Bay Area Real Estate Sales.com Newsletter

January 2008

 

IN THIS ISSUE:

 

Bay Area Home Sales Drag Along Bottom, Median Price Back To 2005 Level

Marin Home Sales Statistics

2007 Cost Vs Value Remodeling Report Now Available

What Did Your Neighbors' House Sell For?

Search The Marin Multiple Listing Service For A New Marin Home

Don't Charge Up A Storm Before Buying Home

What Do Liz's Clients Say?

Fast Facts

 

BAY AREA HOME SALES DRAG ALONG BOTTOM, MEDIAN PRICE BACK TO 2005 LEVEL

From dqnews.com

 

La Jolla, CA.----Bay Area home sales ended 2007 at a more-than 20-year low as buyers and sellers continued to wait out housing market turmoil that escalated last August, a real estate information service reported.

 

A total of 5,065 new and resale houses and condos sold in the Bay Area in December. That was down 1.2 percent from 5,127 in November, and down 39.5 percent from 8,372 in December 2006, DataQuick Information Systems reported.

 

Last month was the slowest December is DataQuick's statistics, which go back to 1988. Sales have decreased on a year-over-year basis for 35 consecutive months. Until last month, the slowest December was in 1990, when 5,458 homes sold. The strongest December, in 2003, saw 12,349 sales. The average for the month is 8,903.

 

"There's been a significant drop-off in home financing with so-called "jumbo" mortgages. Because homes are expensive in the Bay Area, this has had a much greater effect on the market there. It looks like most non-essential buying and selling activity has been put on hold until things settle down," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

 

In December there were 2,459 Bay Area home purchases financed with "conforming" mortgages up to $417,000, down 15.9 percent from 2,923 a year earlier. Last month there were 1,610 purchases made with "jumbo" loans over $417,000, down 65.7 percent from 4,694 for December 2006. Since the jumbo credit crunch hit in August, those mortgages have become pricier and harder to obtain.

The median price paid for a Bay Area home was $587,500 last month, down 6.6 percent from $629,000 in November, and down 4.9 percent from $618,000 in December last year. Last month's median was 11.7 percent lower than the peak $665,000 median, last reached in July.

 

The median for homes financed with conforming loans was $470,000, up 6.8 percent from $440,000 a year earlier, and off 4.3 percent from September's $491,000 peak.

 

DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Due to late data availability, the December statistics for Alameda County were extrapolated from the first three weeks of the month.

 

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $2,756 last month, down from $2,963 the previous month, and down from $2,828 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 5.5 percent above typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 16.9 percent below the current cycle's peak in June last year.

 

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity is at record levels, financing with adjustable-rate mortgages or with multiple mortgages has dropped sharply. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, non-owner occupied buying activity is edging up, DataQuick reported.

 

 

MARIN HOME SALES STATISTICS

 

Typically the holiday season is a slow time for buying and selling houses. The following chart reflects that. The markets are a bit tough to really analyze this month, as the sampling of how many houses are on the market as well as how many are in contract are very small. For example, Ross is shown as a Sellers market this month. I think that is primarily due to the fact that many Ross homes that didn't sell last year were pulled from the market during the holiday season.

 

An interesting fact to note: The MBAA announced that mortgage application volume skyrocketed for the second consecutive week, rising over 28% last week. Refinancing applications were up 43% and purchase volume jumped 11%. Originators reported that refinance volume accounted for 63% of total application volume, compared with 57.7 percent the previous week.

 

We'll see what the next few months bring. Typically sellers start to think now about listing their homes in the spring as to get ready for the "season of home buying." Families typically like to purchase homes in the spring time as they think about schools for the following year.