Pleasanton March 2025 Real Estate Update

The Pleasanton real estate market saw a surge of activity in February, indicating we could be in for a very active Spring market.  This despite interest rates remaining stubbornly high, although they have been drifting lower of late

Let’s take a dive into the numbers for February:

Supply/Inventory:  The inventory of available single-family homes increased 35% from January, with 58 homes for sale at the end of February, compared to 41 detached homes on the market at the end of January. This is also 45% higher than February of 2024.  This is good news or home buyers who are hoping for more homes for sale this Spring.

Demand: Pending sales (homes under contract) also increased, with 39 homes going under contract in February, up 50% from January and up 11% from last February. Closed sales in February were up as well with 29 closed sales, which is 38% higher than January and 45% higher than last February.  Median days on market eased down to 8 for February, a slight improvement over January’s number of 9. However, it is up slightly from February of last year

Prices: Pricing data eased a bit in February, with a median sold price per sq foot of $873, down from $907 in January but up slightly from February of last year. The median sold price in February was $1,625,000, down 11% from January’s figure of $1,830,000 and also down 11% from February of 2024.

The average sales price to list price ratio in February rose slightly to 100% from 99% in January, indicating that there are still segments of the market that are seeing multiple offers. For context, if homes are selling on average for their asking price (100%) it would indicate a strong market. The highest ratio of sales price to list price was in May of last year, where homes on average sold for 106% of the list price.

Interest Rates: Average 30-year fixed mortgage rates have trended down slightly after surging in mid-January to over 7%.  Currently they average mortgage rate is 6.63%, which is up almost ½% from October of last year’s low point of 6.08%.  Interest rates remain the key driver for the real estate market.  We will see how they go as we move into the Spring

Economic/Other Considerations: Given the volatility in the economy and the unpredictable impact of tariffs, there is fear in the market around a possible recession. Interestingly a slower economy generally means lower rates, which seems to account for the easing of rates recently. However the fight to reign in inflation remains the critical factor in the housing market due to its impact on long term mortgage rates.  We will see….