SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – A research firm said home prices in the San Francisco Bay Area began to cool off last month after a torrid run.

California posted its strongest homes sales for any August in seven years as price increases cooled, a research firm said Friday, a relief to buyers who have been competing over slim pickings.

There were 42,546 new and existing houses and condominiums sold, up 3.1 percent from 41,280 sales a year earlier and the highest August tally since 51,054 homes sold in 2006, according to DataQuick.

The median sales price was $361,000, down 0.6 percent from 363,000 in July but still up 28.5 percent from $281,000 in August 2012. It was the 18th straight month of annual price gains.

Sales were especially strong for mid- to high-priced homes. Sales above $500,000 jumped 28.2 percent in the nine-county Bay Area and soared 48.7 percent in Southern California.

Louis Marcoux, 35, lost three bids before buying a four-bedroom house last month for $830,000 in Pleasanton. It is better house than the previous ones he sought—and less expensive.

“It got sort of crazy in May, June,” said Marcoux, an executive at a medical device maker. “We were ready but weren’t pressed for time … The wait was worth it.”

The median sales price in the Bay area was $540,000, down 3.9 percent from $542,000 in July but still up a whopping 31.7 percent from $410,000 in August 2012. There were 8,616 homes sold in the Bay area, down 0.6 percent from a year earlier.

DataQuick reported Thursday that Southern California’s median sales price was $385,000 last month, matching a 64-month high and marking the 13th straight month of annual double-digit gains. Sales increased 2.8 percent to 23,057 homes.

“We’re starting to see an overdue correction that’s going to lead to much more moderate price increases,” said Michael Lea, lecturer at San Diego State University’s Corky McMillin Center for Real Estate.

The sales increase partly reflects a national trend of fewer homeowners owing more than their homes are worth, allowing them to sell without taking a loss, analysts said. CoreLogic Inc., a real-estate data firm, reported this week that 15.4 percent of its mortgaged homes in California were “underwater” at the end of June, down from 21.3 percent three months earlier.

Foreclosed homes, which drove sales after the 2008 financial market meltdown, made up a much smaller part of the sales mix. According to DataQuick, homes foreclosed upon during the previous year accounted for 7.8 percent of existing home sales in August, down from 20 percent a year earlier and 58.8 percent in February 2009.

Lea said he is watching for housing inventories to grow, which will help keep a lid on price increases.

The California Association of Realtors reported a 2.9-month supply of single-family homes for sale in July, down from 3.5 months a year earlier. A normal supply is considered five to seven months.

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Article source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/09/13/bay-area-home-prices-cooling-off/

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – If you’re planning on purchasing a home in the Bay Area soon, you may be up against steep competition.

According to San Diego-based company DataQuick, house and condo sales throughout the Bay Area in July were the highest since 2005.

A total of 9,339 sales were finalized, up 13.3 percent from July 2012, when 8,241 homes were sold, according to DataQuick.

The sales were at its highest since 12,538 homes sold in July 2005, the data company stated.

The spike in sales was most evident in Santa Clara County, where 2,244 homes were sold, 26.1 percent more than the 1,779 from July last year.

In San Francisco, 718 homes sold last month, up 31.3 percent from last July’s 547 sales.

Solano County was the only Bay Area county that recorded fewer sales this July from last, totaling a 0.8 percent decrease, from 610 last year to 605 last month.

With the rise in sales, the median price of homes in the Bay Area has also increased, reaching its highest price in more than five and a half years.

In July, the median price was $562,000, the highest since December 2007 when homes were averaging a price tag of roughly $587,500, according to DataQuick.

Twelve months ago, the median price of homes in the nine-county region was 33.5 percent less, averaging roughly $421,000 per sale.

All counties throughout the Bay Area recorded an increase in median sale prices, but none more than in Contra Costa County, which had its median sale price rise nearly 43 percent from $308,000 to $440,000, according to DataQuick.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Article source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/08/15/bay-area-home-sales-home-prices-climbing/

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – It seems parking spots aren’t immune from the recent surge in San Francisco real estate prices.

A spot in the city’s trendy South Beach neighborhood sold last week for $82,000.

The 8- by 12-foot parking space is in an enclosed garage in a condominium building just a block from ATT Park. The unidentified buyer did not respond to interview requests, but a Porsche SUV was parked in the space on Thursday.

While it may seem like a lot of money, real estate agents said parking could be a good investment. It can add as much as $100,000 to the purchase price of a property, or be rented out at rates of $400 to $450 a month — the going rate in South Beach.

Sean Sullivan, who sold the space, said the spot has an ideal location with Instagram and other tech companies nearby.

“We had a very good response right out of the gate,” said Sullivan, an agent who works for Climb Real Estate. “It was only in the market two weeks.”

Sullivan said that he’s previously sold a space for even more. In fact, he sold a parking spot in the same exact building at the height of the last real estate boom for $95,000.

Overall, the city has seen real estate prices climb. Home prices in San Francisco grew by 22.2 percent in March compared with a year ago, second only to Phoenix among U.S. cities, according to the Standard Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index released in May.

Home prices in the wider, nine-county Bay Area posted a 12th straight month of double-digit price increases last month, according to research firm DataQuick. DataQuick said Thursday that the median price for new and existing houses and condominiums reached $519,000 in May, up 30 percent from the same period last year.

Condos in the South Beach area are going for $1,000 a square foot. At 96 square feet, the parking space was a relative bargain at $854 per square foot.

Sullivan said the building where the parking spot was sold was built before the city restricted spaces to one per unit. It is one of the few buildings that allows non-residents to own a spot.

The new owner has a deed and will be required to pay property taxes and homeowner association dues on his little slice of South Beach.

The sale was all cash.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Article source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/06/13/parking-spot-sells-for-82k-in-san-francisco-building/

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Real estate firms are reporting a record number of Bay Area homes are being bought with cash, making it increasingly difficult for first-time homebuyers to get their offers accepted.

Often, the bids are only accepted after multiple offers resulting from bidding wars, according to real estate experts.

Real estate agent Peyton Schteevah with Pacific Union in San Francisco said 26 percent of their transactions last year were all-cash deals. That is a reflection of the record statewide high in 2012, where 32.4 percent of overall home sales were cash purchases.

“People came to the table with cash deals because it was so competitive to get homes that they tried to get any advantage they could to get their foot in and have a very compelling offer,” he said.

Schteevah said plenty of people decided to cash in their stocks or use money they had saved in the bank to compete with investors, a situation that is squeezing out buyers obtaining mortgages.

“It is very, very frustrating,” he said.

Adding to the current environment is a low inventory of homes and a median Bay Area price of $426,500 in February, up 22 percent from the same time last year.

“It is a seasonal market. Right now it’s extremely hot, but if we learned anything from the past; it’s up and down,” he said.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Article source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/04/03/rise-in-all-cash-home-sales-frustrates-bay-area-first-time-buyers/