Everyone treats the July 4 week as a dead zone for homebuying. For buyers, it’s the opposite — and I pulled the numbers this morning to show you why.
Right now there are 296 single-family homes for sale across the mid-Peninsula — San Bruno down through Menlo Park. About a third of them have been sitting on the market for a month or more. More than one in eight have sat past 60 days.
The slow listings aren’t where you’d guess
Here’s the part that matters: the slow listings aren’t the $900,000 starter homes — those still move in a week or two. They’re concentrated above $2 million, exactly the range where buyers got buried in bidding wars this spring. The house is the same. The crowd around it isn’t.
A home that’s been listed 90 days heading into a holiday week is a seller doing math.
That’s where a prepared buyer asks for a price cut, a repair credit, a longer close — and actually gets it. I see this every summer in towns like San Carlos and Belmont.
The catch is “prepared”
That leverage only works if your financing is locked and you can move the week everyone else is offline. That’s the part to set up now, not after you’ve found the place.
If you’ve been frustrated by the spring bidding wars here on the Peninsula, the next three weeks are the quietest window you’ll get before fall. The crowd thins out. The math gets friendlier. And the buyers who did their homework in June are the ones who quietly close in July.
Curious whether this applies to your search?
Wondering whether this holds in the neighborhoods you’re watching? I’d be happy to share what I’m seeing locally — just send me a message and tell me the towns and price range you’re tracking.
