inside

letter from Brendan Leary

email from Avram Goldman, Coldwell Banker,San Francisco Bay Area President and COO

Real Estate Report for Santa Clara County

cover photos

top left
Brendan - Dolomites, Italy

top right
Brendan & Jean - Awards Dinner

middle
Cathy & Dave - Granada, Spain

lower
Mia & Duncan - Wedding
R.BRENDAN
LEARY
Top 1% of
Coldwell Banker Internationally

#1 Agent In CB Palo Alto Offices
1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002


Visit Brendan's Web Site
brendanleary.com

The Market

As you have been receiving our "Just Listed" & "Just Sold" cards you know we have been busy. In a nutshell the market is quite strong and shows little sign of letting up. This is finally true of all price levels. Properties that are in good condition, priced well and in good locations sell quickly and at a strong value.
"Period".

There is a plain lack of good inventory. This creates many multiple offer situations and strong pressure on price.

The small interest rate change has had little effect.

Please see articles on the following 2 pages, one from our president, the other from the Real Estate Report that are a good example of what we continue to experience.

I always consider my practice a good market indicator as well. As of June 30th, we had reached 80% of 2003.


On the "life" side of things there is a lot to report

Duncan & Mia are now married and have bought their first home. Below is a short update from Duncan.


What an incredible adventure Mia & I are having! A wedding, a home, and Brendan & my professional relationship continues to go from strength to strength. With the robust real estate market Brendan's/our technique in multiple offers has been invaluable. I am consistently impressed with our success in these situations. This was particularly true up against 3 other offers on the home Mia & I ended up buying. In the "rest of life" news, with the big steps of 2004 now successfully completed it looks like this is the year I start playing Soccer in the USA. Trials start this month with a Palo Alto team in the Peninsula Soccer League. Mia & I are also off to visit Australia in December for the big family wedding reception which has us both excited. Finally, thank you for the support that you have given to Brendan & myself for the past 2 years. The caliber of people in this area impresses me greatly and I feel fortunate to be in a position to spend time with so many of you.


Welcome Cathy Nagy as our new administrator. Cathy is married to Dave Yeung (a Lombardi Teammate) and is a focused, disciplined, and well-educated addition to our group.


It has been a great education and exciting pace thus far, working for both Brendan and Duncan. I'fm fortunate to be a part of such a valuable team in the world of real estate. I grew up and was raised in Palo Alto, on St.Michael Drive in the Midtown area. My husband, Dave, and I decided it would be great to raise a family in the Peninsula, and were extremely fortunate to buy our first home in Dec.of 2003 in Palo Alto. We could have not achieved this without our agent... Brendan Leary!


Jean & Brendan are great. I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in Italy cycling, cycling, cycling. Jean & I spent a few days at the Olympic track & field trials and had a blast. Jean continues to prosper in her business and her Olympic weight lifting. In general we are fantastic, happy and life is good.

In closing, many thanks for the continued business and referrals. That is what makes it work.

RBL

From: Goldman, Avram
To: Brendan Leary
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 1:33 PM
Subject: Weekly Market Activity Report (June 28 - July 4, 2004)
Importance: High

The media keeps saying its over, but the buyers say not yet. Yes, it is not March, but for the typically slower summer it is better than expected. Is your cup half full or half empty. In this case it is about 85% full. Inventories are increasing but not dramatically. In most markets they either remain steady and in a few decreasing. The listing numbers this past week were 20 Steady, 8 Increasing and can you believe 3 decreasing office inventory. Santa Clara county listing inventory is at 2950 active listings. A balanced market is 3850. This number is still below last year and way below 2002. At the current rate of increase it would take 6-7 weeks to reach the balance point. In the East Bay inventories remain low. In Dublin and Livermore about 2 weeks and Danville is now back just under a month. Multiple offers are still the order of the day in the first time buyer market and a good part of the SF Peninsula. 50-80% of the offers on the mid-Peninsula are multiples. Most in the 2-4 category. Berkeley and Oakland-Piedmont continue to experience 70-80% of their offers having multiples. We are seeing a little slowing in Marin. As I said before, the first time buyer market is still a little crazed. In the Berkeley Hills a fixer listed at $500,000 had 24 offers. The good news is we were the successful offer. Another property in the oh so hot Sunset district of SF saw a listing at $698,000 with 27 offers.

As long as interest rates remain hovering around 6% the demand will continue. Markets can change quickly. We still need to listen for the signs. It is still a market that if houses are priced a little below market they should yield multiple offers. As noted among some offices those sellers trying to test the limit of the markets will get burned. If July continues at near June's pace we should have a strong summer. Barring any global incidences the boat should sail smoothly into the fall and early winter.

Have a sensational week.

Avram Goldman
Coldwell Banker
San Francisco Bay Area
President and COO



July/August 2004    




There were 1,685 homes sold,an increase of 41%, year-ov-eryear, and 11.7% compared to the month before. There were 701 condos sold, an increase of 44%, year-overyear, and 10% compared to May.

Inventory decreased in June,dropping 27% compared to last year and 7% from the month before. The only thing keeping prices from exploding again is the record setting number of new listings coming to market for the past four months. As it is, prices continue to rise but rather than the 20%-30% gains of 2000, we are "only " seeing 10% to 15% monthly gains. The median home price set a new record in June at $642,000, a gain of 13.6%, year-over-year. The average price rose 15.8% to $783,343.

The record average home price is $810,000 set in April 2000. The sales price to list price ratio stayed over 100% for the fourth month in a row at 100.5%. The good news is it dropped 0.9 points from the month before. The chart below shows the Days of Inventory: how many days it would take to sell all the homes for sale at the current rate of sales.