Foreclosures in Hawaii continued to comprise a substantial percentage of home sales, and consequently also depressed median price. One study indicated that the average foreclosure was sold for less than two-thirds of the median sales price of Oahu, a figure which may change as the considerable quantity of ‘shadow’ properties gradually makes its way onto the market. On the other side of the market, the Oahu office space market continued to experience higher rates of vacancy throughout the first quarter of 2011. This period represented the fifth straight quarter of increased vacancy, as the vacancy rate rose from 11.8 percent to 12.1 percent. According to figures released by the Honolulu Star Advertiser, vacancies were largely centered around the Kalihi area, while the business center of Honolulu actually gained some tenants. Rising electricity charges, which are related to the skyrocketing price of oil, may continue to boost rates of vacancy despite some experts’ tentative optimism moving into the next quarter.

The Waimea real estate market, a primarily rural section of the Big Island housing market, benefited from a rise in property sales and a drop in the median sales price across Hawaii Island. According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the number of condominium sales on the Big Island rose from twenty-six in January 2010 to twenty-eight in November 2010. Over the first eleven months of 2010, there were 458 condo sales, compared to 291 a year ago – an impressive fifty-seven percent increase. Accompanying this boost in sales volume was a drop in the average sales price for condominiums, falling from $299,000 to $275,000. Similarly, over the first eleven months of the year, the number of home sales on Hawaii Island rallied from 1,119 from January 2009-November 2009 to 1,362 from January 2010-November 2010. The median price of a Big Island home for sale, including Waimea homes, dropped four percent from $465,000 to $445,000. All of the major neighbor island markets are poised to surpass year-ago levels, despite a generally choppy market and uncertain economy. The Waimea real estate market has been more stable than other parts of the Aloha State, most because of the low population and country character of the community. It is generally less susceptible to foreclosures as well, since many foreclosures on the Big Island are the product of second residences in distress.

There are currently less than two dozen properties for sale in Waimea, only one of which is a bank-ordered foreclosure. Although more properties may have received notices of foreclosure over the last few months, the majority of distressed properties either reach a negotiated settlement or are sold before foreclosure in a short sale. Across the entire Aloha state, real estate information service RealtyTrac reports a total of 877 foreclosure filings in November 2010. The Big Island, including Waimea, saw a total of 212 foreclosure filings, primarily driven by sixty-seven filings in Kailua-Kona. The Waimea housing market should also benefit from the overall strength of the Hawaii economy. Although still on shaky ground, the improving tourism sector should encourage increased investment in the general economy and potentially in the real estate market in particular.

Foreclosures are still driving the market prices, but on the positive side, for the most part, they are being priced accordingly and are being sold relatively quickly, so there’s plenty of life in Wilmington NC Real Estate.

We have had several clients in the past week miss out on a home that is a foreclosure because they were not quick enough with an offer.  We are discouraging low ball offers on foreclosures since they are being priced to sell.  We are also recommending sellers to leave their homes off the market for a while unless they absolutely have to sell.

We are expecting things to slow down once the Holidays are among us. After Valentine’s Day, we still see a slight increase in activity.  It is usually around May or June when most of our out of town buyers will be coming into town to see what is available.  We are sure that 2011 will be a better year overall compared to 2010.

To get even more market data and stats you may also want to check out Data Quick.

The larger Northern California area experienced a similar situation to that faced by Los Altos homes for sale, with a drop off of about twenty percent. According to an October 21, 2010 report from ABC 7 News, “Despite historically low mortgage rates, home sales fell again in the Bay Area last month. They’re down more than 19 percent compared with September of last year — the second worst September in 19 years. There is still a fear out there of buying new homes. According to DataQuick, it’s the second slowest September in nearly 20 years for home sales in the Bay Area — 27 percent below average. “Sales are down, people are a little apprehensive about what’s happening in the economy,” says Ruhi Alikhan, a realtor in the Campbell-Sunnyvale area. She does see a fair number of buyers, still on the fence, even though interest rates remain quite low. “People are uncertain, job security and you know just with what’s happening in the economy, the elections…but people are still buying,” says Alikhan.”

The average sales price of Granite Bay home for sale also declined in the most recent tracking period, according to an October 21, 2010 piece from the Sacramento Business Journal. The article by Michael Shaw found that “Home prices for the four-county Sacramento region dipped in September compared to a year ago, real estate information firm MDA DataQuick reported Thursday. The trend first appeared this year as home prices had seemingly stabilized, only to begin gradually falling again. The downward pressure on prices is likely the result of fewer homes being sold. The company reported that sales of all types of homes were down by 375 homes compared to September 2009, a 12.1 percent decline. A total of 2,699 homes were sold in the four-county region, including resale single-family homes, condos and new construction. The dip was largest in Yolo County, where the median sales price was $218,000 in September, down 12.8 percent from September 2009. In Sacramento County, the price dip was 3.4 percent to $170,000. Placer County’s median price was $283,000 in September, down 3.4 percent, and El Dorado County’s price was $282,500, down 1.9 percent.”

More recently, the market for St. Louis homes for sale has seen some mixed signals. According to the city’s largest newspaper, the St. Louis Dispatch, there were about 10,400 existing home sales in the St. Louis area in the first five months of the year, an increase in sales activity by about 17%. Last year, only about 8,900 homes sold during the first five months. The inventory stood at about a six and a half month’s supply, down from an eight-month supply a year earlier. In the high times of 2004 and 2005, there were more than 40,000 homes sold each year, and this year the pace is far off the pace to meet that mark.

Despite the large number of foreclosures in St. Louis, which generally drive down home prices in a market, home prices in the St. Louis area were actually up 1.2% from last year, the first time that there has been an increase in almost three years, with homes in the St. Louis area averaging $128,000. Despite that fact, prices are still off by 13% from their price peaks from 2007. The St. Louis market has also been hurt by a large number of residents leaving the area and the high numbers of job losses and unemployment.

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.”

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 13^th 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.”

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.”

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