Mountain View, CA: Comparing June 2011 single family home activity to June 2010

In Mountain View, CA there were 31 single family homes sold in June 2011. Homes were listed for 1.085M and sold for 1.11M on average. This represents a selling price of about 2% over asking price.

How does this compare to June 2010 in Mountain View, CA?

In June 2010, 40 single family homes sold with an average list price of 934K and a sale price of 951K. This also represents a sales price of 2% over asking price.

With this data it is so easy to create some crazy headline about how the market is up 17% in June 2011 compared to June 2010 in Mountain View, CA.

Is that really a true statement?

If you look deeper at the average house sold this year vs. last year in June the difference in price is based on the average size of the house sold.

In June 2010 the average house sold was 1585 sq ft with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths on a lot of just under 5500 sq ft.

In June 2011, the average house sold was 1884 sq ft with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths on a lot just under 7100 sq ft.

If you look at cost per sq foot in June 2010 the average was $600 and in June 2011 it is $589. So the average price per square foot has not changed significantly and it does take into account the larger lot size for homes sold in June 2011.

So it would appear that the difference in prices would be based on the type of homes sold this year vs. last, not a spike in home prices.

“Bigger houses sold this June in Mountain View, CA” does not make as interesting a headline as “17% jump in home prices in Mountain View, CA year over year”, so you need to look at the real data not just the potential headline to understand the real trends in the real estate market.

If you want help making sense of the housing market in Mountain View, CA please contact me.