It’s actually better now than in May. Today, we have 30 active condo/townhouses on the maket with 28 pending sales. In May there was 38 actives and 25 pendings. I hope that’s a trend. High HOA dues are still a problem and are clearly effecting sales on units in those projects. Here’s some new and interesting listings:

712 Zumwalt Ln listed by Sheryl Fleming of Alain Pinel for $799,000. This gorgeous Harborside waterfront unit has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and is a large 1880 sq ft. It’s a really terrific place and it’ll be interesting to see if it can get this price. It’s probably worth it!

985 Marquette listed by Monica Yeung Arima of Coldwell Banker for $639,800. This is a large 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath place in 1640 sq ft at Winston Square. Nice and clean.

880 Carina listed by me for $589,000. Of course I like it! It’s also a really terrific townhouse that shows wonderfully. It’s a large 1540 sq ft 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath place that’s nicely redone and is in great shape. Unlike lots of other projects Isle Cove offers all exterior maintanence, pools, clubhouse, waterfronts, water, garbage and earthquake insurance.

In May, the last time I did this, there were 28 active Single Family Houses on the market and 18 pending sales and that seemed pretty good to me then. Oddly, today we have 30 active single family homes…and 18 pending sales. Hmm…not much has changed I guess. Interestingly, 7 of those houses have been on for at least 100 days, 2 of them for over 200 days and one has been on for 300 days. Average days on market in Foster City as houses go is 83 days. It’s certainly taking longer to sell a place this year that’s for sure.  I have to say, it sure is interesting and refreshing to see how many of the highest priced houses in town are now pending sale! That’s definitely worthy of note. Anyway, here’s a few places worth commenting on:

503 Drake listed by Rumana Jabeen of Coldwell Banker for $1,098,888. This is a really nice 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house with 2210 sq ft in a great location near Edgewater Place. Nicely updated and I think the price is right too.

372 Shad listed by Mary Bee with Sothebys for $969,000. This floor plan has sold a few times in the last couple of months and this one is priced a bit higher than the others. It is in great shape that location on Shad Park is a plus. It’s a 1900 sq ft 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. I’ll be interested to see how they do here.

993 Flying Fish listed by Jessica Eva of Sothebys for $799,000. OK, it needs some work…but it’s $799,000. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath 1840 sq ft house. The same floor plan is also for sale on Grunion for $868,000. We’ll see, huh?

38 active listings and 25 pending sales…again, not bad. Just like with single family, there’s plenty of places on the market for over 100 days. That includes a place at The Islands that’s been on since March of 2010. I guess $716.00 a month HOA dues will have that kind of effect on you. Still…places are selling. Here’s a couple of interesting newer ones:

1103 Emerald Bay listed by Barbara Slaton of Alain Pinel for $618,000. This is a really gorgeous place,dues are decent at $325.00 too. 2 master suites too. Worth a look.

1120 Nimitz listed by Bob Lahl of Sothebys for $699,000. Very nice one level unit at Harborside in nice condition. Also $325.00 a month dues.

28 active single famiy homes on the market today and 18 pending sales….354 Mullet went pending yesterday.  That’s a decent ratio and 28 is a 2011 high for active listings. At this time of the year I think we can expect more on the horizon too. For what it’s worth, I’ve never really considered Williams Landing to be single family (although the MLS does) because those units are attached and there’s HOA dues. Certainly 652 Celestial is a townhouse at Shell Cove too…why it’s in the MLS as single family is simply a mistake. It’s remarkable how many of these houses have been on the market for over 100 days. Particularly interesting since other houses have gotten multiple offers during the same time. It’s a funny market. Here’s a couple of new ones that caught my eye:

280 Pelican listed by Christy Long of Sothebys for $830,000. This is a pretty clean Eichler 3 bedroom and it’s in pretty good shape vs. alot of it’s competition in that price range. It’ll be interesting to see how it does.

619 Comet listed by Carmen Miranda of Alain Pinel for $1,089,888. This is a big, nice house on a good size lot and I think it’s priced well. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s location across the street from the Admiralty effects it’s sale. Worth a look.

We’ve reached that point in the marketplace where the available listings in Foster City, as far as single family houses go, are really a have and have not game. There’s plenty of active buyers out there, but the majority of active listings leave something to be desired. In fact, most of them have significant defects of one kind or another. right next to the 101 sound wall, the big high tention power line in the back yard, house is a mess, house is a mess and is in a terrible location. You get the picture…certainly you get it if you’ve been out there looking at homes lately!

Since this is the 2011 market and not the 2005 market, buyers are understandablyhesitant to jump at a house with some major flaws. Having said that, when a house comes up right now with all, or most, of the right ingredients it goes off like a rocket. Multiple offers insue and the price goes up. It really is a great situation of you’re the owner of a upgraded, gorgeous home. It’s also a great scenario if you’ve planned well, staged your home and it’s in perfect showing condition.

in the last week or so we’ve seen homes like that around here. First of all, the house at 312 Pompano came up listed at $1,179,888 by Carmen Miranda of Alain Pinel. It’s stunning…especially in comparison with like properties around here right now. It got 4 offers and went pending today. I can’t wait to see what it closes for. It will be higher than $1,179,888. Following that gem we then saw the house at 121 Spinnaker listed by Mary Ficklin of Alain Pinel for $998,000. Take a look at that link…$998,000! This same floor plan…in basic fixer upper form sold on Biscayne in October for $1,070,000. To put it mildly and with respect to hyperbole…121 Spinnaker might have been the best deal I’ve ever seen in Foster City. Needless to say…it didn’t last long. It went pending today as well. It’s safe to say it went over asking too.

All this to say that if your a buyer and you want a nicely, redone finished product…get ready to compete for it. A house that looks like these two is going to get multiple offers. At this point, an unfinished product in a good location without major flaws could get multiple offers as well. If your about to sell…plan well and don’t hesitate to spend a little getting the house in top showing condition. It’ll be worth it.

Well, at least in this category things are a bit more normal. 38 active condo/townhouses and 22 pending sales. Not bad…but not what we saw on Tuesday. This category has been pretty slow for most of 2010 so it is encouraging that 14 of those pendings came in the last month. November was really a decent month.

Just like the single family homes…there’s plenty of listings that have been on the market for a long time. I’m honestly not really sure how these places will end up moving. Most likely via some significant price reductions…we’ll see? For what it’s worth, here’s a couple of fairly new listings that look pretty nice to me:

653 Draco Lane listed by Cookie Cala with Elite Properties for $565,000. This is a really cute 2 bedroom condo at Shell Cove that seems priced right to me. Staged well…it should sell.

1086 Tiller Lane listed by Mary Bee of Today/Sothebys for $699,999. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath unit at Bayfront Court that’s really adorable. It’s certainly one of the nicest units in town in this range. Worth a look.

I’m betting on the new year to be pretty strong again…like it was earlier this year. Again…we’ll see?

I actually had to look at this twice and then go to the MLS to re verifiy this data. All the black listings above are the active ones! In reality there’s 12 of them as 336 Dolphin sold and 652 Celestial and 707 Comet are townhouses and are mislisted in the MLS as single family.  11 active listings! 20 pending sales! Honestly, it’s been along time since we had such little inventory and if it stays this way I predict that January is going to be a hot month. Multiple offer type of market.

Interestingly, many of these active listings have been on the market for a long time. It’s going to be a very interesting conclusion to 2010. October was a really slow time and November was certainly surprisingly active….that’s certainly born out with this chart above! Like I said…it’s going to be interesting!

Again, more inventory right now than at any other time this year. 42 properties actively for sale and 23 pending sale. That actually doesn’t seem like such a bad ratio to me because the condo/townhouse market sure seems slow. The darker listings above are the actives. Once again, high HOA dues have effected values in many projects and thus we’ve seen prices come down in them. Here’s a sampling of some newer listings that are really nice…and we’ll see if that makes a difference in their days on the market:

1151 Compass #201 listed by Liliane Cools of Cashin for $489,000. This is a really gorgeous unit at Marina Point, but the dues there are $477.00 a month. This one’s been on before and has been reduced from a high of $559,000. It’s going to be interesting to see what the magic number is that sells it.

841 Columba listed by Sue Dickey of Alain Pinel for $690,000. This is a wide waterfront 3 bedroom at Isle Cove where the dues are $488.00 a month. Once upon a time, (in 2006) a wide waterfront there sold for $999,000. This is a good price on this unit…we’ll see how it does?

1067 Shell #2 listed by the Wilkas Group at Prudential for $425,000. Really nice unit at Sand Harbor and the dues are a bit better there too…$375.00. It’s a very cute 2 bedroom place.

This has really been a very “ebb and flow” kind of year. Either super hot, or really slow. You know what? This is the Peninsula…it’s going to get hot again.

Well, there sure is more inventory right now. As of today there are 33 active listings on single family homes in Foster City and 21 pending sales. It’s a funny market right now too. There’s lots of folks looking but not taking the plunge. In the last two weeks there’s been 10 new listings coming on the market as well…so the choice for buyers is certainly at it’s highest level so far this year. Here’s s sampling of some of the newer properties:

251 Sandpiper listed by David Young of Coldwell Banker for $885,000. OK, so it has a foundation issue…it’s priced pretty darn well. It’s a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2250 sq ft house. I think it’s a good opportunity even with the work.

1425 St.Kitts listed by David Tapper of Cashin Company for $1,158,000. This is a really gorgeous house in Antigua with some wonderful landscape and a really nice kitchen. It’ll be interesting to see how it does.

1256 Martinique listed by me for $988,000. This is a really great 3 bedroom house, huge master suite, good location at Pitcairn. I can’t resist touting it!

August is typically, in my experience, a slow month. Vacations? I don’t really know…but it’s been that way. It’ll be interesting to see!

In February Foster City had 28 active listings and 25 pending sales when I did this report. The inventory has only gone up slightly, to 34 active listings and there are 30 pending sales (pendings are light color). That really is a pretty good ratio! It’s also interesting that 17 of those 30 properties sold in April. The market is healthy! Yet, it’s really interesting how other properties have just been sitting for a long time. In many cases, it’s the over priced property that’s been sitting for a long time…and there’s plenty of those. If it’s clean, remodeled and priced right it’s gone quickly. Here’s some examples:

225 Bonita listed by Sue Dickey of Alain Pinel for $695,000. I was going to talk about nice new listings…but all the best ones sell right away! Take this one for example. It’s an absolutely stunning 3 bedroom unit at Marina Green. It came up on Sunday and sold yesterday. Why not, it was priced well and it was drop dead gorgeous.

1035 Rudder listed by the illustrious Richard Williamson of Re/Max Today for $720,000. Ditto the last entry, another gorgeous 3 bedroom unit at Bayfront Court. Incredible place…this one took 6 days to sell.

55 Commons listed by Cheryl V with Achievers Real Estate for $599,000. Sold in 9 days at CityHomes. 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, again…gorgeous. Priced well and it’s gone right away.

The amazing thing is, there’s so many overpriced, mediocre units out there right now that I think will probably be sitting forever. When the new, nice units like these come up buyers will snap them up.