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Palm Springs real estate market update

June 29th, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

The Palm Springs real estate market is largely on the mend, although some specific sectors of the market, such as new Palm Springs houses for sale, continued to face declining median prices. A June 22, 2010 report from the Orange County Register asked “Could new houses be getting smaller, or are prices really dropping at a time when most home prices are going up? The latest figures from Hanley Wood Market Intelligence show that new house prices indeed are down this year so far, the latest in an unbroken four-year slide. But sales of new houses are up. Out of 24 California metro areas tracked by Hanley Wood, O.C. had the state’s second-highest percentage gain. Here’s the lowdown, based on Hanley Wood’s April report: The median price for a newly built single-family home in Orange County was $688,233 in April, Hanley Wood’s freshest stats. That’s down 18.1% from April 2009.”

The article, composed by Jeff Collins, continued to note that the median price of a new Palm Springs home had declined by nearly fourteen percent in the first third of the year. It said that “The average median price for the first four months of 2010 so far was $764,000, down 13.9% from the first four months of 2009. The four-month average for newly built houses has dropped steadily for four years. The median price of a newly built house was $1.03 million in April 2006. The price has dropped 33% since then. Generally, builders say they’ve cut amenities and reduced the size and lots for new homes to get prices down. That likely accounts for some of the price drops.”

At the same time, pre-owned/used properties have seen substantial increases in value as the Palm Springs housing market starts to rally overall. According to a June 18, 2010 report from the Orange County Register, “The median price per square foot paid to buy an Orange County house hit $296.32 in May, the highest that measure has been since August 2008, figures from MDA DataQuick show. The price per square foot for an existing, single-family home has been on an upsurge after bottoming out in January 2009, increasing from the month before in 10 of the past 13 months.”

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La Mesa real estate market

June 15th, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

National University La Mesa Campus
Image by National University via Flickr

The La Mesa real estate market, a subsidiary of the San Diego real estate market, continued to show signs of strength and recovery throughout April and March 2010. According to a May 19, 2010 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, “San Diego County may have passed the peak in the distressed housing market, as the mortgage delinquency rate dropped for the first time in four years, new reports showed Wednesday.” The article, written by Roger Showley, continued to note that “The Mortgage Bankers Association said mortgage payments at least 30 days late nationally dropped one percentage point to 9.4 percent from the first quarter, while still leaving 4.4 million mortgages in technical default. California’s rate dropped from 11.3 percent to 10.9 percent and 629,000 owners late. TransUnion, a credit-reporting agency, reported a similar dip, adding that California and San Diego were off the peak at the end of last year.”

The average price of a La Mesa or San Diego home for sale is one of the strongest indicators of the overall health of the region’s real estate market. According to a May 27, 2010 article from SDNN, “In this volatile – and frequently gloomy – housing market, San Diego stands out as a metropolitan city with continued growth in home prices, says a Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index released Tuesday.” The piece by Annu Subramanian went on to say that “The study highlighted that despite many metropolitan cities reporting new index lows, San Diego boats an eleven-month streak of increasing home prices. Of the 20 national metropolitan cities studied, San Diego’s 10.8 percent increase in home prices since March 2009 is only surpassed by San Francisco’s 16.2 percent increase.”

This overall health of the La Mesa real estate market was reflected by the general strength of the San Diego economy. According to a May 27, 2010 article from the San Diego Union-Tribune found that “A strengthening market pushed San Diego County’s leading economic indicators higher for the 13th month in a row, indicating that the county will continue to grow moderately through the end of the year, according to a report released Thursday by the University of San Diego’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate.”

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Aptos real estate market

June 13th, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

Seacliff State Beach, Aptos, California. View ...
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The Aptos real estate market is showing signs of a continued rally during the month of April, according to most recent indicators. According to a May 24, 2010 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, “Santa Cruz County saw fewer single-family homes sold in April compared to a year ago, but the median price rebounded from $420,000 to $553,000, the highest in 20 months, as distress sales dipped. Two years ago, the midpoint of what sold was $661,000.” The piece, written by Jondi Gumz, went on to say that “There were 121 sales in April, with 43 percent selling for under $500,000, compared to a year ago, when 132 homes sold with 57 percent under $500,000, according to Gary Gangnes of Real Options Realty, who tracks the numbers. Las month saw 33 bank-owned sales and 17 ‘short sales,’ where the home is sold for less than the debt, compared to 56 bank-owned sales and 11 short sales a year ago.”

One of the harder hit parts of the Aptos and Silicon Valley real estate markets, Aptos homes for sale, also showed signs of strength in recent months. According to a May 26, 2010 article released by Coldwell Banker, “Silicon Valley’s high end housing market continued to rebound from its recessionary lows with both sales and the median sale price climbing once again in April, according to Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, the Bay Area’s leading provider of luxury real estate services.” The piece went on to say that “Also encouraging, high-end homes continue to sell at a faster pace. The average Silicon Valley million-dollar sale in April occurred after just 39 days on the market, down from 53 days from March sales and 51 days for April 2009 sales.”

Commercial real estate, however, was one of the weaker sectors of Aptos and Santa Cruz real estate, according to a May 3, 2010 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. This piece noted that “The county’s once hot commercial real estate market has cooled considerably, with nearly a million square feet of office space empty at the start of the year and asking rates dropping compared to a year ago.”

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Roseville real estate market

June 12th, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

The civic center for Roseville, California.
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A suburban community in the greater Sacramento area, Roseville, California, lies in Placer County and is home to a population of more than 110,000. Its residents are generally solidly middle class, with a median annual household income level of around $68,000. The Roseville real estate market, as so many other markets in California, was hit by the credit crisis that infected so many real estate markets nationwide. Even at the end of 2009, the market was struggling to show many signs of encouragement, though falls in prices are at least now small in increment.

At the end of January, there were 585 Roseville homes for sale, an increase of more than 3% from three months earlier. These homes for sale included 38 bank-owned homes, 118 active short sells and 247 contingent short sales and ranged in price from $79,000 up to $1.32 million. At that time, there were 184 homes pending closed sales, a more than 10% drop from three months ago, all according to statistics from local Re/Max real estate agency. Of those pending sales, 47 are bank-owned and 57 are short sales.

In the final quarter of 2009, Roseville saw a decrease in its sales activity as just 393 homes were sold versus 452 in the third quarter, a more than 13% drop. Nonetheless, that figure represented a 1% increase year-over-year. Home prices showed slight improvement from quarter to quarter, with the median sales price up 2.5% to $300,000 and the average up 0.2% to over $311,000, but the prices were both off where they were during the fourth quarter of 2008. The median was down by 3.2% and the average was down nearly 5%.

The number of days Roseville homes spent on the market before selling in the fourth quarter was 74, down from 80 in the third quarter and 76 a year ago. At the end of the fourth quarter, the Roseville market held a 4.5 months’ inventory, up from 3.7 months’ worth in the third quarter. The average discount from the asking price in the final quarter of 2009 was 1.24%, up from 1.02% in the third quarter but down from 1.67% a year ago. http://www.placercountyhomesandland.net/2010/01/roseville-homes-for-sale-and-october—december-2009-sales-statistics.html

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Almaden Valley real estate market

June 11th, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

Palm trees lining streets in San Jose, California
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The Almaden Valley real estate market, a subsidiary of the larger San Jose, Santa Clara and Silicon Valley real estate markets, is showing steady signs of improvement after the recent recession. According to a May 20, 2010 article from the San Jose Mercury News, “After months of strong increases in home sales, Santa Clara County posted only a slight gain in sales compared with April 2009, but the median price of the houses sold jumped 26 percent from a year earlier.” The piece, written by Sue McAllister, went on to note that “The median price of previously owned single-family houses that changed hands in Santa Clara County last month was $550,000, up 26.4 percent from $435,000 in April 2009, and flat from March 2010, according to a report Thursday from MDA DataQuick. A total of 1,185 houses sold in the county last month, up just 1.2 percent from the same time last year, and up 7 percent from March of this year.”

The average price of an Almaden Valley home for sale is likely to increase in the upcoming months, according to a May 9, 2010 article also from the San Jose Mercury News. This piece noted that “After nearly three years of bumpy decline, home values in Santa Clara County have bottomed out and are showing slight but steady appreciation, according to a report released today from real estate information company Zillow.” The piece by Sue McAllister went on to say that “Zillow noted in the largely upbeat report that the median estimated value of homes in the county in the first quarter of this year was $571,000, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier. And month by month, the company said, values have been rising in increments of 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent since June 2009.”

Coldwell Banker reported particular strength in the more exclusive portions of the Almaden Valley and Silicon Valley real estate markets. According to a May 26, 2010 press release from the company, “Silicon Valley’s high-end housing market continued to rebound from its recessionary lows with both sales and the median sale price climbing once again in April, according to Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, the Bay Area’s leading provider of luxury real estate services.”

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Orange County real estate

June 10th, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

Official seal of Anaheim Island, Orange County...
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The Orange County real estate market continued to recover throughout the most recent tracking periods, although it also showed some possible signs of weakness. According to a May 18, 2010 article in the OC Metro, “Orange County saw gains in its median home price and sales activity in April, compared to the same time last year, according to a new report from MDA DataQuick. The county’s median home price hit $430,000 last month, up 13 percent from $380,000 in April 2009.” The article by Kristen Schott continued to say that “But, the price dipped slightly from March, when the median reached $432,000. For the six-county Southern California region, which includes Orange, L.A., San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura, the median rose 15 percent to $285,000 in the period, compared to April 2009. The number was unchanged from March.”

Despite remaining much higher than a year ago, the average price of an Orange County home for sale declined slightly compared to the month of March. According to a May 18, 2010 article in the Orange County Business Journal, “Orange County’s median home price edged down $2,000 in April from March, but still stands $50,000 higher than the prices seen here a year ago. The median price of a home sold here in April was $430,000, a less than 1% drop from a month earlier, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick, a unit of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.” The piece by Mark Mueller went on to say that “Median home prices are now about 13% higher than they were a year ago, but still are off nearly 33% from their highest level, seen in mid-2007.”

Comparatively speaking, the Orange County real estate market remained much stronger than the rest of the other parts of Southern California. According to a May 18, 2010 article from OCLNN, “Orange County saw stronger gains in home sales and price compared to all other Southern California counties during April. The median home price in Orange County jumped 13.2 percent since April 2009, to $430,000, according to DataQuick, a San Diego-based real estate information service.”

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Auburn real estate market

June 9th, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

Statue at Auburn, CA, honoring the 10,000+ Chi...
Image via Wikipedia

The Auburn real estate market, part of the larger Sacramento area market, continued to show some signs of distress in the month of April, including the foreclosure and home price levels. According to a May 11, 2010 article from all Things Considered, “Foreclosures increased 46 percent in April, compared to a year earlier with almost 1,800 homes going back to lenders or sold at auction in the Sacramento region. Foreclosures.com says Sacramento County accounted for almost half of those foreclosed homes, with Elk Grove, North Natomas and south Sacramento among the hardest-hit communities.” The piece by Ron Trujillo went on to find that “The closely-watched foreclosures report is the most recent indicator that the housing market is going through a roller-coaster ride with the still-struggling economy, with the median home price down about 35 percent – or even more in some areas – from the peak four years ago.”

A second report on All Things Considered from KXJZ News noted that the average sales price of an Auburn home for sale declined moderately in April, although the same figure for Sacramento overall increased. According to this piece, “The California Association of Realtors says the median home price – meaning half the homes sold for more, the other half for less – increased to $188,000 in April. That’s about $20,000 more than what has been considered the bottom of the market. But the figure has created a bit of an unusual situation, since only Sacramento County enjoyed higher prices compared to April 2009. El Dorado, Placer, and Yolo counties reported modest price declines in April compared to a year ago. But sales dropped 8 percent to 484,000 homes, that’s the fewest homes sold in 19 months.”

The same negative news for Auburn real estate was relayed by a May 21, 2010 article in the Sacramento Bee. This article, written by Jim Wasserman, went on to say that “Overall, 3,255 homes changed hands during April in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, DataQuick reported. That was down slightly from March – and fewer than April 2009. Analysts attributed the slight drop to fewer repo listings for first-time buyers and people delaying escrow closings until May.”

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San Carlos Real Estate

June 2nd, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

Historical San Carlos building as seen in 2007
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A mid-sized city on the San Francisco Peninsula located about midway between San Francisco and San Jose, the city of San Carlos, California, is situated in San Mateo County and is home to a population of around 30,000 residents. It is a rather affluent community, with residents having a median annual income of $99,000, much higher than the state average, and accordingly, San Carlos real estate can be quite expensive, though there are more affordable neighborhoods as well. Its homes are among the top 10 most expensive cities in San Mateo County. Based on a viewing of the statistics of the San Carlos housing market available from the San Mateo County Association of Realtors, the market still is climbing out of the recession-fueled struggles, as both average and median prices of both homes and condos in the city have fallen year-over-year.

In the first quarter of 2010, the community saw 86 new San Carlos homes for sale in addition to its current inventory of 59 single-family homes for sale, both of which are lower figures than the first quarter of 2009, showing that inventory has begun to clear out a bit. There were 36 single-family homes sold in San Carlos in the first quarter, up by three from last year, and homes spent an average of 59 days on the market before selling in Q1, up from just 40 days in 2009′s first quarter. Prices of sold homes actually fell on an annual basis in terms of both average and median prices. The average price for a single-family home sold in the first three months of 2010 was around $913,500, down by more than $60,000 year-over year. The median price was $862,500, down by around $90,000 annually.

The condo market in San Carlos showed similar trends, with both median and average prices falling year-over-year in the first quarters. There were 23 new condos listed in the first quarter on top of the inventory of 31 condos for sale, down slightly from 2009. Sales plummeted in the first quarter of this year, with only five condos sold in the first quarter, down by nearly two-thirds from last year, when there were 14 condos sold in Q1.  The number of days condos spend on the market before selling has fallen too, to 35 days from 64, showing the inventory is not just sitting still on the market. The average sales price of a condo in San Carlos was $614,000 in the first quarter of 2010, down by around $20,000 from a year prior, while the median price stood at $545,000, down by just under $100,000 annually.

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Watsonville Real Estate

June 1st, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

Downtown Watsonville
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A mid-sized city in Santa Cruz County, Watsonville, California, lies in the northern part of the state and is a farming community of more than 50,000. It is known for growing lots of strawberries, apples, lettuce and other vegetables. The city is modest and its housing market contains some of the more affordable properties in the area. Because the Watsonville real estate market is lower priced than many of the surrounding areas, it did not get as overheated as many other markets did during the mid-2000s and therefore it has not suffered nearly as hard as these markets since the U.S. economic downturn began in 2008. Nonetheless the market still has seen drops in prices, even if they weren’t six-figure declines.

At the end of 2009, in December, the market saw a total of 54 Watsonville homes for sale as well as 25 new listings, according to statistics from the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors. This was a huge drop from a year ago, when there were 33 new listings to make the month’s total inventory 179. Many of the single-family homes that went up on the market shortly after the crisis have since sold. The month accounted for 18 sales, a decline from a year ago, when there were 25, and the average number of days home spent on the market before selling was 18, down significantly from a year ago, when that figure was 75 days. The average sales price at the end of 2009 was just over $287,000, down by around $10,000 from the 2008 figure. The median price, which stood at $277,500 at the end of the year, was down by a larger clip of more than $20,000.

The market for condos in Watsonville showed similar trends to the market for single-family homes at the end of the year 2009. In December, there were 11 new listings for a total of 32 condos on the market, a decline from a year ago by nearly half, when the inventory stood at 62. There were just five condos sold however, down from nine at the end of 2008. The number of days condos spent on the market before selling has worsened significantly. In December 2008, the figure stood at just 39 days, but in 2009, it had risen to 145 days. Condo prices have slid further over the year than home prices have: The average price in December was just over $202,000, down by more than $40,000 year-over-year, while the median price was down to $185,000, a steep drop from last year’s $260,000 median.

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Scripps Ranch Real Estate

May 30th, 2010 · Real Estate Markets

Panorama de la ciudad de San Diego
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A community in the northeastern area of San Diego, Scripps Ranch, California, is a smaller community with over 30,000 residents. The community is a highly desirable neighborhood and its residents tend to be mostly affluent — its median household income was estimated at nearly $123,000, with nearly half of the city’s households bringing in $100,000 or more annually, with only 7% of the population making less than $30,000. Thus, Scripps Ranch real estate tends to be quite high-priced, and has therefore suffered some large drops and setbacks since the economy began to slide in the U.S.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune‘s zip code chart for the month of March, Scripps Ranch saw 26 single-family homes sold in March at a median price of $287 per square foot, an increase of 6% year-over-year. In March, there were also 29 condos sold in Scripps Ranch at a median price per square foot of $291, up more than 20% annually. The year-end totals for 2009 saw Scripps Ranch homes for sale saw 288 single-family homes sold for a median price per square foot of $282, down 3% annually, according to the San Diego Union Tribune Annual Chart. Meanwhile, there were 168 Scripps Ranch condos sold in 2009 at a median price of $252, down almost 9% year-over-year.

Over the past year, the median price for single-family homes for sale has not shifted too dramatically, seeing only slight rises and falls off and on throughout the 18 months. In September 2009, the median was around $725,000, and it took a gradual downslide , hitting a low of around $660,000 in May 2009 before picking back up again. As of February, the median was around $675,000. Sales of single-family homes have taken a mostly upward-trending slope through the past 18 months, picking up around May 2009 and rising thereafter.

The median price for condos in Scripps Ranch have fluctuated a bit more than home prices over the past 18 months. In September of 2009, the median was over $350,000, and since then, the prices began to fall, hitting a low of around $300,000 in August before slowly picking back up again. As of February, the median price for condos was in the $320,000 range. Condo sales have remained at between 10 and 15 per month for most of the 18 months, and just recently hit their highest point in February.

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