The San Jose real estate market, part of the larger Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley housing markets, continued to take strong strides in the most recent tracking period. According to a June 17, 2010 press release from the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, “Sellers sold more homes in Santa Clara County in May than the same month last year, extending a streak of monthly sales increase in year-over-year comparison since January. Buyers and sellers closed sales on 1,670 homes last month, including single family residences, townhouses and condos, according to MLSlistings Inc. It represented a 29.96 percent increase from April and a 28.36 percent rise from the same month last year. ’Homebuyers continue to take advantage of the low mortgage rates and attractive price points," said Karl Lee, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors.” She went on to note that "First-time buyers and investors are knowingly bidding against multiple contenders, because the opportunities are simply too good.’ The average home price stood at $670,510, 16.75 percent higher from May last year. It was 2.12 percent lower than April because of a recent surge in the sales of entry level homes. Townhouse and condo sales went up 40 percent while sales in single family residences rose only 26.77 percent from April to May. Inventory dropped slightly in May. 6,005 homes were for sale, a 0.43 percent drop from April and a 0.40 percent drop from the same month last year.”
The average price of a San Jose home for sale was the highest in the entire state of California. According to a June 22, 2010 article from the Mercury News, “As for Silicon Valley's real estate market, the California Association of Realtors' report shows it's in better shape than elsewhere in the Golden State. In Santa Clara County, the median house price in May was $630,000 — the highest in the state, followed by the San Francisco Bay Area as a whole at $592,930. (It's important to note, though, that the Bay Area includes communities ranging from San Mateo County — where prices are higher than in Santa Clara County — to less-expensive locales in the East Bay.) The median price in Santa Clara County is up 41.6 percent from the market's lowest point, surpassed only by the Monterey and San Francisco Bay Area regions. At the same time, Santa Clara County has had the smallest drop from the market's peak, at 27.5 percent, followed by the Bay Area and Orange County real estate market.”