AGENT MLS HOME FINDER

The Los Altos real estate market, found in the midst of the larger Bay Area housing market, saw a decline in the number of homes sold. An October 21, 2010 report from the San Jose Mercury News found that “Despite low interest rates, home sales are continuing to decline in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties as many prospective homebuyers remain nervous about the economy, according to a new report issued Thursday. Median sale prices were a mixed bag: The median price for resale houses in Santa Clara County rose to $575,000 in September, up 13.5 percent from a year ago, according to the report from MDA DataQuick, a San Diego-based tracking service. The median price in San Mateo County was $605,000, down 2.3 percent from a year ago. But the volume of sales fell for the fourth consecutive month across the Bay Area, even though mortgage rates were near historic lows. DataQuick reported 1,013 single-family homes were resold in Santa Clara County in September, down 22.5 percent from a year earlier. There were 413 homes resold in San Mateo County, down 13.2 percent from the same month in 2009.”

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 Granite Bay housing market, found in the larger Sacramento area and Central Valley real estate market, saw a lower volume of home sales in the most recent tracking period, according to an October 22, 2010 article from the Sacramento Bee. The piece by Mark Glover noted that “Dismal regional home sales figures for September offered a disheartening segue into the traditionally slow end-of-year months. Buyers in eight counties claimed 3,054 new and existing homes in September, according to statistics released Thursday by La Jolla researcher MDA DataQuick. Last month’s purchases represented a 5.5 percent decline from 3,233 in August this year and an 11.6 percent drop from 3,454 in September 2009. The 1,763 new and existing home purchases in Sacramento County alone last month was the lowest September total since 2007 and the second-lowest since 1996. It was 14.7 percent less than 2,068 countywide purchases in September last year. Area sales were about 20 percent below the historical average for September. There were only 84 new-home purchases in Sacramento last month, up slightly from 82 in August but a nearly 34 percent dip from 127 in September last year. The median sales price per purchase of all homes in Sacramento County last month was $170,000, down from $172,000 in August and $176,000 in September last year.”

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.”

One of the major anchor cities in the heartland of the Midwest, St. Louis, Missouri, is the second-largest city in the state and is home to a population more than 350,000, with a population of 2.8 million in the greater urban area. The St. Louis real estate market was adversely affected when the greater U.S. market crashed in late 2008, after the subprime mortgage crisis erupted, sending markets down in markets across the country and forcing the U.S. economy into recession.

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 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.”