M.

The Crystal Ball/What’s Next:

Expect that the number of homes for sale will remain low keeping steady to upward pressure on prices especially in the entry level neighborhoods of The Glens and Emerald Hills. The median price of a home in Woodside being over $3M, rising interest rates won’t have much of an impact on seller motivation or prices. Half (49.5%) of the sales in Woodside in 2012 and 2013 were cash deals. Wow……

Woodside is a small town and what I call a “destination city”, generally you move there and don’t leave. With only about 1200 homes, and a turnover rate of less than 3%, that’s about 40 homes a year. Sort by location and price range and you don’t have a lot of options. It took us two years to find a home in Woodside as detailed in my series A Realtor Buys a House, and we are planning to stay until we are carried out.

Q2 Portola Valley Market Update

The numbers:

The market run of 2013 continued through Q2 in Portola Valley, with the median price up 27% ($2,950,000 vs. $2,325,000 in Q2 2012) as a result of continuing buyer demand and low inventory, much as we have seen across Silicon Valley.

Looking at Portola Valley overall, the number of days to sell rose slightly compared to a year ago at 44 vs. 40.

The number of homes for sale were flat compared to last year at 60, but pending sales and sold homes were up relative to Q2 2012.

Definitions:

Portola Valley is really four markets (my nomenclature and descriptions):

The Ranches includes the Corte Madera neighborhood and Portola Valley Ranch. Homes are on half to one acre parcels and generally sell between $1.5M and $2.5M.

Central Portola Valley is the triangle of Westridge, Alpine and Portola Road. Homes here are on acre to 5 acre parcels (the Westridge community is mostly 2.5 acres), and sell between $2.5M for a sloping lot to $8M for a newer home with views, usable land and a quiet location. There are outliers like 1260 Westridge which is three lots totally 22 acres with a large house that was originally listed for $25M, reduced to $16M. Lew Platt’s house is in this neighborhood and is currently listed for $24.5M.

Los Trancos Woods includes the pie shaped area of homes south of Alpine Road extending up to the end of Vista Verde Way. Homes here range from cottages on 6000sf lots to large mountain properties on 5 acres or more. 495 Old Spanish Trail is the outlier in this market sitting on 22 acres with big views of the Bay and San Francisco. Currently listed at $15,900,000.

Ladera Ranch is the neighborhood surrounding the Ladera shopping center on Alpine Road near 280. Homes here are on 6000 – 10,000sf lots and sell between $1.5M and $2.5M. Ladera is in unincorporated San Mateo County, but is almost Portola Valley and the mailing address is Portola Valley, so I’ll include it here as opposed to Menlo Park. Ladera had a huge run on prices in 2012, with an overall jump of 10-15% for the better homes, blowing through the $2M price ceiling. Now the better homes sell for $2.2M – $2.5M. Wow.

What happened:

We saw a number of larger sales in Portola Valley during Q2, including several homes that were on the market in 2012 that didn’t sell, but sold this year as the rising market came to them. With the run on real estate values over the last two years across all of Silicon Valley, even perennial laggards Portola Valley and Woodside are seeing rising prices as a limited inventory of homes is met with increasing demand. Another factor is more buyers who traditionally would have focused on Menlo Park or Palo Alto have been expanding their searches to Portola Valley and Woodside. As prices have soared in closer in markets, the larger homes and more land available for similar prices in Portola Valley and Woodside have become relative deals.

The Crystal Ball/What’s Next:

Expect that the number of homes for sale will remain low keeping steady to upward pressure on prices. With nearly half of the homes in Portola Valley, and the majority of Central PV, being over $3M, rising interest rates won’t have much of an impact on seller motivation or prices.

Portola Valley is a small town and what I call a “destination city”, generally you move there and don’t leave. With only about 1700 homes and another 500 in Ladera Ranch, and a turnover of about 3%, that’s about 75 homes a year. Sort by location and price range and you don’t have a lot of options.

A Realtor Buys a House, Part 10 – What Have We Done?!?

We got the house. For more than I wanted to pay, I reconciled
with myself that we were getting a unique location, almost ½ acre of mostly
usable space and a very private setting where we can only see two other houses
from the backyard. The house is funky, but in a way that really works for us.
The garage is behind and below the house (it’s kind of a ranch with a walk out
basement out the back), so the roof of the garage is a big deck (almost 900sf!)
that overlooks the yard and a stand of oak trees that lines the perimeter of
the property. The house was remodeled and updated at various times, so it has
an updated kitchen / small great room with a fireplace, 2 out of three
bathrooms are new, recessed lighting throughout, and the rest is somewhere
between original from the 1950’s and current. Just funky enough to be fun and cool. We
will need to do a minimal amount of work to move in, and then we will see about
the rest. I have ideas and plans of course.

More pressingly, we are in contract on a new house, our
current house is not ready for market and then we have a rental property as
well. We are three weeks away from owning three homes and we still have the
occasionally grumpy 6 week old.

No stress, no stress at all.

What would you tell your client, Chris?

I hope you enjoyed this little slice of life. We don’t have
any magic or unfair advantage in the housing market. I didn’t do anything in
this scenario that I don’t do for clients all the time, and the same goes for
most agents. Buying a house is tough, selling one is too, especially in the current market. That is why we value
our homes so much.

At the same time, it is both a great time to buy and sell.
While the market competition is hot and prices are up (good for sellers),
mortgages are still near record lows (good for buyers). We are paying less than 4% on our new
mortgage, which allowed us to get a bigger, better house in a better
neighborhood for the same payment relative to a couple of years ago. In our
little brokerage of 14 agents, FOUR of us have bought houses for ourselves this
year. If agents are buying, it’s probably a good time to do so.

At the same time, price have risen significantly in over the
past couple of years, and are mostly above the peak of 2007. We are seeing more
relative demand and less inventory across almost all price points than we have
in years, and that looks to be stable for another year until rates are expected
to start climbing.

The hard part is making the transition. With so much
competition, how do you make an offer contingent on selling your home, where do
you move, how do you move?

Stay Tuned for the other half of the adventure: A Realtor
Sells A House.

A Realtor Buys a House, Part 9 – Oh No, It’s Cute!

This installment only makes sense if you go back and read
Part 8, so please do so now. It’s OK, I’ll wait….. I got home the night we saw
the house and said, ‘I’m assuming you didn’t like the house’.

Wife – “Oh, no, I really like it, I think we should make an offer”

Me, stunned – “Wow, you sure fooled me. Remind me to never play poker with
you.”

I wrote up an offer added in a pre-approval letter and then
called the agent and told her “Surprise, I have an offer for your clients for
their house”.

She had signed the listing so recently that she didn’t have
inspections done yet, so we had a couple of contingencies, but otherwise really
clean. I would tag along with the inspections the sellers had scheduled, but
from looking at it, I was pretty comfortable with the condition.

Even with being so early in the game, before she posted it
on MLS, there was still another offer.

You are kidding…..OK, more money, better terms, sell myself
like I’m selling a client, tell them things will go smoothly, etc.

Some negotiation.

Waiting.

More waiting.

More negotiation.

We got it.

Signed contract arrives.

WE GOT IT!!!!!!

A Realtor Buys a House, Part 8 – Bad Timing

I came home and told my wife I had found a house I thought
she needed to see ASAP. When she was in the hospital we had joked that we would
find a house then, because the timing was so bad. Now, with a six week old baby
(our first), no sleep and a bunch of other balls in the air, of course I would
want her to look at a house.

She agreed to see it and we scheduled a showing. Of course,
when it was time to look at the house the baby was having a bad day and my
in-laws wanted to come to see too. So much for a quick in and out to look and
have her tell me “no”, then back to our new routine of feeding and changing.

I met the agent at the house and my family arrived a few
minutes late with my wife looking frazzled and not thrilled about trucking out
to Woodside to look at another awful house that should be torn down (we have
looked at some winners). The baby pooped on arrival, so we did the now routine
“in-car change” and blew through the house as the feeding clock started ticking
again. I think we were there for 5 min, maybe 10.

As my family loaded back up to head home for baby feeding, I
thanked the agent for letting us see the house, told her I would let her know,
and assumed the story would end there.

Thanks for reading…….

A Realtor Buys a House, Part 7 – Serendipity

A friend / client is also looking for something in Woodside
and one of his big criteria is a three car garage. We had just had our daughter
in December and this was early February, so I had a 6 week old baby at home who
had spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital in her early days, a new mom
and I was learning a lot about sleep deprivation and coffee.

Every Tuesday is Brokers’ Tour in Woodside, Portola Valley,
Menlo Park, Atherton and Redwood City. It goes further up the Peninsula too,
but I mainly work in Woodside, Portola Valley and Atherton with occasional
forays into Redwood City / Emerald Hills and San Carlos. Tour runs on Tuesdays
from 9:30 – 1:00 and is a great time to stay of the roads, as there are a bunch
of real estate agents tearing around looking for houses, talking on the phone
and gobbling snacks on offer at various new listings as they try to keep up
with new inventory. There is also a healthy dose of gossiping along the way.

It is a necessary evil, as the homes that look great online
and in photos can be very different in person. Cracked foundations, sloping
floors and leaky roofs don’t show up in photos, and understanding the market,
what is selling, what isn’t, and what makes homes good or poor choices is a key
part of the value I provide for my clients, both buyers and sellers. So, I go
“on tour” as well.

I was speaking to an agent about my client’s desire for a
place with a three car garage, and she told me she had just signed a listing
for a house in Woodside Glens, on a cul de sac with a three car garage. Do
tell? When can we see it?

I called my client and we saw it the next day. Well, the
three car garage only has two bays, but they are extra long and there is a
storage space too. It didn’t work for my client, but the garage was good enough
for my desires (See Part 6 for a recap of our criteria), the location was good
and I thought my wife would like it. I called the agent and told her the house didn’t work for my client as he needs a garage for three cars, but I wanted my wife to
see it, and could we schedule a showing?

(Obvious cliffhanger here)

Thanks for reading…..

Luxury Living in Downtown Palo Alto

If you are considering downsizing from your current home, but don’t want to consider a senior or assisted living community yet, this may be an attractive option. We have a new listing at The Hamilton, Palo Alto’s premier adult living community (one member of a household must be over 55). With an impressive list of amenities and a great downtown location, residents at The Hamilton enjoy all of the benefits of home ownership, with none of the hassles (not even cooking!).

Now available for sale, Unit 206 is a three bedroom, two and one half bath condominium with south and east exposures, capturing morning and daytime light with a spacious 1825 square feet of living space with two master suites to accommodate both short and longer terms guests.

Learn more about The Hamilton at: www.TheHamilton.net and Unit 206 at: www.555Byron206.com

Offered at $1,100,000 For showings, contact Chris Iverson at 650-450-0450 or [email protected]

Open Saturday, April 20, 2:00 – 4:00

A Realtor Buys a House, Part 6 – I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

You may have noticed there aren’t a lot of houses for sale,
relative to demand lately. This is especially true in Woodside, a town of 5100 people and 1700 homes where we we are
trolling the bottom of the market in terms of price. Last year, the least
expensive sale in Woodside near town (not on Skyline) was $850,000, the most
expensive, $117M. Sadly we were looking toward the bottom of that range. With a
median price of a little over $3M, and close to town town averaging around $5-6M, we
knew that finding something meeting our criteria would be two or three houses a
year, not quite a needle in a haystack, but slim pickings nonetheless.

We already have a number of friends in Woodside, and it’s a
small town, so I put the word out. I told everyone I knew that we were looking
for a home there and our criteria:

·
Larger yard

·
True 2 car garage, 3 cars preferable

·
3 bedroom minimum, preferable 4

·
Good floorplan

·
No weird geological issues, slopes, etc.

·
Late in the game, my wife added “Walk to downtown
Woodside”.

(Remember those from Part 4?)

I scoured Craiglist, and talked to friends, neighbors and of
course, other realtors about what they had “coming up”, meaning listings that
were signed, but not on the market yet. Any opportunity to find a house before
the masses, and also to do a reality check on our criteria against our budget and
location requirements. If we had added “unobstructed view of the mountains” we
would be out of luck. The neighborhoods in our budget don’t have big views for
the most part. The same goes for a Bay view. The geography doesn’t allow for
that.

I found homes mentioned on Nextdoor, occasionally on Craigslist and
learned of upcomings and tracked rumors. I was starting to feel like Colombo
without the trench coat. Meanwhile, we were also expecting our first child in
December so I was expecting that we were in for a long search with a hiatus
over the holidays while we welcomed our new arrival.

(Insert cliffhanger here)

Little did we know how it would all play out.

Thanks for reading……

New Listing in Los Altos – 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath $1,600,000

Located close to downtown Los Altos and excellent Los Altos schools, this 1950′s ranch home is available to move in or update to your tastes. Open House Saturday 4/13 and Sunday 4/14 1:30-4:30. Details and photos at www.73Almond.com

SOLD with 8 offers. The Seller’s market continues……..

A Realtor Buys a House, Part 5 – The Ones That Got Away

One of the ways you learn a lot about what you want, because
they are hard lessons, is when you look back at homes that sell that you didn’t
make offers on or get. When you find yourself saying weeks or months later “I
wish we had bought that house”, it crystallizes what is important in your mind.

First there was the house on Brookside Drive in Portola
Valley that bordered a creek. My wife fell in love with the master bath that
had a fireplace, the sliding doors overlooking the creek and the hickory
floors. It had kind of a weird floorplan, but it would have worked for us, the
location was great (this was pre-Woodside requirement), and there was room to
add to the garage (see previous post on criteria). The big wine chiller in the
kitchen didn’t hurt either. We were quite ready on the loan side, so when it
sold in a week with four offers, we sighed and decided to focus on that
neighborhood as a good one, and took away a lot of good ideas for our next
home. 4 out of 5 of our eventual criteria.

Then we saw this one in Woodside Glens last winter. Totally
remodeled, it had 3 of our eventual 5 criteria. It was remodeled about 10 years
ago, was funky in a way we could work with, and utilized the 7500sf lot well.
It lacked the privacy I wanted, even with a stockade fence and gate in the
front, and the garage was unusable for a car, let alone a car and small SUV.
The crawlspace had been built out into a media / storage room, and we went back
three times trying to convince ourselves that it was worth $2M to us.
Eventually, someone else decided it was worth that to them and put us out of
our misery.

This house broke our hearts. A little above our stretch
number with some issues involving water under the slab foundation and some
imposing cracks in the framing that had been patched and painted. It’s on a
half acre with an unobstructed view of Windy Hill in a great setting. The house
is an open mid-century modern (think Eichler) which my wife really likes. My
in-laws came along because they are house junkies, and as we sat at the table
on the patio and looked at the view, my father in law looked at me and said “You
should buy this house. We will help you.” Gulp. As we looked reports and I
bugged contractors and engineers to figure out how long before it fell down
without major structural and drainage work, someone with more money paid full
price and cash. I think we dodged a bullet, but it was really cool. Did I
mention that in the disclosures the sellers mentioned that during heavy rains
water ran out of the hood over the stove? Whew…..VERY cool house though.

This last one was back in The Glens of Woodside. Still for
sale, it has big interior spaces, a great setting and three bedrooms plus an
office. The garage has been converted into a guest quarters with kitchenette
and a full bath. Not great as a garage anymore because you can’t fit two cars
in it (see our criteria), but potentially a neat man cave. Recessed lighting in
the garage? Works for me….. It is on the One Way part of Hillside and you can’t
see the yard from the house really. If we didn’t have kids, I think we would
have been all over this house. It has a really private setting and the
neighbors are great. Someone will really like it.

If you have read thus far, thank you and I hope you are
finding the series entertaining. As you can see, this has been a long search,
so agents don’t have a magic wand for finding great houses that consumers won’t
know about. We spent two years on this odyssey, so have patience if you are
looking. Most of my clients are in something in about 6 months. The fastest was
three days, the slowest 18 months.

Thanks for reading…..