real estate

Ultra-Premium Affordable Home Debuts in Aptos

January 29, 2020 by Seb Frey

The future of affordable housing is here, and it’s at the Aptos Pines Mobile Home Park. Local company Joy Line Homes is offering the home for sale, and it’s unlike anything you’ve likely ever seen in a mobile home park, anywhere. The home consists of 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,640 square feet and is currently listed at $639,000.

$639,000 might not sound very affordable, but for a brand new home of this size in Aptos, it would be almost impossible to imagine something like this selling for anything less than $900,000. Of course, Aptos Pines Mobile Home Park isn’t in a prime bay bluff neighborhood like, say, Rio del Mar – but it is a park where the you own the land, too. That keeps the HOA fee low (about $165/month) and provides significant appreciation in value over time.

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Even at the asking price, many people prospective Aptos home buyers would consider it to be at least a relatively affordable home – but it is nothing like any affordable home most people have ever seen. It has a stunning design and feels almost like a luxury home – more so than all but some of the finest in Aptos.

The home boasts:

3,250sf deeded lot
Clean lines, high ceilings, open floor plan, and custom features throughout
Chef’s dream kitchen with quartz-slab waterfall countertops, expansive island with sink and eat-in bar, built-in gas cooktop, stainless steel appliances
Courtyard-style front deck
Generously sized master suite with a glass-walled bathroom, walk-in shower, and large walk-in closet
Office/Den/3rd bedroom with distinctive glass partition wall!

Catch Episode 50 of the Bay to Bay Podcast with special guest Ben West, founder of Joy Line Homes! Click here to have a listen

While $639,000 is obviously out of reach for many buyers, the price is due in large part to the cost of the land. Ben West, the home’s designer and founder of Joy Line Homes, says most homes he delivers end up costing around $150 per square foot, delivered, installed, and finished on-site. This is a dramatically lower cost than for “stick-built” homes, which often end up costing $350-$450 per square foot (excluding land, permitting, and other soft costs).

Santa Cruz County has recently relaxed restrictions on the construction of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), and in fact they have waived permit fees for accessory dwelling units. Many Aptos and Santa Cruz home owners are considering constructing a “granny flat” in the back yard. At $150 per square foot, a 640sf ADU should be able to be built for just over $100,000.

The way we build housing in California is changing, and it is exciting to see that a local company is out in the forefront, bringing innovative solutions to our address our acute housing crisis.

Click the Image Below to see the Listing Details

Joy Line Homes – The Pines Video Tour

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21 Eugenia Ave – Photo Slideshow Gallery

Poll Predicts Higher Aptos Real Estate Prices in 2019

January 27, 2019 by Seb Frey

A poll was recently conducted on the neighborhood web site NextDoor, asking Aptos residents what they thought would happen to Aptos home prices in 2019. After a month, 42 responses to the survey were recorded. The results might surprise you: the NextDoor poll predicts higher real estate prices.

Of course, in no way should this poll be considered to be scientific. Online polls are notorious, in fact, for being unreliable. But given the fact that there appears to have been no
“poll-stuffing” with this particular poll, it may be a good barometer of sentiment among the Aptos community for home prices in 2019.

The Poll, open to all NextDoor users in zip code 95003, asked this question:

While California as a whole is expected to see lower home prices in 2019 compared to 2018, how do you think home prices in Aptos will change?

The #1 answer given, by 35% of respondents, was that Aptos real estate prices were expected to rise 2-5%. The second most popular response, given by 16% of survey participants, was that home prices would be lower by 2-5%.

The full survey responses are here:

Flat – No Change in Home Prices: 14%
Down 0-1%: 0%
Down 2-5%: 16%
Down 5-10%: 9%
Down more than 10%: 4%
Up 0-1%: 4%
Up 2-5%: 35%
Up 5-10%: 9%
Up more than 10%: 4%

Overall it seems that the Aptos community feels confident that the real estate market will remain stable with gradual appreciation for the rest of 2019, with only 29% of respondents predicting that Aptos real estate and home prices will decrease even a small amount.

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Home Seller Seminar Comes to Aptos in January 2019

September 21, 2018 by Seb Frey

This coming January 24th, 2019 local author and real estate broker Sebastian “Seb” Frey will be putting on a “Savvy Seller Seminar” for home owners thinking about selling their homes in 2019. This novel home seller seminar will be held from 6:30 to 8:00 PM at the Best Western Seacliff Inn (home to Severino’s Bar and Grill) on Old Dominion Court, just off Highway 1 / State Park Drive, across from the Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center.

The seminar will be fun, fast-paced and very informative. The goal of the seminar is to teach attendees how to achieve four simple objectives for a successful home sale:

Maximize the Sale Price
Minimize the Costs of Sale
Speed the Sale Process
Mitigate Risk

The presentation will be given by a number of speakers with years of experience in their respective fields. Topics that will be explored include:

Current Market Statistics
Ninja Marketing and advertising tactics
Staging Your Home to Sell Quickly at Peak Pricing
Disclosure Requirements
Key Features of the Listing Agreement
Key Features of the Purchase Agreement
What to know about the Appraisal Process
Buyer’s Contingencies and Inspections Purchase
What Makes Deals Fail

Ticketing Information

Tickets are available at no charge on EventBrite – but hurry, seats are limited and are expected to fill quickly. Limit two tickets per person, and include snacks, drinks, end eligibility to win any of several door prizes.

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Aptos Summer 2018 Real Estate Wrap-Up

August 29, 2018 by Seb Frey

I know I’m not imagining it – the family cat is choosing to spend more nights indoors lately, so I know the nights are getting cooler. It’s proof that the fall season is just around the corner, making this the perfect time to give you the Aptos Summer 2018 Real Estate Wrap-Up.

It’s been a while since I’ve done an Aptos real estate market update – way back in April, in fact. Back then, I reported that the median price for single family homes in Santa Cruz county had hit a nose-bleeding height of $920,500 in March. However, at that time I reported there’d been 132 closed sales – looking at the data now, there were 133 closed sales for March 2018 in Santa Cruz county, and the median price dropped to $897,500. Amazing what adding a single sale to the statistics will do!

You may have heard the vicious rumor going around that the real estate market has been cooling. Indeed, the median single family home price for Santa Cruz county did drop down to $896,500 – a decrease of 0.12% from the initially record-breaking number set in March, which is hardly what I would call a market in free-fall.

Lately though I’ve been taking to looking at the average price per square foot as perhaps a more useful indicator of what home prices are doing. And here, we do see something that’s maybe a little alarming for home owners thinking of selling their house: the average sized home to sell in July had 1,733 square feet with an average price-per-square-foot of $593 – but it was $645/sf in March with an average home size of 1,803sf.

That’s interesting because, generally speaking, the larger the home, the lower the price per square foot (because the land is worth such a high percentage of total value)…but comparing March 2018 to July 2018, we see a decrease in both average square footage and price per square foot. A fluke? Probably. But worth noting, especially for all of those waiting for the bottom to fall out of the market.

Read a good book lately?

Aptos by the Numbers

I know, I know – you came here expecting to hear what’s up with the Aptos real estate market, not the overall Santa Cruz market. Here’s the single family Aptos home sale data for the past few months:

July 2018

Median Price: $1,124,500 (+25% vs. $899,000 year-ago)
# of Sales: 22 (vs. 23 year-ago)
Average Days on Market: 27 (vs. 41 year-ago)
Average $/sf: $591 (+15.7% vs. year-ago $511/sf)
New Listings: 41 (vs. 35 year-ago)

June 2018

Median Price: $1,127,500 (+10% vs. $1,025,000 year-ago)
# of Sales: 27 (vs. 34 year-ago)
Average Days on Market: 23 (vs. 25 year-ago)
Average $/sf: $607 (+5.2% vs. year-ago $577/sf)
New Listings: 33 (vs. 53 year-ago)

May 2018

Median Price: $1,100,000 (+5.4% vs. $1,043,808 year-ago)
# of Sales: 31 (vs. 18 year-ago)
Average Days on Market: 32 (vs. 43 year-ago)
Average $/sf: $673 (+18.9% vs. year-ago $566/sf)
New Listings: 38 (vs. 40 year-ago)

When I look at these three months, I don’t see a market that looks like it’s cooling too much. The data say that the median price is up, the average price per square foot is up, the total number of sales in the time period is up, and the days on market is down.

I know, it could have all gone to hell in a hand basket in the month of August which is almost over, but I’ve got a feeling based on the fact that there’s fewer new listings hitting the market and more sales in these three months that August data will show a pretty healthy market. In fact, our good friends at Zillow give the Aptos real estate market an 8.1/10 – calling it “very healthy.”

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Aptos Home Prices — Find YOUR Home's Value!

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Aptos Village Homes for Sale

So there’s no news in the Aptos real estate market sales data – it’s more of the same good news for sellers, and a hard row to hoe for buyers. The only legit real estate news in Aptos is that at long last, new homes are for sale in the new Aptos village.

Swenson Builders, the primary developer of the Aptos Village, has a two townhouses listed on the MLS. 442 Granite Way (3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 1,657sf) was initially listed on July 10 at $975,000 but was reduced to $895,000 on August 28th. 516 Granite Way (also 3/2.5 but 1,278sf) was listed on August 28, for the princely sum of $795,000.

It should be noted that these are not the only two units for sale. As the MLS says, “A distinct collection of 69 homes, with plans ranging from 1-3 bedrooms, this vibrant community has a design for every modern family. Other units are available.” (emphasis added)

Looking for a Home in Aptos?

103 Carlino Lane in Aptos (4,486sf, 5beds, 3 full baths, 2 half baths, 3/4 acre lot) sold on August 2, 2018 for $2,140,000 after 36 DOM.

Aptos Q1 2018 Real Estate Wrap-Up

April 3, 2018 by Seb Frey

316 Doris (4 BR, 2 BA, 2,137sf) sold for $885,000 after 121 DOM

The Santa Cruz county real estate market continues to show remarkable strength. The median price for Santa Cruz county jumped to a new high of $920,5000 in March. This spike in prices appears to be the result of Silicon Valley workers seeking lower home prices and a better lifestyle in Santa Cruz. So how is the Aptos real estate market doing? Let’s look at the numbers in this Aptos Q1 2018 real estate wrap-up.

Here’s a quick break-down of the single-family home data:

55 sales (-5.2% vs. 58 a year ago)
$885,000 median (-13.7% vs. $1,025,000 a year ago)
50 Days on Market average (-19.4% vs. 62 a year ago)
$607/sf average (+6.1% vs. $572 a year ago)
88 new listings (+22.2% vs. 72 a year ago)

Now let’s look at the market for condos and townhouses:

23 Sales (+35.3% vs. 17 a year ago)
$700,000 median price (+8.4% vs. $646,000 a year ago)
25 Days on Market average (-43.1% vs. 44 a year ago)
$535/sf average (+12.9% vs. $474/sf a year ago)
29 new listings (unchanged from a year ago)

What's YOUR Aptos House Value?

Interested to know what your Aptos house is worth in today's real estate market? Then head over to SellForSure.com for an instant, on-line evaluation of your Aptos home's value.

A Closer Look

The 13.7% drop in median home price is alarming – but at the same time, the average price per square foot is up 6.1% in the same period. Smaller houses usually have a higher sale price per square foot than larger houses (since so much of the value of the real estate is in the land, rather than in the structure). In fact, the average home sold in Aptos in Q1 2018 had 1,963 square feet on average, vs. 2,350sf on average in Q1 2017.

Overall, the Aptos market does appear to be stable, with prices rising gradually compared to last year. There’s mixed news for home owners thinking about selling: homes are selling more quickly this year compared to last, but there’s significantly more competition in the Aptos market, with a lot more inventory this year compared to last.

Read a good book lately?

Podcast features Guests from Aptos

February 12, 2018 by Seb Frey

The Bay to Bay Podcast shines a spotlight on life in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay region of California. Produced by local REALTOR Sebastian “Seb” Frey, this groundbreaking podcast features guests who hail primarily from the area. Guests on the show share information about matters affecting those of us who live in or visit he area.

Recently, two guests from Aptos appeared on the podcast. The first was Kristina Campbell, a local real estate appraiser and also Aptos resident. Kristina answered all manner of questions about real estate appraisal, and cited many examples of appraisal work in local Aptos neighborhoods. Anyone thinking of buying, re-financing, or selling a home in Aptos would do well to listen to this informative episode.

In the most recent episode of the podcast, Aptos archaeologist Dustin McKenzie of the Cabrillo College anthropology department talked about local archaeology. How long have humans lived in our area? Where did they come from? What was their culture like? Where can we go to see traces of the people who lived in California in ancient times? Anyone interested in our area’s history will find this to be an interesting and entertaining episode to listen to.

What’s a podcast? A podcast is like a radio show, only it doesn’t broadcast over the air. Rather, the audio from each podcast is stored on the Internet and is typically downloaded or streamed to a device such as an iPod (hence the name, Podcast), iPhone, tablet, or other mobile device. Many people enjoy podcasts as they commute to or from work, at the gym, or around the house. There are thousands of podcasts available on every imaginable topic. They can easily be found in on-line directories, such as the iTunes Store, Stitcher Radio, and the Google Play.

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Aptos Median Home Price, February 2017: $1,050,000

March 9, 2017 by Seb Frey

Spring is in the air! Like all of you, I’m thankful for the copious amounts of rain we’ve had this winter – but enough’s enough! I’m loving the sunshine, and I’m looking forward to the weather heating up. But the Aptos real estate market has galloped ahead of mother nature: it’s plenty hot already! Would you believe this: the Aptos median home price, February 2017: $1,050,000!

Everyone thinks that the spring heralds the start of the traditional real estate sales season. Truth be told, we don’t have much seasonality in the Aptos real estate market. While the market may take a bit of a slow down around the holidays, it’s usually roaring right along half way through January. And that’s borne out this year, because many of those February 2017 closings were initially listed for sale in January.

Compared to last year, it’s been a busy start to the real estate year: 15 single-family homes sold in Aptos in February 2017. You’re thinking that’s not a lot – but it’s 36% more than a year ago, when only 11 sold in February 2016.

What's YOUR Aptos House Value?

Interested to know what your Aptos house is worth in today's real estate market? Then head over to SellForSure.com for an instant, on-line evaluation of your Aptos home's value.

Those 15 homes sold in an average of 52 days – about the same as last year at this time, when they sold in 51 days on average. Sellers received 98% of full asking price in February 2017 – a smidgen better than the 97.6% they received a year prior.

The #1 favorite topic among the water coolers in the local real estate brokerages is real estate listings – where is the inventory?! 25 new single-family home listings hit the Aptos market this past February. A year ago? 26. But wait, we’re a week into March already, so how are we looking now? Just 4 new listings in the first 7 days in March 2017 – a year ago, we had 7 new listings by now.

A lot of folks are going to see the $1,050,000 February 2017 median sale price and say, “Wow! That’s really high!” And it is – but the median home price in January 2017 was even higher – $1,145,000. And in February 2016, the median home price was $1,059,000. These prices aren’t an anomaly – upper-end homes in Aptos are selling, comprising about half the market.

Looking for a Home in Aptos?

It may look like even at $1,050,000 the median sale price in February 2017 came in a little weak – but I put that down to the low sales volume. 15 sales does not represent a huge pool from which to draw meaningful conclusions, but it does indicate a market that is at least holding is own, at least for the time being. Interestingly, Zillow now rates zip code 95003 as only a 6.1 out of 10 on its “market health” score.

The “health metrics” I monitor most closely are median sale price, days on market, sales to list price ratio, and absorption rate. Right now, there are 49 single-family homes listed for sale on the Aptos MLS, but only 26 of them are available for purchase (the rest are already under contract). The way I figure it, we’re looking at around a 51 day supply of homes for sale in Aptos – and that means we are still in a very low-inventory hot seller’s market.

The $6,400,000 question is: but for how much longer?

Read a good book lately?

Low, Median, and Highest Sales – Single Family Homes

210 Treasure Island Drive:
3/2 1436sf sold $669,150 in 9 DOM

2001 Sparrow Valley Road: 4/2.5 3,000sf sold $1,050,000 in 158 DOM

618 Beach Drive: 4/3 2,192sf sold $5,700,000 in 76 DOM

Low, Median, and Highest Sales – Condos/Townhouses

226 Seascape Resort Drive: 1/1 608sf sold $390K in 32 DOM

277 Perch Way: 2/2.5 1514sf sold $656K in 7 DOM

428 SEASCAPE RESORT A & D Drive: 2/2 1288sf sold $735K in 122 DOM

Aptos Real Estate Broker Writes New Book: Get It Sold!

March 7, 2017 by Seb Frey

**Get It Sold!** By Sebastian “Seb” Frey

Local Aptos real estate broker Sebastian “Seb” Frey has written a new book: Get It Sold!, which is his unique perspective on the fine art of home sales. While there are hundreds of books written on this very topic, relatively few are written which focus on just the northern California region. And this may be the only book written by a Santa Cruz-based real estate broker which focuses squarely on the needs of Santa Cruz county area home owners.

The book is designed to be an easy read – at just 110 pages, it can be absorbed in just an hour or two. It maintains a conversational style throughout, to help keep the reader engaged and turning pages. The goal for the book is simple: to show home owners what they can do to sell their home quickly, but for the absolute highest price the market will bear. And of course, with the least amount of hassle, risk, and uncertainty.

According to Seb, “In a hot real estate market such as we’re currently experiencing in Aptos, there’s a misperception that all you need to do to sell your home for a crazy high price is just jack the asking price up a notch or two above what the neighbor’s house sold for, put a for sale sign in the front yard, throw it on the MLS, and wait for the bidding war to ensue. But it doesn’t work like that!”

Get It Sold! takes readers through the whole process of getting homes sold at peak pricing. It starts by discussing the decision to sell, then moves on to getting the home prepared for sale, staging for maximum appeal, creating and executing a full-blown, attention-getting marketing campaign, and covers savvy negotiation techniques to wring out the maximum sale price of the property.

The book is available on Amazon.com for $12.95, but it is being made available to Aptos-area home owners for free – and Seb even covers shipping and handling! To order your copy Get It Sold! with free shipping, click this link. Happy reading!

Get It Sold! Launch Party Video

What's YOUR Aptos House Value?

Interested to know what your Aptos house is worth in today's real estate market? Then head over to SellForSure.com for an instant, on-line evaluation of your Aptos home's value.

Aptos Real Estate Update January 2017

January 5, 2017 by Seb Frey

It’s a whole new year, Aptos! And that means it’s time for my Aptos Real Estate Update January 2017. Before we forget completely about what happened in 2016 (and I can’t blame you for trying!), let’s take a look back and see what the Aptos real estate market was like in the final month of 2016.

Without further ado, I’ll tell you that the median price for single family homes in Aptos in December 2016 was $912,250. That’s a fair bit less than the $968K we saw the month prior, but it is up a whopping 18.8% compared to a year ago. Yep, in December 2015 the median price stood at a lowly $779,000. What a difference a year makes!

But a single month doesn’t provide enough home sales to produce a really meaningful statistic. So I looked back at the whole year, January to December, and saw the median price for single family homes in Aptos was $874,000 with 258 homes sold. I looked back one year past that, and in 2015 we sold 334 homes in Aptos, with a median price of $827,500. That means that as a whole, home prices were up only 5.6% in 2016 versus 2015 – but home sales actually plummeted, down nearly 23%!

What's YOUR Aptos House Value?

Interested to know what your Aptos house is worth in today's real estate market? Then head over to SellForSure.com for an instant, on-line evaluation of your Aptos home's value.

But December was a pretty decent month for home sales in Aptos – 22 homes were sold last month, about the same as this time a year ago (23 sold in December 2015). And they sold about as quickly as they did a year ago – in 85 days on average, versus 83 days on average in the year-ago period. Sellers received 95.5% of full asking price last month – which is actually a pretty big discount compared to most months – for example, a year ago in December, sellers received 96.5% of full asking price.

We had exactly the same amount of new inventory available in December 2016 vs. 2015 – 9 single family listings hit the market both years at this time. Last year the median list price was $829K; this year, the median asking price for new listings in December was $1,049,000 (and THAT home went under contract in 1 day!).

When it comes to inventory, it’s the same sad story – we have just a 50 day supply of single family homes available for purchase in Aptos as of this writing. There are presently 53 homes listed on the Aptos MLS, but 28 of those are under contract with only 25 available for purchase. Bad news for buyers, but GREAT news if you’re looking to put a house up for sale soon.

Read a good book lately?

As we begin the new year, mortgage interest rates are about where they were a month ago, with 30-year fixed rates hovering around 4.15% for many types of borrowers and loans. Rates had risen sharply after the election, and there was a fear that rates would continue to rise, however they appear to have stabilized for now, and are still quite low by historical standards.

While interest rates have been stable over the past month, most talking heads are predicting that interest rates will be rising throughout 2017. There’s a growing optimism that the economy will continue to pick up steam, which will in turn drive up the demand for money and borrowing costs. The Mortgage Banking Association is predicting that rates will gradually rise, hitting 4.7% at the end of the year.

Despite the rise in interest rates, most “experts” are still predicting that home prices will continue to rise in the United States – albeit at a much more gradual pace, somewhere around 3-5%. Check out this article on Forbes and also this on the Wall Street Journal.

If you’re looking for a 2017 prediction closer to home, check out the 2017 California Market Forecast by Leslie Appleton-Young, Chief Economist for the California Association of Realtors.

Looking for a Home in Aptos?

Aptos Condos and Townhouses

Yawn. The condo market in Aptos was pretty sleepy last month. Only 6 condos and townhouses traded hands last month, and the median price was $579,650. That’s up just about 2.5% compared to a year ago – in other words, accounting for inflation, condo prices have gone nowhere in Aptos over the last year. The 6 condos that sold did so in an average of 69 days (vs. 50 days a year ago). Condo sellers did receive 98.6% of full asking price though – better than last year (they got only 97.7% in December 2015).

If you are thinking about selling your condo or townhouse in Aptos soon, I’ve got some really great news for you. There are presently just 27 condo listings in Aptos; 15 of these are available for purchase, while 12 of them are pending sale. According to my calculations, that works out to a 56 day supply of inventory of condos and townhouses in Aptos – very slim pickings! Sellers in this market have next-to-no competition for their homes.

Low, Median, and Highest Sales – Single Family Homes

224 Treasure Island Drive – 2/1 800sf sold $599K in 86 DOM

130 Seabreeze Place – 4/2.5 1970sf sold $925,000 in 84 DOM

713 Seacliff Drive – 3/3 2,409sf sold $2,335,000 in 87 DOM

Low, Median, and Highest Sales – Condos/Townhouses

2607 Willowbrook Lane #59 – 2/2 1170sf sold $449,500 in 106 DOM

326 Village Creek Roa – 2/2 1629sf sold $571,300 in 81 DOM

130 Carrera Circle – 3/2.5 1449sf sold $715K in 28 DOM

Aptos Real Estate Update November 2016

November 23, 2016 by Seb Frey

It’s only been a month or so since my last real estate market update – but wow, a lot can happen in a month! Would you believe…Donald Trump is now President-Elect? I wrote a whole piece and did a video about what that means for your home’s value last week, and it’s already had hundreds of views. If you’re interested to hear what may be in store for your Aptos home’s value in the coming months and years, it’s worth a read.

But here in the Shire, err, Aptos, that is, things are looking rosy. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been enjoying the rain and I hope it keeps up! It hasn’t dampened home prices, that’s for sure – the median single family home price in Aptos in October 2016 was $856,000 – that’s up 10.8% year-over-year, and up 5.6% from the prior month. We closed 25 homes in October – down 7.4% from a year ago, and those homes sold in an average of 48 days on market (vs. 40 days on market this time a year ago).

What's YOUR Aptos House Value?

Interested to know what your Aptos house is worth in today's real estate market? Then head over to SellForSure.com for an instant, on-line evaluation of your Aptos home's value.

If you’re thinking about selling your home this fall or winter, here’s some more good news: we are down to just 71 days of inventory. That means if you’re looking to buy, there are slim pickings – a 2.4 month supply of homes means this is a very strong seller’s market. Owners who do a good job pricing their homes will usually be rewarded by getting multiple offers and a sale price often high over asking price.

Speaking of pricing your home, I thought I’d share with you something interesting that’s happening right in my own neighborhood. I live in a small little self-contained neighborhood near Cabrillo College, and there are two homes up for sale right now: the “cheap” house is 2839 Estates Drive (3/2, 1450sf, 23,697sf lot with a swimming pool, initially listed at $799K). The “expensive” house is 2884 Estates Drive (5/4, 2856sf, 11,543sf lot, initially listed at $1,050,000 later reduced to $1,025,000).

“Aptos — The TRUTH: Your Home's List Price

What a List Price Really Means

Think your home's list price has ANYTHING to do with what it's going to sell for, or even what it's worth? In truth, it has little to do with your home's value, but instead says something about YOU. Learn the The Honest Truth about Your Home’s List Price to see what you've been missing!

The “cheap” house does a huge back yard, and a pool (which typically adds $0 in value around here) – but it’s much smaller than the “expensive” house, and the interior hasn’t been updated pretty much since it was built in the 1960s. The “expensive” house was “refreshed” prior to sale – the kitchen was updated, but not luxuriously so. The baths are original 1960s, but the rest of the house has been cleaned up with new high-grade laminate flooring, carpet, and fresh paint throughout.

Well guess what happened? The “cheap” house got 6-7 offers in just 5 days on market. The house is now under contract, and the list price has been boosted to $895,000 – which pretty much means that the contract price on that is $895K. The “expensive” house has been on the market for 56 days, with no offers. It’s going to sit, and sit…and sit.

2839 Estates Drive – listed at $779,000

2884 Estates Drive – Listed at $1,025,000

A lot of folks around here own condos and townhouses, and they’ll be interested to know that the median price for condos and townhouses in Aptos in October 2016 was $550,000 – that’s a 15.9% drop over a year ago, and also down 9.5% month over month. On the flip side, 9 condos and townhouses sold in the month, and that’s up 125% from a year ago, when just 4 sold in October 2015.

The condos which sold did so in an average of just 37 days on market, and sellers received 98.4% of full asking price! Not too shabby – but sellers did a bit better last year. In October 2015, sellers got their Aptos condos and townhouses sold in an average of 26 days and for 101% of full asking price.