Throughout the nine counties, the median paid for an existing single-family house in July was $400,000, down 7.5 percent from the same month last year, according to DataQuick, a San Diego real estate research firm. A total of 5,096 homes changed hands in the month, virtually the same as in July 2010.

“More people became more concerned about the future and took a step back to the housing sidelines as we saw an increasing number of negative reports on the economy and jobs, and people fretted about the outcomes of the debt-ceiling debate in Washington, D.C.,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst.

The median is strongly influenced by the mix of homes sold: more low-cost homes changing hands results in a lower median. DataQuick said sales of homes above $500,000 fell 19.2 percent compared with a year earlier, while sales of homes below $500,000 were up 3.5 percent over July 2010.

Many of the low-end transactions relied on low-down payment, government-backed Federal Housing Administration mortgages. They accounted for 22.4 percent of all Bay Area home purchase loans in July.

Distressed home sales remain a significant market force. Bank resales of foreclosed homes accounted for 26.6 percent of Bay Area resales in July. Short sales – in which people sell their home for less than they owe on the mortgage – represented 18.8 percent of resold homes.

As has been true throughout the housing downturn, coastal counties with easy access to job centers performed better than those in outlying regions. The median for San Francisco resales was virtually flat at $715,000 versus $714,500 a year earlier. Median prices for existing homes in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Marin counties were down about 3 percent.

“There is no question that Santa Clara and San Francisco (counties) have stood out as being relatively stable, given the strength of their local job markets and the constrained supplies,” LePage said.

But medians declined more steeply in Napa (down 15 percent), Solano (down 9.9 percent), Sonoma (down 8.6 percent), Contra Costa (down 8.5 percent) and Alameda (down 6.4 percent) counties.

For all homes, including resale homes, resale condos and new homes, sales volume inched up 1.7 percent and the median price fell 7 percent to $374,000 from $402,000.

Two competing factors affect the housing outlook for the rest of the year. On the one hand, consumer concerns about their finances were exacerbated by the wild ride the stock market has taken this month. On the other hand, interest rates are at historic lows and home prices are more affordable than in years past.

Even the best-case scenario doesn’t involve an immediate recovery but rather an extended period of prices bouncing along the bottom.

“I think it’s likely we’re in for a long period of stagnation,” LePage said. “If we get worse news on jobs and the economy and see big dips in the stock market, we could see prices come down some more. Of course (even with stagnation) prices will always bounce around a bit.”

The California Association of Realtors, which on Monday issued its report for July, had a similar take.

“Economic uncertainty and recent developments in financial markets have caused hesitation among buyers, the effects of which we may see in the coming months,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, the group’s chief economist, in a statement. “We must see sustained job and income gains along with an increase in consumer confidence before we can expect to see consistent improvement in the housing market.”

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/16/BUD91KO7CA.DTL

Bay Area home sales dipped more than usual between June and July, falling 13.9 percent, compared to an average decline of 6.8 percent for the Northern California market, the report shows. Sales dropped most sharply in the high-end real estate market, with $500,000-plus transactions down 25.4 percent on a month-over-month basis.

Luxury home sales were strong during the early summer in Marin County, San Francisco and the Napa Valley, Coldwell Banker reported. John Walsh, DataQuick president, attributes the fall-off in this sector to overall economic uncertainty caused by the debt ceiling debate.

While high-end buyers sat on the sidelines, first-time homeowners accounted for more sales in July than June, as measured by the proportion of government-insured Federal Housing Authority loans used to finance purchases. FHA loans, often secured by first-time buyers, were used in 22.4 percent of all Bay Area July purchases, compared to 20.6 percent in June.

San Francisco is not a budget housing market, with a median sales price of $550,000, according to the National Housing Conference. However, the annual income needed to finance a median-priced home in San Francisco declined 7 percent between 2010 and 2011, NHC recently reported. 

Article source: http://www.upack.com/press/article/real-estate-news/first-timers-drove-san-franciscos-housing-market-in-july-800578613

A real estate source I knew recently told me about a guy he knows in Atlanta who has been hired by several different banks to winterize their REO’s (real estate owned, i.e. the bank-owned foreclosures).

The homes are abandoned and empty, and clearly the banks think they’re going to stay that way for a while.

The winterizer didn’t want to do an interview, for fear he would lose his clients, the banks, who might not want us all to know about this.

A new study by an economist at the Cleveland Federal Reserve finds today’s foreclosures stay vacant far longer than the historical norm. Studying one Ohio county, Stephan Whitaker found, “foreclosed homes go through more than a year of very high vacancy rates following the auction and are substantially more likely to be vacant up to 60 months after the foreclosure.” The higher the poverty rate in the area, the longer the property stays vacant.

Foreclosed homes obviously lower the value of surrounding homes, but Whitaker says the damage can go on much longer than we might think. “The data suggest that foreclosure may permanently scar some homes,” he writes in his research.

Page 1 of 3 | Next Page
Show Entire Article

Obama Says Multiple Ways Out of Debt Ceiling Mess

Republicans Race to Revive US Debt Plan

Fed May Have Options If US Defaults: Lockhart

Economy Grows at Sluggish 1.3%; Consumers Pull Back

Consumer Sentiment Falls to Lowest Level Since March 2009

More Top Stories

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43913483?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Last month, the National Association of Realtors reported a huge jump in cancellations of pending home sale contracts. 16 percent of contracts didn’t make it to closing, up from a norm of about 4 percent.

The chief economist at the NAR said he was baffled by it, but ask any agent working the nation’s neighborhoods, and they’ll tell you it is all about confidence and financing—specifically, a lack of both.

“It seems like everybody’s got home purchase ‘cancel-itis,’” says David Fogg, a real estate agent in Burbank, Calif.

“Currently, we are seeing about 75 percent, when we close escrow, had been in escrow 2 or 3 times prior.”

Fogg says the higher cancellations recently are most definitely tied to the turmoil in Washington, D.C. over the debt ceiling . Already nervous buyers are suddenly changing course, unsure how the debt crisis will affect the overall economy, and more importantly, their own employment.

More buyers did sign sales contracts in June than in May, though, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors. Pending home sales rose 2.4 percent month-to-month and are nearly 20 percent* higher than June of 2010, the low point following the end of the home buyer tax credit.

Page 1 of 3 | Next Page
Show Entire Article

Debt Fallout: Even Market Pros Don’t Know What to Do

Wall Street Finally Gets the Gridlock It Was Hoping For

Boehner’s Latest Debt Plan Faces Tough Vote in House

Lost Amid Debt Talks: How ‘Grand Bargain’ Fell Apart

Ten Reasons Not to Move Your Money Right Now

More Top Stories

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43926826?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Green costs more, and today’s already-skittish potential home buyers are not willing to shell out more cash for a greener standard of living.

At least that’s the finding of a survey by Chicago Agent Magazine.

The magazine did a green survey last year and then repeated the same questions this year to compare trends. Last year 33 percent of agents surveyed reported that they had clients specifically seeking out properties with green features. This year that number dropped to 15 percent.

“I believe that buyers appreciate ‘green’ features, but they are not yet ready to pay extra for them,” Bob Parris, broker/owner of Manchester Realty told the magazine.

The survey asked agents how many had completed “green transactions” in the past two years. 77 percent answered, none. That’s up from 64 percent who said none last year. Apparently more agents this year said green in just a “marketing term” and more say the term doesn’t make a difference to potential buyers. It’s not surprising therefore that fewer agents reported getting their “green designations.”

Page 1 of 3 | Next Page
Show Entire Article

Tuesday Look Ahead: Earnings Could be the Bright Spot

White House Makes Last-Ditch Plan to Raise Debt Ceiling

IBM Beats, Raises Forecast, Sending Shares Higher

Could Stock Market ‘Elephant’ Drag Down SP to 1238?

Special report: Banks continue robo-signing

More Top Stories

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43797991?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

If you’re not talking about the head of the IMF today, then the only thing left really is the debt ceiling, which we officially reached today ($14.294 trillion for anyone who’s counting).

While estimates are that it will take until August for the US to actually default on its debt obligations, the concern in the short term is how Wall Street sees the situation and how that will be reflected in the bond market and in mortgage interest rates.

So I asked a few experts:

Michael Barr/Fmr. Asst. Treasury Secretary for Financial Institutions

“If the US continues to bump up against the debt limit but Treasury uses “extraordinary measures” to keep the US from exceeding the limit, then the damage is likely to be modest and short-term. I would expect rates to rise, temporarily, by up to low single-digit basis points.

It is a bit hard to forecast exactly what the effect will be. Prior experience suggests low single digit bps, but there are a number of factors in play today that were not present in previous debt ceiling crises: fragile economy, fragile housing finance sector, fragile home prices and sales, F/F in conservatorship, no securitization to speak of, higher debt to GDP ratio, turmoil in Europe (exacerbated by DSK’s arrest), extremely high levels of US dollar reserves already in China, extremely low Treasury rates.

Page 1 of 3 | Next Page
Show Entire Article

BP’s Arctic Oil Deal With Rosneft Collapses

Conspiracy Theorists Feast on Strauss-Kahn Arrest

Queen’s First Visit to Ireland Clouded by Threats

Germany’s Merkel Rejects Greek Debt Restructuring

Will Nasdaq Now Bid for the London Stock Exchange?

More Top Stories

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43049863?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS