Saturday, May 25, 2013

How Hot is Hot? Westwood Knolls and San Mateo Knolls


I set out to write about another home selling hot spot in the Bay Area - Westwood Knolls and San Mateo Knolls / Laurel Creek Farms in San Mateo, but was interrupted multiple times. Finally, as the day came to an end I went back to my writing. My first and only sentence I wrote said “There are only six listings in the Westwood Knolls and Knolls / Laurel Creek Farms”. Just to be on a safe side with numbers I went back to search and the number was different! There are only four listings left. It is the end of Friday and we are just about to start the Memorial Day weekend. While many people prefer to go away for the weekend, it is also a great weekend to start selling homes. I quickly checked the details. 324 Greenfield Ave and 3502 Michaels Dr houses changed status to pending, the former after seven days on the market and the latter one after nine days. There are six pending for this area now with the average thirteen days on the market (time from listing on MLS to the moment an offer is accepted).

324 Greenfield Ave

But where exactly are Westwood Knolls and San Mateo Knolls?  They stretch from El Camino Real to Alameda delas Pulgas (Westwood Knolls) and from Alameda delas Pulgas to the Sugarloaf Mountain in the West and from W. Hillsdale Blvd. to Belmont border in the South. 23 homes sold in this since the beginning of the year and 15 out of them or 65% above the listing price. From March 7th three of them sold on “200” and “300” blocks of Greenfield Ave. The 324 Greenfield will be number four. All three that already sold, closed above the asking, one for $2,015,000 (asking $1,599,000),

278 Greenfield Ave
 
another for $1,360,000 (asking $1,249,000) and the 3rd for $1,251,000 (asking $1,050,000). The 324 Greenfield was listed for $1,288,000 and of course we don’t know what the accepted price is. So, the 200- 300 blocks of Greenfield Ave are the hottest area of already hot Westwood Knolls and San Mateo Knolls / Laurel Creek Farms area. Three sales and one pending in ten weeks long period sold $243,000 or 20% above the listing! Greenfield Ave is really hot. You might not fully appreciate why Greenfield Ave homes are selling so well from the pictures presented in this post, but it has a breath taking panoramic view of the Bay from SF to beyond San Mateo bridge. This has certainly something to do with why they sell so well.

View from Greenfield Ave

But make no mistake, these homes were extremely well prepared for sale, especially the 278 Greenfield Ave home. This is what it takes today to sell house for a top price. Either a brand new house or brilliantly remodeled house. Of course a good view will not hurt. It looks as “good views” help more than ever. Is it because of younger buyers and more “easy money”? I leave answer to professional market researches.

Next week I will write about home selling in Marin and in a week or two give you an update on the Greenfield Ave.

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