When determining whether a market is a buyers’ market or a sellers’ market, we look to the Months of Supply Inventory (MSI) metric. The state of California has historically averaged around three months of MSI, so any area with at or around three months of MSI is considered a balanced market. Any market that has lower than three months of MSI is considered a sellers’ market, whereas markets with more than three months of MSI are considered buyers’ markets.
Given this information, the single family home market in Silicon Valley is most definitely a sellers’ market, as there are 1, 0.7, and 2.3 months of inventory on the market in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties, respectively. However, on the other hand, the condo market isn’t as one sided. San Mateo and Santa Clara have 2.2 and 2 months worth of inventory on the market, making them sellers’ markets. Whereas, Santa Cruz has 3.7 months worth of supply on the market, making it a buyers’ market!