Pleasanton Real Estate Market Update - October 2024 Data

The Pleasanton real estate market in October was a mixed bag. Some data pointed to a moderately robust market, other data not so much.   Buyer demand remains fickle, while inventory declined.  Still, the market is strong in some neighborhoods and market segments, while others were experiencing sluggish activity.  The pace of the market continued to slow in October, and an upward surge in Mortgage rates did not help.  And anxiety about the election and the political and geopolitical situations added to the unease.  We will see where things go as we enter the Fall.

Let’s take a dive into the numbers for October.

Supply/Inventory:  The inventory of available single-family homes declined in October, with a scant 57 homes on the market, down 26% from the end of September when there were 68 homes on the market.  However, inventory is still 24% higher than October of 2023.  About 30% of the active and pending listings have had price reductions, indicating that activity has generally been slow.

Demand: Pending sales (homes under contract) have been fairly steady.  In October there were 48 pending sales, up slightly from 44 pending sales in September, and from 46 in August. Pending sales in October were up 71% from last October, so not a bad showing.  However, closed sales were down 26% from September, but up 81% from October 2023.  Median days on market was 20 in October, up from 18 in September and 13 in August, and a whopping 150% higher than October of 2023.  

Prices: Pricing data showed a decline in October, with the median sold price per sq foot at $871, declining 3.4% from September ($901) and down from August ($922), although it was up 2.5% from October of 2023.  The median sold price in October was $1,695,000, which is down .6% from September and down .9% from October of last year.

The average sales price to list price ratio, which was 106% in May, declined to 98%, indicating that there are still segments of the market that are strong.  For context, if homes are selling on average for their asking price (100%) it would indicate a strong market. But in this case it is more of an indicator that desirable homes priced aggressively are still seeing good activity, but homes that are not as desirable are having a harder time and selling below asking price. 

Interest Rates: Average 30 year fixed mortgage rates trended up in October.  At the beginning of October, average 30 year fix mortgages were at 6.08%, but have since spiked up to 6.72% by the end of October, which certainly impacted some of the demand for homes.  We will what the trend is for interest rates as we head towards year end.

Economic/Other Considerations: Economic volatility and geopolitical instability continues to add to a climate of uncertainty, which impacts buyer’s aggressiveness and can drive many buyers to hit the pause button.  So the word of the day remains “volatility”.