Sunnyvale Homes For Sale

Buyers seeking bargains boost June home sales

The South Bay housing market picked up in June, as Santa Clara and San Mateo counties saw double-digit monthly gains in home sales, helped along by investors paying cash, according to a report Thursday.

Sales in Santa Clara County rose 14 percent in June but were down almost 3 percent from the year before. The median price was up 2 percent from May, to $598,000, and almost flat from a year ago, real estate information service DataQuick said.

In San Mateo County, sales were up 11.8 percent from May, but down 5.5 percent from last year. The median price rose by a sliver over the month to $654,000. That's close to what the price was last year

San Jose's median price of $500,000 in June was unchanged from last year, while prices in Sunnyvale, Milpitas and Morgan Hill declined from a year ago. Palo Alto and Cupertino were up just over 11 percent from June 2010, and Mountain View gained about 9 percent.

In a sign that banks may be loosening their purse strings a bit, more adjustable-rate mortgages were approved in June compared with a year ago.

A quarter of home sales in Santa Clara County involved ARMs, up from 17 percent last year and the most in almost three years. In San Mateo County, 23 percent were ARMs, up from 16 percent a year ago and the highest since August 2008.

A lot of the action is in distressed property -- foreclosures and short sales -- although the high end of the market has been booming for months now.

Christopher Saiz, a 29-year-old engineer, was wrapping up the short sale of his 10th Street San Jose home Thursday, with plans to save up his money and buy another home when the time is right.

"Home sales are up," said Saiz's agent, Ann McKinney of Intero Real Estate Services.

"We're getting multiple offers, sometimes up to 15 on a home, because inventory is low and interest rates are low. We're seeing lots of cash buyers," she said.

Investors are flooding into downtown San Jose seeking bargains, McKinney said. "In the lower-end rental market, there's a lot of cash coming from overseas. Downtown San Jose homes at $400,000 and under are being gobbled up all-cash. It makes it hard for individual homeowners to compete."

All-cash offers above asking price are common in San Mateo County now, said Faye Farzinpour with Re/Max in Redwood City.

For example, she said, a property in Redwood City that was listed for $259,000 drew multiple offers, with her client beaten out by an all-cash offer of more than $310,000. A condo in Foster City that was listed for $650,000 sold for $670,000 after drawing multiple offers, she said.

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