Hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween yesterday!
Happy 1-11-11
This means that you have 60 days to become a new homeowner or to become a 1st time homeowner before 2012.
Call me today and let's talk about how I can help you with your most important asset.
408 67 My MLS (69657)
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
A Housing Slump Everywhere?
Housing remains mired in a slump in most of the country, with nearly one in four homeowners under water.
Are you drowning in debt? When did you make your last mortgage payment? Call me today and let me tell you how I can assist you with your real estate.
As gloomy as the most of the housing market may seem with all the short sales, REOs and foreclosures, a handful of bold investors are attempting to make millions on flips of high-end houses.
Do you know the current value of your home? Call me today for a FREE home market analysis of your home.
monica.manocha@gmail.com
Are you drowning in debt? When did you make your last mortgage payment? Call me today and let me tell you how I can assist you with your real estate.
As gloomy as the most of the housing market may seem with all the short sales, REOs and foreclosures, a handful of bold investors are attempting to make millions on flips of high-end houses.
Do you know the current value of your home? Call me today for a FREE home market analysis of your home.
monica.manocha@gmail.com
A homeowner or landlord??
HOUSE TALK OCTOBER 7, 2011
Should a First-Time Buyer Be a Landlord?
By JUNE FLETCHER
Q. I am a single professional in my 20s who rents with a few roommates. I read your comments about how Austin is a good place to invest in property, given the volatility of the stock market. I, too, am considering it. I am thinking of buying a three-bedroom, $150,000 house in a good neighborhood. With help from my family, I can put 20% down. If I rent out the extra two rooms, the income will cover the property tax and mortgage. But I travel a lot for work and I am not sure whether my company will transfer me or if I even want to stay in this area. Should I do it?
--Austin, Texas
A. I applaud your desire to invest in your financial future. And landlords get generous tax breaks while collecting rental income. But from what you've told me, I recommend holding off buying a home.
Managing a property—which includes screening tenants, collecting rents, paying bills and keeping the lawn mowed—while you are traveling is difficult. But my bigger concern is that you are not sure if you are even going to stay in the area. Unless you buy a fixer upper at a discount, rehab it and resell it quickly, the only way to make money in real estate is to hold on to a property until it appreciates. Even though prices have been rising in Austin, you will need to stay in the area for at least a few years to recoup your costs on a market-rate house.
Developments: Mortgage Rates Fall Below 4%
As a homeowner and landlord, you will have many expenses besides taxes and a mortgage. Assuming you put 20% down on a $150,000 house in Austin, you will have to pay an estimated $4,938 in closing costs, according to Zillow's calculator. You also will have to budget for repairs and maintenance—expect to pay between 1% and 3% of the home's purchase price each year—as well as for repainting and freshening the rooms when tenants move out. You will need insurance, and if you have a homeowners association, you will have to pay dues. When you sell, you will have to pay a broker's commission, probably around 6% of the selling price, and some fix-up costs.
Rental income will help to defray these expenses, but you cannot depend on a steady stream. There will be periods when one or more of the rooms will be vacant, and you may have to shoulder some extra costs to evict someone who doesn't pay the rent. You should have about six months of mortgage payments in reserve to cover these possibilities. You also should have cash on hand to handle expensive emergencies, like a furnace that conks out in a cold snap. Since you will have to tap family funds for a down payment, it doesn't sound like you have enough of a cushion yet.
That doesn't mean that you should give up on the idea of owning property. Just postpone it until you know where you will live and are on a more solid financial footing. In the meantime, continue to familiarize yourself with various neighborhoods and properties, talk to lenders and work with a real estate agent who understands your situation. Then you will be in a position to act when you are ready to put down roots.
Should a First-Time Buyer Be a Landlord?
By JUNE FLETCHER
Q. I am a single professional in my 20s who rents with a few roommates. I read your comments about how Austin is a good place to invest in property, given the volatility of the stock market. I, too, am considering it. I am thinking of buying a three-bedroom, $150,000 house in a good neighborhood. With help from my family, I can put 20% down. If I rent out the extra two rooms, the income will cover the property tax and mortgage. But I travel a lot for work and I am not sure whether my company will transfer me or if I even want to stay in this area. Should I do it?
--Austin, Texas
A. I applaud your desire to invest in your financial future. And landlords get generous tax breaks while collecting rental income. But from what you've told me, I recommend holding off buying a home.
Managing a property—which includes screening tenants, collecting rents, paying bills and keeping the lawn mowed—while you are traveling is difficult. But my bigger concern is that you are not sure if you are even going to stay in the area. Unless you buy a fixer upper at a discount, rehab it and resell it quickly, the only way to make money in real estate is to hold on to a property until it appreciates. Even though prices have been rising in Austin, you will need to stay in the area for at least a few years to recoup your costs on a market-rate house.
Developments: Mortgage Rates Fall Below 4%
As a homeowner and landlord, you will have many expenses besides taxes and a mortgage. Assuming you put 20% down on a $150,000 house in Austin, you will have to pay an estimated $4,938 in closing costs, according to Zillow's calculator. You also will have to budget for repairs and maintenance—expect to pay between 1% and 3% of the home's purchase price each year—as well as for repainting and freshening the rooms when tenants move out. You will need insurance, and if you have a homeowners association, you will have to pay dues. When you sell, you will have to pay a broker's commission, probably around 6% of the selling price, and some fix-up costs.
Rental income will help to defray these expenses, but you cannot depend on a steady stream. There will be periods when one or more of the rooms will be vacant, and you may have to shoulder some extra costs to evict someone who doesn't pay the rent. You should have about six months of mortgage payments in reserve to cover these possibilities. You also should have cash on hand to handle expensive emergencies, like a furnace that conks out in a cold snap. Since you will have to tap family funds for a down payment, it doesn't sound like you have enough of a cushion yet.
That doesn't mean that you should give up on the idea of owning property. Just postpone it until you know where you will live and are on a more solid financial footing. In the meantime, continue to familiarize yourself with various neighborhoods and properties, talk to lenders and work with a real estate agent who understands your situation. Then you will be in a position to act when you are ready to put down roots.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
The Silicon Valley Housing Market Update
Sales of existing single-family Bay Area homes rose in August from the previous month and compared with a year ago, according to a report Friday. But part of the increase was attributed to August having more business days to record deals, and sales were below normal for the month, typically one of the busiest for home buying.
"Lower prices and lower mortgage rates have drawn more people off the sidelines" to buy homes, said Andrew LePage, a spokesman for DataQuick, the real estate information service that issued the report. "But there are still a lot of folks holding off waiting to see if prices have bottomed out so they don't buy and find themselves in the position of others who owe more on their home than it's worth."
A total of 1,183 existing single-family Santa Clara County homes were sold in August, an increase of nearly 9 percent from July and up nearly 12 percent from a year ago. In Alameda County, the 1,079 homes sold represented an increase of 2 percent from July and about 7 percent from a year ago. Contra Costa County's 1,210 sales were up about 10 percent from July and 12 percent year over year.
The median price of homes sold in August was up slightly from July in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties, but sagged a bit in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Joaquin counties, and was unchanged Bay Area-wide compared with a year ago.
The median price in August was $561,750 in Santa Clara County, $399,000 in Alameda County
Advertisement and $280,000 in Contra Costa County.
Many real-estate agents based in Cupertino, are encouraged by what they are seeing. They noted that five developers recently submitted bids on a Sunnyvale parcel of land in hopes of building new homes there. In addition, they are seeing a rise in the price of entry-level homes in Palo Alto, Cupertino and West San Jose -- areas that had been among the last to succumb to falling prices when the housing market tanked in 2008.
"I definitely am seeing improvement," Walker said. "Buyers are feeling more confident" about entering the market.
Sonia Dueñas and her husband bought a five-bedroom house in West San Jose in August for $810,000 after deciding "the time was right" for their family to move up from their townhome north of the city's downtown.
"It was a combination of things" that prompted the purchase, Dueñas said. "We felt comfortable with the interest rates, we qualified for the property without any issues, we were looking for certain things in a home, and it just happened to be the right one."
Besides, she added, "I have a boy and girl, and they were still sharing a room, so it was time to make a change."
But not everyone is finding it easy to get into the market. Robin Dickson, who works in the Danville office of J. Rockliff Realtors, said many mid-range buyers are having a tough time.
"The high end is becoming a little more solid, and the low-low-end investors are everywhere," she said. "But the difficulty in obtaining financing is really affecting the move-up buyers."
Because a lot of people, even with good credit, can't qualify to get a mortgage, cash is king, Dickson said. She said cash deals in her office are up about 30 percent compared with last year. She added that many buyers are looking at Brentwood and Oakley for housing options because, "you can buy so much more house for a lot less."
Kevin Kieffer, of Keller Williams Realty, said he is getting 20 to 25 calls a week from investors looking to buy low-end properties, mostly in Concord and Martinez.
"With what's going on in the stock market, people are looking for other ways to invest in property," he said.
However, some high-end home buyers are facing difficulties, too.
Sean Ryan, an entrepreneur specializing in software, two months ago paid $1.2 million in cash for a five-bedroom Danville house. But when he recently sold his previous home nearby, he said, it closed at about a 5 percent loss.
"We bought the new house with the understanding we could sell the existing home, but the market turned out to be a little more difficult than we thought it would be," he said.
Despite August's uptick in sales, "I don't think it means we're on a rebound," said Jeff Hansen, who handles home sales in Santa Clara County for Keller Williams Realty. But he added that it's hard to draw conclusions from just one month.
Comparing June through August, this summer's sales don't look too impressive. Santa Clara County had 3,573 single-family home transactions during the three-month period this year, which was 20 more than during 2010 and 227 more than in 2008. But over the past decade, the number of sales averaged 4,796, said DataQuick spokesman LePage, who believes the weak economy, political wrangling in Washington and worries about the nation's debt have caused many potential homebuyers to hold off venturing into the market.
"In a historical context, it's been a very slow summer," he said. And judging from the August sales data, "it definitely didn't finish with a bang."
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The housing market is like temperatures!!
Bay Area Housing Market Heating up Along with Summer Temperatures
Maybe we just had a late spring. That’s one possible explanation for what we’re seeing in the Bay Area housing market. Normally, the real estate market picks up in March, April and May and then takes a breather over the summer for vacations, graduations, weddings and other activities. But this year it seems like that’s being reversed.
After a modest spring, the local housing market has been heating up this summer with strong sales in June and even into July in many areas. Sales activity has been especially robust in the higher end of our markets – over $1 million in much of the Bay Area and $2 million and up in San Francisco. But even the mid-level market was surprisingly active (more on that below).
As I was combing through last month’s sales figures, I noticed an interesting trend: In most of our Bay Area markets in June we had the highest level of million-dollar home sales since the summer of 2008. You might recall that was just weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers sent the financial markets into a tailspin and pushed our economy into the “Great Recession.” Now, three full years later, we’re seeing a much brighter picture for the local housing market.
Silicon Valley – There were a whopping 284 million-dollar home sales in June, up from 230 the previous month and the highest level the region has seen since June of 2008. The very high end of the market – those homes over $2 million – saw sales spike to 52 from 36 a year ago;
Clearly, the Bay Area’s relatively strong economy – especially the robust tech sector – is playing a key role in our housing market. As Inman News put it in a Friday article, “Tech is back -- and tiptoeing along behind it, at least by some measures, is the San Francisco-area real estate market.”
“Indeed, technology-based industry -- which drove Bay Area home prices to fabled levels during the headiest days of the housing boom -- seems to have found its legs,” Inman reported. At the end of 2010, San Francisco had an estimated 30,700 tech jobs, compared with the 32,800 at the peak of its tech boom in 2001, according to an analysis by real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
This all is not to suggest the housing market is completely out of the woods. Real estate is very much a local business. And while many of our markets are on the mend, others are still softer than they were a few years ago. And there still is an overhang of distressed properties that will continue to come on the market as bank owned REO sales in the months ahead.
While we take quite serious the nation’s fragile economy, and most recently the stalled talks to come to terms with our national debt limit, we can be thankful for the Bay Area real estate activity that continues to move forward. We are fortunate to live and work where we do. The limited housing stock, diverse job base, incredible universities, and great weather are all factors that help homebuyers focus on these terrific home values and low mortgage rates.
Silicon Valley – The best homes are getting lots of offers. Our Cupertino office says the majority of its sales are multiple offers. Seems like we are having a delayed spring. New single-family home listings in good areas of Los Altos, Mountain View and Sunnyvale are getting multiple offers and selling up to 15% over asking price, according to our Los Altos manager. Activity has increased recently in the Los Gatos area with more properties seeing multiple offers. Well-priced homes are continuing to sell at a quick pace while not so well priced homes continue to languish. Our San Jose Almaden office says a number of price reductions have led the way toward sales over the last week. Prices overall are not going up, but in fact appear to have dipped a bit. Multiple offers still abound for the “good deal.” In the San Jose Willow Glen area, open houses are pretty busy and sales have been steady. The Saratoga market seems to be steady. One home listed in Saratoga for $1.5 million received 18 offers and was bid up astronomically.
That’s it for now. Enjoy the summer weather, and have a great week!
Maybe we just had a late spring. That’s one possible explanation for what we’re seeing in the Bay Area housing market. Normally, the real estate market picks up in March, April and May and then takes a breather over the summer for vacations, graduations, weddings and other activities. But this year it seems like that’s being reversed.
After a modest spring, the local housing market has been heating up this summer with strong sales in June and even into July in many areas. Sales activity has been especially robust in the higher end of our markets – over $1 million in much of the Bay Area and $2 million and up in San Francisco. But even the mid-level market was surprisingly active (more on that below).
As I was combing through last month’s sales figures, I noticed an interesting trend: In most of our Bay Area markets in June we had the highest level of million-dollar home sales since the summer of 2008. You might recall that was just weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers sent the financial markets into a tailspin and pushed our economy into the “Great Recession.” Now, three full years later, we’re seeing a much brighter picture for the local housing market.
Silicon Valley – There were a whopping 284 million-dollar home sales in June, up from 230 the previous month and the highest level the region has seen since June of 2008. The very high end of the market – those homes over $2 million – saw sales spike to 52 from 36 a year ago;
Clearly, the Bay Area’s relatively strong economy – especially the robust tech sector – is playing a key role in our housing market. As Inman News put it in a Friday article, “Tech is back -- and tiptoeing along behind it, at least by some measures, is the San Francisco-area real estate market.”
“Indeed, technology-based industry -- which drove Bay Area home prices to fabled levels during the headiest days of the housing boom -- seems to have found its legs,” Inman reported. At the end of 2010, San Francisco had an estimated 30,700 tech jobs, compared with the 32,800 at the peak of its tech boom in 2001, according to an analysis by real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
This all is not to suggest the housing market is completely out of the woods. Real estate is very much a local business. And while many of our markets are on the mend, others are still softer than they were a few years ago. And there still is an overhang of distressed properties that will continue to come on the market as bank owned REO sales in the months ahead.
While we take quite serious the nation’s fragile economy, and most recently the stalled talks to come to terms with our national debt limit, we can be thankful for the Bay Area real estate activity that continues to move forward. We are fortunate to live and work where we do. The limited housing stock, diverse job base, incredible universities, and great weather are all factors that help homebuyers focus on these terrific home values and low mortgage rates.
Silicon Valley – The best homes are getting lots of offers. Our Cupertino office says the majority of its sales are multiple offers. Seems like we are having a delayed spring. New single-family home listings in good areas of Los Altos, Mountain View and Sunnyvale are getting multiple offers and selling up to 15% over asking price, according to our Los Altos manager. Activity has increased recently in the Los Gatos area with more properties seeing multiple offers. Well-priced homes are continuing to sell at a quick pace while not so well priced homes continue to languish. Our San Jose Almaden office says a number of price reductions have led the way toward sales over the last week. Prices overall are not going up, but in fact appear to have dipped a bit. Multiple offers still abound for the “good deal.” In the San Jose Willow Glen area, open houses are pretty busy and sales have been steady. The Saratoga market seems to be steady. One home listed in Saratoga for $1.5 million received 18 offers and was bid up astronomically.
That’s it for now. Enjoy the summer weather, and have a great week!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
Bay Area housing market: It’s all about location
It’s an old real estate adage, but it couldn’t be truer today. When it comes to the health of the Bay Area (and the rest of the country, for that matter), the three most important rules for the housing market are location, location and location.
As readers of this column know by now, the upper end of the Bay Area market has fared relatively well in recent years while entry-level and mid-priced communities around the Bay have struggled far more to recover from the recessionary downturn.
I talked about this disparity in an interview with the San Jose Mercury for an article that was published on Sunday. As the Mercury noted, housing prices in many affluent cities in Silicon Valley and the Peninsula are nearing their pre-recession highs while other working-class communities have a long ways to go in their recovery.
One reason for this trend, as I pointed out to reporters, is that more-expensive markets never saw home prices drop as sharply as the areas with more subprime lending and subsequent foreclosures. Lower-priced communities had more marginal buyers, many of whom also made zero or small down payments. More of those buyers also took out resetting adjustable loans.
On the other side of the coin, residents and potential buyers in high-end communities generally haven’t been impacted by the overall economic downturn as much as homeowners in other areas. In Silicon Valley in particular, the strength of the tech industry and the growing number of successful start-ups and initial public offerings have created a tremendous number of affluent, well-capitalized buyers who are bidding up prices of a limited number of homes.
Because home prices in affluent communities never dropped as much as those in entry-level markets, these cities have less ground to make up in recovering from the downturn. Palo Alto’s median sale price, for example, is off about 12 percent from its peak in 2008 while the median in several low-to-middle income markets is still down nearly 50 percent, according to the news report.
Two of the largest Bay Area cities with a diverse mix of housing are recovering, albeit not quite as fast as Silicon Valley, according to the reports. San Francisco’s median sale price is about 22 percent below its 2007 peak while San Jose is 36 percent below its high-water mark. It’s important to note the sheer size of San Jose and San Francisco populations reflect diverse housing and incomes, compared to a small upscale community such as Palo Alto or Hillsborough. The same would hold true for Sausalito’s recovery versus County of Marin, for example. The smaller the community, the quicker median prices can move in either direction with just a few sales. In the East Bay, prices are rebounding faster in high-end communities like Orinda, Lafayette and San Ramon. Never before has the role of the local real estate professional been more important to help customers understand all the data available and sort through the appropriate comparable properties when home shopping or selling.
The market figures came from DataQuick, the La Jolla-based real estate information service. DataQuick compared quarterly median prices for single-family resale homes in 74 Bay Area cities since 2007 for stories that ran in the Mercury, Oakland Tribune and several other Bay Area news organizations.
It’s an old real estate adage, but it couldn’t be truer today. When it comes to the health of the Bay Area (and the rest of the country, for that matter), the three most important rules for the housing market are location, location and location.
As readers of this column know by now, the upper end of the Bay Area market has fared relatively well in recent years while entry-level and mid-priced communities around the Bay have struggled far more to recover from the recessionary downturn.
I talked about this disparity in an interview with the San Jose Mercury for an article that was published on Sunday. As the Mercury noted, housing prices in many affluent cities in Silicon Valley and the Peninsula are nearing their pre-recession highs while other working-class communities have a long ways to go in their recovery.
One reason for this trend, as I pointed out to reporters, is that more-expensive markets never saw home prices drop as sharply as the areas with more subprime lending and subsequent foreclosures. Lower-priced communities had more marginal buyers, many of whom also made zero or small down payments. More of those buyers also took out resetting adjustable loans.
On the other side of the coin, residents and potential buyers in high-end communities generally haven’t been impacted by the overall economic downturn as much as homeowners in other areas. In Silicon Valley in particular, the strength of the tech industry and the growing number of successful start-ups and initial public offerings have created a tremendous number of affluent, well-capitalized buyers who are bidding up prices of a limited number of homes.
Because home prices in affluent communities never dropped as much as those in entry-level markets, these cities have less ground to make up in recovering from the downturn. Palo Alto’s median sale price, for example, is off about 12 percent from its peak in 2008 while the median in several low-to-middle income markets is still down nearly 50 percent, according to the news report.
Two of the largest Bay Area cities with a diverse mix of housing are recovering, albeit not quite as fast as Silicon Valley, according to the reports. San Francisco’s median sale price is about 22 percent below its 2007 peak while San Jose is 36 percent below its high-water mark. It’s important to note the sheer size of San Jose and San Francisco populations reflect diverse housing and incomes, compared to a small upscale community such as Palo Alto or Hillsborough. The same would hold true for Sausalito’s recovery versus County of Marin, for example. The smaller the community, the quicker median prices can move in either direction with just a few sales. In the East Bay, prices are rebounding faster in high-end communities like Orinda, Lafayette and San Ramon. Never before has the role of the local real estate professional been more important to help customers understand all the data available and sort through the appropriate comparable properties when home shopping or selling.
The market figures came from DataQuick, the La Jolla-based real estate information service. DataQuick compared quarterly median prices for single-family resale homes in 74 Bay Area cities since 2007 for stories that ran in the Mercury, Oakland Tribune and several other Bay Area news organizations.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
According to MLS: Greater Bay Area Housing Market News
Greater Bay Area Housing Market Report
More Articles
For economists, poor jobs and housing data indicate a slowing economic recovery. For homebuyers, the news means lower prices and better mortgage interest rates. As of June 2011, qualified homebuyers - those with excellent credit and with funds available for down payments – couldn’t be in a better position to buy a home.
Prices are at their lowest since 2002, according to the Q-1 2011 S&P/Case-Shiller Index. Since 2006, prices have fallen 33%, greater than the 31% decline recorded during the Great Depression. According to the National Association of REALTORS, the national median existing-home price for all housing types was $163,700 in April, 5.0 percent lower than in April 2010. Distressed homes, which sell at a discount of approximately 20%, were 37% of sales, up from 33% a year ago.
Believe it or not, there’s good news hidden in the numbers. Analysts at Capital Economics say housing has actually overcorrected, and is undervalued by approximately 24%. Paul Dales, U.S. analyst, reports that currently U.S. housing is undervalued by approximately 24%, the lowest amount in 35 years. For that reason, he predicts that the housing slide is nearing its end. Foreclosures, which have pressured both prices and real estate appraisals for non-distressed homes, are still high -- but are leveling off. RealtyTrac says that U.S. foreclosure filings were down 9% in April 2011 from March, and down 34% from a year ago.
It takes confidence to buy a home. On June 3, 2011, the government reported that the jobless rate rose from 9.0% to 9.1%, a reversal of three months of earlier gains, which is likely to continue to keep the distressed home pipeline full for months to come. The news has sent mortgage interest rates plummeting. After a seven-week slide, the Freddie Mac survey announced on June 3, 2011 that the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.55%, down from 4.60% the prior week and 4.79% a year ago.
California
Like the rest of the nation, California home sales also declined in April 2011 from the previous month, but were up 5% over a year ago. And, unlike the national trend, home prices actually increased. The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home sold in California rose 2.5 percent in April to $293,570, up from a revised $286,510 in March, says the California Association of REALTORS (C.A.R.).
The combination of an average 4.8% fixed-rate plus prices well below the peak of 2006, point to improved housing affordability. The percentage of buyers who could afford to buy the median-priced, single-family home rose to 53% in Q1-2011, up from 50% in Q4 2010, according to C.A.R.’s Traditional Housing Affordability Index (HAI). All eyes are on the White House proposal to eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to reduce the high-cost-area conforming loan limit from the temporary $729,750 to a permanent $625,500. It’s unknown whether or not the pending rule will temporarily boost housing sales in high-cost areas such as the Greater Bay Area, as buyers try to close their loans before the temporary ceiling is removed at the end of September 2011.
Local Sales Trends – May 2011
Locally, according to MLSListings May 2011 County Indicators Report, home sales and inventory figures mirrored elements of both the regional and national pictures, but this market appears to be charting its own course. While overall performance in Monterey, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties fell compared to the same time last year, month-over-month changes are indicating some positive signs.
Closed sales in May dropped in four of the five counties from the same month last year. Santa Clara County had the largest drop at 21%, while San Mateo and Monterey each dropped by 15%. San Benito sales were down 8%, and San Mateo remained flat.
Compared to last month, sales increased 15% in San Mateo County, 4% in both Monterey and San Benito, dropped 3% in Santa Clara and remained flat in Santa Cruz.
Inventory increased or remained flat from the same month last year in all five counties except Monterey and Santa Cruz, where they were down 6% and 4% respectively. San Benito inventory was up 6%, San Mateo up 1%, while Santa Clara remained flat.
Compared to last month, inventory increased or remained flat in all counties. Inventory was up 8% in Santa Cruz, 4% in Monterey, 3% in San Mateo, and remained flat in both San Benito and Santa Clara.
New Listings compared to the same month last year dropped 15% in Monterey, 1% in Santa Clara, but increased 18% in San Benito, 2% in Santa Cruz, and just 1% in San Mateo.
Compared to last month, listings were up 18% in Santa Cruz, 8% in Monterey, 1% in both San Benito and Santa Clara, and decreased 4% in San Mateo.
Median Price dropped in four of the five counties compared to the same month last year. The largest drop occurred in Santa Cruz at 16%, San Benito was down 6%, Monterey down 5%, Santa Clara down 4%, and San Mateo showed the only increase at 10%.
Compared to last month, coupled with strong sales, San Mateo’s median price rose 14%, San Benito was up 6%, Santa Clara up 3%, while Monterey dropped 3% along with Santa Cruz which was down 2%.
Days on Market increased substantially from the same month last year in all counties except in Santa Cruz. DOM increased 84% in San Benito, 49% in San Mateo, 32% in Santa Clara, 13% in Monterey, and dropped 15% in Santa Cruz.
Compared to last month, days on market increased 35% in San Benito and 6% in San Mateo. DOM dropped 24% in Santa Cruz, 14% in Santa Clara, and 3% in Monterey.
More Articles
For economists, poor jobs and housing data indicate a slowing economic recovery. For homebuyers, the news means lower prices and better mortgage interest rates. As of June 2011, qualified homebuyers - those with excellent credit and with funds available for down payments – couldn’t be in a better position to buy a home.
Prices are at their lowest since 2002, according to the Q-1 2011 S&P/Case-Shiller Index. Since 2006, prices have fallen 33%, greater than the 31% decline recorded during the Great Depression. According to the National Association of REALTORS, the national median existing-home price for all housing types was $163,700 in April, 5.0 percent lower than in April 2010. Distressed homes, which sell at a discount of approximately 20%, were 37% of sales, up from 33% a year ago.
Believe it or not, there’s good news hidden in the numbers. Analysts at Capital Economics say housing has actually overcorrected, and is undervalued by approximately 24%. Paul Dales, U.S. analyst, reports that currently U.S. housing is undervalued by approximately 24%, the lowest amount in 35 years. For that reason, he predicts that the housing slide is nearing its end. Foreclosures, which have pressured both prices and real estate appraisals for non-distressed homes, are still high -- but are leveling off. RealtyTrac says that U.S. foreclosure filings were down 9% in April 2011 from March, and down 34% from a year ago.
It takes confidence to buy a home. On June 3, 2011, the government reported that the jobless rate rose from 9.0% to 9.1%, a reversal of three months of earlier gains, which is likely to continue to keep the distressed home pipeline full for months to come. The news has sent mortgage interest rates plummeting. After a seven-week slide, the Freddie Mac survey announced on June 3, 2011 that the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.55%, down from 4.60% the prior week and 4.79% a year ago.
California
Like the rest of the nation, California home sales also declined in April 2011 from the previous month, but were up 5% over a year ago. And, unlike the national trend, home prices actually increased. The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home sold in California rose 2.5 percent in April to $293,570, up from a revised $286,510 in March, says the California Association of REALTORS (C.A.R.).
The combination of an average 4.8% fixed-rate plus prices well below the peak of 2006, point to improved housing affordability. The percentage of buyers who could afford to buy the median-priced, single-family home rose to 53% in Q1-2011, up from 50% in Q4 2010, according to C.A.R.’s Traditional Housing Affordability Index (HAI). All eyes are on the White House proposal to eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to reduce the high-cost-area conforming loan limit from the temporary $729,750 to a permanent $625,500. It’s unknown whether or not the pending rule will temporarily boost housing sales in high-cost areas such as the Greater Bay Area, as buyers try to close their loans before the temporary ceiling is removed at the end of September 2011.
Local Sales Trends – May 2011
Locally, according to MLSListings May 2011 County Indicators Report, home sales and inventory figures mirrored elements of both the regional and national pictures, but this market appears to be charting its own course. While overall performance in Monterey, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties fell compared to the same time last year, month-over-month changes are indicating some positive signs.
Closed sales in May dropped in four of the five counties from the same month last year. Santa Clara County had the largest drop at 21%, while San Mateo and Monterey each dropped by 15%. San Benito sales were down 8%, and San Mateo remained flat.
Compared to last month, sales increased 15% in San Mateo County, 4% in both Monterey and San Benito, dropped 3% in Santa Clara and remained flat in Santa Cruz.
Inventory increased or remained flat from the same month last year in all five counties except Monterey and Santa Cruz, where they were down 6% and 4% respectively. San Benito inventory was up 6%, San Mateo up 1%, while Santa Clara remained flat.
Compared to last month, inventory increased or remained flat in all counties. Inventory was up 8% in Santa Cruz, 4% in Monterey, 3% in San Mateo, and remained flat in both San Benito and Santa Clara.
New Listings compared to the same month last year dropped 15% in Monterey, 1% in Santa Clara, but increased 18% in San Benito, 2% in Santa Cruz, and just 1% in San Mateo.
Compared to last month, listings were up 18% in Santa Cruz, 8% in Monterey, 1% in both San Benito and Santa Clara, and decreased 4% in San Mateo.
Median Price dropped in four of the five counties compared to the same month last year. The largest drop occurred in Santa Cruz at 16%, San Benito was down 6%, Monterey down 5%, Santa Clara down 4%, and San Mateo showed the only increase at 10%.
Compared to last month, coupled with strong sales, San Mateo’s median price rose 14%, San Benito was up 6%, Santa Clara up 3%, while Monterey dropped 3% along with Santa Cruz which was down 2%.
Days on Market increased substantially from the same month last year in all counties except in Santa Cruz. DOM increased 84% in San Benito, 49% in San Mateo, 32% in Santa Clara, 13% in Monterey, and dropped 15% in Santa Cruz.
Compared to last month, days on market increased 35% in San Benito and 6% in San Mateo. DOM dropped 24% in Santa Cruz, 14% in Santa Clara, and 3% in Monterey.
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