The Bay Area never ceases to amaze!  The residential real estate market over the past 12 months has been UNreal!  Never mind the Fiscal Cliff, never mind the Debt Ceiling, the numbers speak for themselves in 2012.  Median home prices in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties increased approximately 15% to 16% in just the past 12 months.  The increases were higher in popular towns such Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Los Altos and Mountain View where median home prices have exceeded the peak prices from mid 2008.

Reports are being heard multiple offers are being received on numerous properties.   In some cases 8 to as many as 30+ offers have been received on some properties.  Overbidding in the range of 5% to 20% over asking price has not been UNusual.  Many offers are All Cash!  The market is a real market without the benefit of the easy loans from the mid 2000′s.  Residential real estate along the Peninsula and Silicon Valley is alive and well.  But why?

Home inventory levels are UNbelievably low and have not been this low in over 7 years.  This is making it hard on home buyers to purchase a home.  Buyers are moving to the Bay Area from all over the globe. They are being greeted with only a handful of homes to view in the towns and prices ranges they are targeting.  When will new inventory of homes arrive on the market?  Usually the homes start arriving on the market just after Super Bowl Sunday.  It is UNknown, though, if there will be enough new inventory to satisfy the current demand.  Home sellers are taking note of this and have been considering that this might just be the right time to sell.

The Bay Area has seen this before and now its Back to the UN-Future Again!