Real Estate Commentary, Q4 2012 Menlo Park

Michael Dreyfus

Michael Dreyfus has had 23 years of repeated success in residential real estate. He currently ranks as one of the leading sales agents in the Silicon Valley/ Peninsula area. His recent sales have been often and varied, including some of the highest sales recorded in Palo Alto, Woodside and Atherton. He has also sold homes in Menlo Park, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Portola Valley, San Carlos, San Mateo, and has established a specialty in the high end market and the neighborhoods of North Palo Alto. In addition, he has represented clients in high-end resort purchases throughout California. Michael works both as a sales agent and as the owner and managing broker of Dreyfus Sotheby's International Realty, a boutique real estate brokerage which specializes in the lower Peninsula market and offers clients locally-focussed, high-quality real estate services. Michael is an industry thought leader who has been interviewed on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, ABC News and Fortune/CNN/Money. He writes a monthly real estate column for The Palo Alto Weekly. Michael started Dreyfus Properties in 2000 and has grown it into one of the leading boutique firms in the Silicon Valley with offices in downtown Palo Alto and on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. Dreyfus Properties, through it agents, offers custom real estate solutions with an emphasis on personal service and professionalism, all with a razor focus on the lower peninsula residential real estate market. Prior to Dreyfus Properties, Michael was a sales leader with both Coldwell Banker and Prudential California Realty, consistently placing as his office's top sales agent and in the top 1% of sales agents internationally. He is a licensed Real Estate Broker and Attorney-at-law. He is a member of the National and California Association of Realtors, and the Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Tahoe/Sierra and Southern California multiple listing services. He is active in the community, having served in various school and athletic positions, on the Board of Directors for the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation, and currently as a director on the Save the Bay foundation board. He resides with his wife and three children in the Professorville neighborhood of Palo Alto.

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We are still in a seller’s market in 2012. Inventory remains extremely low. Dreyfus Properties has just released its 4th quarter market report, comparing the final three months of 2011 to same time period year before.

What’s happening with Menlo Park prices?
Menlo Oaks is the poster child for our current situation: low inventory and high prices. Its median sale price is up 40% and has a zero listings currently on the market. Not all neighborhoods are as extreme as Menlo Oaks. For instance, Central Menlo’s median sale price is down 5%, but the averate sale price has increased 2%. This means that lower priced homes are moving in Central Menlo (homes under $2M+)

Allied Arts’ average and median sale price increased nearly 40%. By contrast, average and median sale price fell in the Willows and University Heights, largely because the types of homes selling here are smaller, lower-priced listings.

What’s happening with Menlo Park inventory?
I always look at inventory because it drives prices. Low inventory means higher prices and frustrated buyers. Every neighborhood in Menlo Park has less than thre months’ housing supply. That’s the benchmark we use to say whether it is a buyers or a sellers’ market. Menlo Park is definitely a sellers market. The average days’ supply across all of Menlo Park is 56.

In neighboring Atherton, Lindenwood is going gangbusters. Average sale price is up 48%, median sale price is up 58%, with only a 30 day supply of housing.

What does this all mean?
Every time inventory has hit this low point, supply rebounds. Your neighbors will be selling again soon, so the time is now to get the best possible value for your home. If you’ve been thinking of selling your home, now is the time to talk to me.