Los Altos Real Estate Blog

1361 Sherman Avenue

Menlo Park, CA  94025

Price:  $1,998,000

Virtual Tour:  www.1361ShermanAve.com

Charming country home on a quiet street in West Menlo Park with Las Lomitas schools.   Situated on a huge 9,375sf lot, this 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom home offers both ample living space and a cozy country feeling.  The master bedroom suite features a walk-out patio with space for plants and sitting area. The master bathroom offers a traditional Japanese soaking tub with views of the tranquil yard below.  The adjoining walk-in closet has plenty of space.

There is a separate spacious bonus area perfect for a play room or casual entertaining.  Recently landscaped back yard features built-in grill and space to entertain on the Arizona flagstone patio.  The home has been repainted inside and out.  The downstairs has hardwood floors.  Minutes to Stanford University, and downtown Palo Alto or Menlo Park.

OPEN HOUSE:  Saturday and Sunday 1:30-4:30PM

While sales were up overall in Menlo Park, with 378 single-family homes sold in 2011 (compared to 258 in 2010), the average selling price dropped.  Finishing at $1,296,547, it was just about $8000 shy of the 2010 average.  This decline in the ASP was a result of more sales at the low-end of the market and a shortage of inventory, particularly at the high-end.

There were only 454 new listings last year, down from 529 in 2010.  That's a 14% drop in listings that, combined with a rise in sales, meant that not enough homes were available to pull up the average selling price.  When looking back at August in particular, the market slowed to crawl with few homes selling and most of those being very low priced.

Toward the end of Q4, this issue persisted and buyers have been left wondering what will be available in 2012.  Prices and sales were solid in Q4 but not enough to pull up the year overall.  One sign that the lack of inventory and flat prices is not a sign of market weakness - the percentage of listing price to sales price was 99.7%.  The market had a substantial rise in all-cash offers and multiple offers.  These market conditions prevailed all year, including December.

In my opinion, the hiring by many local technology companies, combined with a shortage of inventory and mostly full priced offers, allowed 2011 to set up a possible spike in prices going into 2012.