The Local Lowdown: March 2025

Michelle Kim | April 1, 2025

The Local Lowdown

Quick Take:

San Mateo and Santa Clara continue to see incredibly strong growth in median sale price, while Santa Cruz remains mostly flat when compared to this time last year.
Inventories are beginning to build in Silicon Valley, with the number of active listings increasing by more than 16% when compared to last year!
New listings continue to be scooped up at an incredibly rapid pace, with the average listing in Santa Clara sitting on the market for just 8 days.

Note: You can find the charts/graphs for the Local Lowdown at the end of this section.

San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties see incredibly strong growth

Throughout the entirety of 2024, Silicon Valley remained seemingly unphased by the increase in mortgage rates, and the prevailing thought that interest rates would remain higher for longer. As of right now, it looks like the area is unlikely to buck that trend this year, as we see stellar growth in both San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties once again. These markets saw an 11.17% increase and a 10.42% increase, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.

Although the median sale prices in Santa Cruz are not growing nearly as quickly as they are in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, the market is still holding up well, ending February with a 1.42% year-over-year increase in median sale prices.

Inventories are increasing in terms of both single-family homes and condos

When you see the type of growth that we’re seeing in Silicon Valley home prices, you might expect that inventory is shrinking. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. We saw a 19.66% increase in inventory over the course of the past month and a 16.73% increase when compared to the same time period last year. Interestingly enough, though, there were 2.34% fewer homes sold in the month of February when compared to last year. Silicon Valley will need to see a reversal in this if the market is to hold onto its stellar growth!

Despite growing inventories, buyers are closing on new listings faster than ever

While inventory is increasing and fewer homes are being sold, the ones that are selling are moving incredibly quickly, with the average listing in San Mateo County only lasting 10 days on the market. The market in Santa Clara County is even more competitive, with the average listing lasting a mere 8 days on the market! This shows that the demand is there for great properties in the area, and that trend isn’t likely to reverse anytime soon!

Sellers continue to have bargaining power in Silicon Valley

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 seller’s market, whereas markets with more than three months of MSI are considered buyer’s markets.

With 1.2, 1, and 2.5 months' worth of single-family home supply on the market, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz Counties are all staunchly sellers’ markets. However, when it comes to the condo market, things are considerably more balanced. There are 3 and 3.5 months’ worth of condo supply on the market in San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties, respectively, which means there might be some room for buyers to make a deal! However, Santa Clara County only has 2.2 months’ worth of condo supply on the market, so the sellers certainly have the upper hand at the negotiation table there.