We are pleased to present an analysis of the 2023 real estate market in Santa Clara County. This report is designed to help homeowners understand the market trends and focuses on single family homes that were publicly sold through the multiple listing service (MLS) which may not include homes sold off market.

Sales Volume

Santa Clara County experienced a notable decrease in home sales with 6,874 transactions recorded through December 15, 2023, compared to 8,950 in 2022 and 12,651 in 2021. This figure represents the lowest since 2005, which recorded 15,531 sales.

When looking at interest rates and number of sales, it seems that rising rates did not heavily impact sales activity. Instead, buyer activity continued to follow the historical trend of being the most active in the Spring market, pulling back in the Summer, seeing a slight uptick in the Fall and then dramatically decreasing in the
Winter.

Price Trends

The number of sales dropped, but this didn’t significantly affect the median sale price, which slightly decreased from $1,750,000 in 2022 to $1,748,000 in 2023. Over the past five years, median prices have been generally stable, with a minor dip of about 5.5% from 2018 to 2019. The price per square foot saw a slight decrease to $1,090 in 2023 from $1,111 in 2022.

Days on Market

2023 home demand was evidenced by how quickly homes sold. On average, it took around 21 days for a single-family home to go into contract with the median number of days being 9.

Overall Summary of 2023

While mortgage interest rates increased dramatically in 2023, the data shows that home prices and home buyers failed to take notice. Historically low inventory with more buyers than available homes for sale caused home prices to hold relatively steady. Demand from home buyers was further driven by the resurgence of equity markets. Home buyers in Santa Clara County have traditionally worked at tech companies listed on the Nasdaq which peaked in July close to 40%, and that is now closing out the year close to those record levels.

2024 Market Outlook

Looking forward to 2024, the tea leaves seem to indicate that the market for single family homes will remain strong. As we approach the end of December the yields on the 10-year treasury note have seen sharp declines which translate into lower mortgage rates.

January – December 2023

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