The experts at RealtyTrac told 7 On Your Side that home prices have increased 28 percent in the Bay Area from the time the housing market hit bottom in February 2012. In San Francisco, the prices have risen even more dramatically.

Brian Miller saw first hand how frantic the housing market in San Francisco can be right now.

“I found myself being constantly outbid, putting in offers of 20 percent over asking, getting outbid at 50 percent over asking in cash,” Miller said.

That type of activity didn’t surprise Serena Kokjer Greening of Guarantee Mortgage. She says the small number of homes for sale combined with the improved employment picture is leading to bidding wars.

“You’ll see properties getting six, eight, even 20 offers which, you know, hadn’t happened in four to five years here,” Kokjer Greening said.

All those offers mean rising prices taking us closer to the bubble, the point when homes are considered overpriced.

The Vice President of RealtyTrac Daren Blomquist says we’re still 21 percentage points below the peak of the housing bubble in the Bay Area.

“But then if you focus in on the city, that’s where we’re very close actually to the peak of the housing bubble in San Francisco,” he said.

Blomquist says San Francisco is just 6 percentage points from reaching that bubble stage.

“I think it’s pretty dangerous,” he said.

“Today I received probably my eighth denial of a modification,” San Francisco resident Gale Rosboro said.

Rosboro wrote President Barack Obama and the White House forwarded her case to the Treasury Department to assist her in getting a modification from Wells Fargo. So far, even that hasn’t helped.

“They’ve made no move towards working with me to get a modification,” Rosboro said.

In an email, Wells Fargo told 7 On Your Side, “We have worked with Ms. Rosboro for nearly three years and will continue to try to identify options that are appropriate for her individual financial circumstances. Our foreclosure rate is less than 1 percent.”

Ironically, rising home values could make it even more difficult for struggling homeowners to get modifications.

“I think that people are barely hanging on. There have been a lot of cuts and its been very difficult for families,” Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment spokesperson Grace Martinez said.

Blomquist predicts another round of foreclosures in San Francisco in the coming months.

“Four of the last five months in San Francisco foreclosure starts have increased from the previous month,” he said.

Blomquist advises home buyers to be patient and not feel you have to buy right now.

Miller waited and found something he could afford. “It feels great, I mean I’m very excited, he said.

RealtyTrac says the next wave of foreclosures in San Francisco won’t be an overwhelming flood, but it does expect an uptick.

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Article source: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=9196447

In its monthly report on housing prices, the SP/Case-Shiller Home Price Index — considered to be the leading measure of home prices across the country — said Tuesday the average selling price for a home in the San Francisco area jumped 23.9 percent over a 12-month period ending in April.

Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist, told SFBay home prices in the East Bay showed even more dramatic increases:

“Trulia’s Price Monitor, which is a forward-looking indicator of price trends based on asking prices and reports the San Francisco and Oakland areas separately, showed prices up 31 percent in the East Bay year-over-year, the biggest increase among the 100 largest metros in the country.”

Kolko said home prices in other Bay Area counties also increased, but not as much as the East Bay:

“Prices in our San Francisco metro area, which includes San Mateo and Marin counties, were up 20 percent year-over-year, which is also a very steep increase but not as steep at the East Bay gain.”

Though the housing market is rebounding in most cities, a tight inventory of homes across the Bay Area and one of the fastest job growth rates in the nation is helping to boost home prices locally.

And as Kolko points out, home prices in the East Bay saw prices fall sharply during the bust, creating bargains for home buyers.

SP/Case-Shiller says nationwide prices the average price for a home during that same period of time ending in April jumped 12.1 percent — setting a monthly record.

David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at SP Dow Jones Indices said the housing recovery is looking strong:

“Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Francisco posted year-over-year gains of over 20 percent in April. San Francisco was the highest at 23.9 percent. … Recent economic data on home sales and inventories confirm the housing recovery’s strength.”

Behind San Francisco in showing strong growth was Las Vegas, which saw prices climb  22.3 percent and Phoenix, which saw prices rise by 21.5 percent.

Article source: http://sfbay.ca/2013/06/25/housing-boom-sends-bay-area-home-prices-soaring/

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/

In the greater San Francisco and San Jose markets, average rental prices increased by 10.4 and 12.2 percent, respectively, making the two areas the markets with the greatest rent appreciation in the country, according to a report by RealFacts, a company that analyzes rental data. The S.F. region includes parts of the East Bay, and San Jose includes other parts of Santa Clara County.

Click on the photo at right to see how rents have increased in the Bay Area.

Over the past four years, according to the survey, rental prices have climbed 13.7 percent in San Francisco, while occupancy rose only 1.3 percent. The City’s high apartment occupancy rate is one of the factors contributing to its rising prices, real estate experts agree.

“We’ve reached a point where there’s nothing out there,” said Craig Berendt, a broker with Berendt Properties. “People are knocking down my door to get an apartment.”

Renters now have to compete for apartments, sometimes creating a bidding war. Vacancies are filled quickly, and for above-average prices. Berendt recently rented a client an 800-square-foot Hayes Valley apartment with an outdated 1950s kitchen and without parking for $2,100 a month. About a year ago he would have been lucky to get $1,700, he said.

The tech industry, which is credited with contributing to the boom in both residential and commercial real estate, has created a renter profile of young, well-paid professionals who can afford the cream of the crop.

“Current renters moving in are pickier about what they want,” said Janan New, executive director of San Francisco Apartment Association. “They are willing to pay high rents, but don’t want to compromise on amenities.”

She said that means landlords have to deliver — by installing granite countertops, track lighting and other new features that also can drive up asking rates. The trend has made San Francisco a city that is increasingly unaffordable to middle-class residents, both New and Berendt said.

“I see our middle class really starting to dissipate,” Berendt said. “Obviously we don’t want that. We want a well-balanced class system, but the rents are just going through the roof.”

RealFacts’ report analyzes detailed data for 47 market survey areas in the country, including Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver and Tampa. Although the report omitted detailed information on major metropolises such as New York City and Washington, D.C., RealFacts spokeswoman Linda Burke said the company’s data on those cities supports its findings about San Francisco and San Jose.

sgantz@sfexaminer.com

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/01/bay-area-leads-nation-rental-price-increases

Rental price growth in our market was the highest in the nation for 2011, as much 12.2 percent on average according to a new report.

Researchers at RealFacts, a company that analyzes rental data, also found that occupancy in cities like San Francisco rose only 1.3 percent over the last four years. There’s just nothing available.

Real estate experts agree: “We’ve reached a point where there’s nothing out there,” said Craig Berendt, a broker with Berendt Properties in San Francico. “People are knocking down my door to get an apartment.”

When something good does hit the market in trendy neighborhoods, young professionals come from everywhere and line up for a chance to start a bidding war. And it’s not just Hayes Valley or the Mission — San Jose actually led the pack, with highest rental price increases in the U.S. last year.

For decades, the tech industry has been widely credited with driving-up commercial and rental real estate in the Bay Area, bringing young, high-earning and uncompromising professionals into market that are willing to spend way too much to get what they want. And with Facebook gearing up for one of the biggest tech IPOs in history, we don’t see this situation getting any better for the middle class in 2012.

“I see our middle class really starting to dissipate,” Berendt said. “Obviously we don’t want that. We want a well-balanced class system, but the rents are just going through the roof.”

Article source: http://sfbay.ca/2012/01/19/bay-area-rent-hikes-highest-in-u-s/

OAKLAND, Calif. — Real-estate investors have become a potent force in a moribund housing market, accounting for more than one-fifth of transactions in the San Francisco Bay Area over the past 12 months, according to real-estate data.

Despite record low interest rates, many consumers simply don’t have enough confidence in their economic outlook to buy houses. Investors have kept prices from falling further, real-estate experts say.

“The market would be quite a bit sicker were it not for investors snapping up a lot of the properties,” said Andrew LePage, analyst at DataQuick real-estate service. “They account for a meaningful portion of the demand. To the extent to which there’s at least a temporary floor under this market, they’ve helped to build it.”

Almost half of the Bay Area homes purchased on the open market are distressed — either bank-owned foreclosures or short sales being sold for less than the mortgage. Often these properties suffer from deferred maintenance, making them challenging for an owner-occupant.

Investors play a valuable role in buying and rehabbing such properties and then reselling or renting them out, said Jeff Weissman, a Realtor with Highland Partners/BHG in Oakland. “They clear out inventory and then bring it back on the market in move-in condition, thus improving neighborhoods and giving opportunities to first-time homebuyers,” he said.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about investors. Other homebuyers complain that they get muscled out by deep-pocketed investors who can pay all cash, LePage said.

Sellers prefer cash offers because they’re quick, clean and guaranteed to close. Community groups worry about investors turning into slumlords as they manage fleets of rentals.

Some of investors’ bad rap stemmed from boom-time flippers, who capitalized on a rapidly rising market.

“There is a huge difference between speculation and investing,” said John Robin, a Realtor with BHG/Mason-McDuffie in Berkeley. “Until 2009, most (non-homeowners) buying real estate here in the Bay Area were speculating on appreciation. What an investor does is look at what a property will cost now to purchase and operate, and look at the return every month. If one day they can sell it and make a profit, that’s even better.”

He sees more investors becoming landlords, although there are still plenty of flippers.

With prices continuing to soften, more “ordinary people” are getting involved in real-estate investing, since the barriers to entry are lower, Robin said.

“The biggest growth area is first-time, small investors,” he said. “These are people who may have cashed out (other investments) that they want to put into real estate. Some people use self-directed IRA money to buy real estate. Sometimes it’s families who pool their money together or individuals who have jobs and do this to supplement their income.”

The Obama administration implicitly recognized investors’ value in the marketplace this summer when it called for proposals from investors and others on how to buy, rehab and rent out the legions of foreclosed properties owned by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

But investors are not a single monolithic entity. They come in all types, from the mom and pop who buy a couple of rentals to fund their retirement, to the professionals who deal in dozens of homes a year as a full-time occupation.

Pete McDonough of Pleasanton, Calif., had a secure, well-paying job in sales for a technology company.

But three years ago when he realized how many bargain homes were for sale in the Bay Area, he switched to full-time real-estate investing.

“In a horrible job market, I quit a good job,” he said. “I’ve considerably exceeded my previous salary and I haven’t looked back.”

He had dabbled in buying rental properties for some time, but not in California, where high prices meant it was impossible to rent them out for enough cash flow. But the real-estate downturn made the Golden State much more affordable.

He partnered with Andrew Wilson, who had a background in kitchen and bathroom design, and David Rosen, a real-estate broker. The three put up cash and also attracted some investors. Today they operate a $5 million fund.

Most of their efforts go to buying, fixing and flipping, but they also maintain a small stable of rentals.

Article source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2016682817_realinvest06.html

Despite record low interest rates, many consumers simply don’t have enough confidence in their economic outlook to buy houses. Investors keep some properties – especially ones that need extensive work – from languishing unsold for months and have kept prices from nose-diving further, real estate experts say.

“The market would be quite a bit sicker were it not for investors snapping up a lot of the properties,” said Andrew LePage, analyst at DataQuick real estate service. “They account for a meaningful portion of the demand. To the extent to which there’s at least a temporary floor under this market, they’ve helped to build it.”

In addition to homes sold through the multiple listing service, an increasingly large share of properties at courthouse-steps auctions – the final stage of foreclosure – are being bought by investors. Some 5,243 properties were purchased by nonbank entities in the 12 months ended in September, according to ForeclosureRadar.com.

Almost half of the Bay Area homes purchased on the open market are distressed – either bank-owned foreclosures or short sales being sold for less than the mortgage. Often these properties suffer from deferred maintenance, making them challenging for an owner-occupant.

Investors play a valuable role in buying and rehabbing such properties and then re-selling or renting them out, said Jeff Weissman, a Realtor with Highland Partners/BHG in Oakland. “They clear out inventory and then bring it back on the market in move-in condition, thus improving neighborhoods and giving opportunities to first-time home buyers,” he said.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about investors. Other home buyers complain that they get muscled out by deep-pocketed investors who can pay all cash, LePage said. Sellers prefer cash offers because they’re quick, clean and guaranteed to close. Community groups worry about investors turning into slum landlords as they manage fleets of rentals.

Some of investors’ bad rap stemmed from boom-time flippers, who capitalized on a rapidly rising market.

“There is a huge difference between speculation and investing,” said John Robin, a Realtor with BHG/Mason-McDuffie in Berkeley. “Until 2009, most (non-homeowners) buying real estate here in the Bay Area were speculating on appreciation. What an investor does is look at what a property will cost now to purchase and operate, and look at the return every month. If one day they can sell it and make a profit, that’s even better.”

He sees more investors becoming landlords although there are still plenty of flippers.

With prices continuing to soften, more “ordinary people” are getting involved in real estate investing, since the barriers to entry are lower, Robin said.

“The biggest growth area is first-time, small investors,” he said. “These are people who may have cashed out (other investments) that they want to put into real estate. Some people use self-directed IRA money to buy real estate. Sometimes it’s families who pool their money together or individuals who have jobs and do this to supplement their income.”

The Obama Administration implicitly recognized investors’ value in the marketplace this summer when it called for proposals from investors and others on how to buy, rehab and rent out the legions of foreclosed properties owned by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

But investors are not a single monolithic entity. They come in all types, from the mom and pop who buy a couple of rentals to fund their retirement, to the professionals who deal in dozens of homes a year as a full-time occupation. Here are profiles of three types of real estate investors currently looking in the Bay Area.

Professional

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/29/BU411LMJIV.DTL&type=business

By Mark Puente, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Wednesday, October 26, 2011

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By the numbers

8,316 Homes and condos listed for sale in Pinellas County

9,981 Homes and condos listed in Hillsborough County

1,638 Listings for homes at $140,000 to $159,000 in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties

37% Decrease from a year ago in those moderately priced homes.

The amount of Tampa Bay area real estate for sale has fallen to levels not seen for almost six years.

“I think this one stat is a bright spot in an otherwise uncertain market,” said Tim Wilmath, director of valuation for the Hillsborough property appraiser.

Pinellas County listings for homes and condos fell last month to 8,316, a level last seen in December 2005. In Hillsborough County, the 9,981 listings were the lowest total seen since January 2006.

Real estate experts say a healthy inventory supply is six months, meaning it would take about six months to sell all the inventory that is currently on the market. The lower the supply, the stronger the market.

Hillsborough’s supply peaked at 25 months in January 2008; Pinellas at 18 months in March 2007. Today, Hillsborough’s supply is 5.8 months; Pinellas, 7.1 months.

In normal times, declining inventory would have homeowners rushing to drive “For Sale” signs in their lawns to snatch rising prices and multiple offers. But these days, even with mortgage rates at record lows, many homeowners have seen comparable properties in their neighborhoods go for a song and are hesitant to battle with the discounted prices of foreclosed and short-sale houses.

“I’m not replacing my listing inventory,” said Craig Beggins, owner of Century 21 Beggins Enterprises in Apollo Beach. “The only people selling right now are the ones who have to sell.”

The inventory decline is statewide.

Miami listings are down 49 percent from one year ago. Fort Myers, 42 percent; Orlando, 46 percent; Sarasota-Bradenton, 32 percent. That compares to the 33 percent drop in Tampa Bay.

But the good news may not last.

Some experts predict that lenders will start putting more homes on the market from the shadow inventory. These are homes that have already been seized by a lender but not listed for sale. The shadow inventory could further depress prices if banks put at lot of homes up for sale at once.

John Tucillo, chief economist at Florida Realtors, said the inventory of less expensive homes has shrunk, but the market is still saturated with higher-priced homes. “You’re almost getting a bifurcated market,” he said. “We’re seeing shortages in some price ranges.”

Moderately priced homes are disappearing from the market.

Listings decreased 37 percent in the $140,000 to $159,000 price range in Hillsborough and Pinellas ounties. The figure fell from 2,587 in September 2010 to 1,638 last month, according to data from the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors and Pinellas Realtor Organization.

Tony Delgado, an agent with Homeward Real Estate in South Tampa, said it’s becoming harder to find homes priced around $150,000. He said one of his clients took nine months to find a home on a deal closing this week.

“People are just giving up on selling their homes,” he said.

The dwindling supply in Tampa Bay area has not done much to raise sales or median prices of single-family homes. But the gaps are closing when compared year-over-year.

Sales were higher in six of nine months this year compared to the same months in 2010. A federal tax credit artificially inflated the figures in the three higher months in 2010.

In January, the median price was $110,000, 16 percent lower than the $130,500 media price in January 2010. In September, the gap closed by going from $130,100 in 2010 to $126,900 last month.

And a sliver of good news emerged last week about the Sunshine State’s housing market.

Florida, among the hardest-hit when the housing market imploded, appears to be stabilizing, according to a report from the real-estate website Realtor.com.

Across the country, the largest year-over-year increase in September’s median list prices occurred in five Florida markets: Fort Myers, Miami, Naples, Sarasota-Bradenton and Punta Gorda, the report said.

Still, Delgado, an agent for 22 years, fears the inventory will eventually rise again as banks put more distressed properties on the market, driving prices down again.

He added: “That’s going to have a negative impact and drive more people into foreclosure.”

Mark Puente can be reached at mpuente@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8459. Follow him at Twitter at twitter.com/markpuente.

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]]> http://homesmillbrae.com/1065/supply-of-tampa-bay-area-homes-for-sale-shrinks-to-5-year-low/feed/ 0 http://homesmillbrae.com/1011/hope-in-housing-gap/ http://homesmillbrae.com/1011/hope-in-housing-gap/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:16:59 +0000 http://homesmillbrae.com/1011/hope-in-housing-gap/ Continue reading →]]> Twenty-nine cents on the dollar.

That’s what homebuyers now pay for a typical house in the Sacramento region compared to buyers in San Francisco. And if history is any guide, that mounting price gap could have a big impact on Sacramento’s housing market and economy in the not-too-distant future.

The last time the spread between Bay Area median prices and Sacramento median prices grew so big was a decade ago, just before tens of thousands of Bay Area transplants arrived in Sacramento, turning a healthy housing market into a bona fide boom.

Since then, that wave of transplants has slowed to a drip, with barely more residents relocating from the Bay Area to Sacramento than heading in the other direction.

Several local real estate experts and economists said they don’t expect to see another approaching fleet of U-Haul trucks quite yet, with the possible exception of a few being driven by carefree retirees.

“It’s a different market now,” said Suzanne O’Keefe, a Sacramento State economics professor. “Everyone is more cautious. The housing market isn’t going to rebound quickly because people move from the Bay Area.”

O’Keefe and others note that the local job market is stalled; cheap housing is available elsewhere; and many Bay Area residents already cashed out home equity during the boom. Just as key: Bay Area home prices are less expensive than they have been in years. A San Francisco condo worth $1 million in 2005 would sell today for about $840,000.

But even if Bay Area transplants aren’t about to swoop into Sacramento tomorrow on white horses, many expect their numbers to increase, helping to put a floor on falling home prices. To bolster their case, these optimists point to past trends.

The San Francisco and Sacramento housing markets are closely entwined. Growing price differences between the two areas preceded and fed the last two housing booms.

The calculus is simple: Bay Area residents see their modest homes sell for immodest prices, and decide to cash out and buy quasi-mansions in Sacramento.

Right now, the median home price in the Sacramento region is about $185,000, according to data from Wells Fargo and the National Association of Home Builders. In San Francisco-Marin-San Mateo, it’s $630,000. In the San Jose area, it’s $454,000.

David Bicknell, the local franchisee for Intero Real Estate Services, is putting money behind his premonitions of a coming influx. His company recently opened offices in Folsom and El Dorado County and plans more expansion.

“More and more people are able to move to the Sacramento area,” Bicknell said.

Influx of equity-rich retirees seen

Bicknell is encouraged by the local tech sector, which he believes is rebounding.

Intel Corp., one of the local region’s largest private employers, recently hired 368 new workers at its Folsom campus, reversing more than a decade of downsizing.

The new hires increased Intel’s local workforce by about 6 percent to 6,515 workers. Many are recent college graduates who have relocated to the region, the company said.

Tech company Bloo Solar of El Dorado Hills plans to hire another 40 or so workers over the next several years as it expands its solar manufacturing plant.

“We see this as a continuing trend,” Bicknell said. “The homes are nice, the schools are good, and the cost of living is so much lower.”

Retiring Bay Area baby boomers are just as important to Bicknell’s strategy.

The last generation of retirees largely drove the big influx from the Bay Area to Sacramento 10 years ago. The town of Lincoln quadrupled in size during that boom, partly because of senior citizens arriving from places like Santa Clara County.

Assuming they have a pocket full of cashed-out equity, retirees might not worry as much as others about Sacramento’s difficult economy.

“There’s a lot of potential out there for the active adult market,” said Dean Wehrli, a senior manager at John Burns Real Estate Consulting. “That part of the market is increasing, and it’s going to be like that for 20 years.”

Granite Bay Realtor Eve Fenstermaker said she has noticed more interest from prospective Bay Area buyers since last spring. She gave the example of a client who lives in the exclusive Blackhawk area of Contra Costa County. Two years ago, the woman balked at moving because of declining prices in her neighborhood ? and corresponding lost equity. With prices recovering, she is considering Sacramento.

“If you can sell your house in the Bay Area for $900,000 and can buy a comparable house here for $725,000, why wouldn’t you do it?” Fenstermaker said.

Douglas Booher, a 34-year-old Southwest Airlines pilot based in Oakland, recently looked at several homes in Folsom and El Dorado Hills. He likes the schools and the proximity to Lake Tahoe.

“If we can live in Sacramento in a nice home ? maybe not our dream home, but a nice home ? then we will have more money left to play with,” said Booher, who rents in Clayton and spends much of his time on the road. “It’s worth the two-hour drive once a week.”

Falling prices frighten many buyers

Several economists, though, cautioned that new residents like Booher will likely remain anomalies in the near term.

Many Bay Area homebuyers are scared by Sacramento’s falling home prices, seeing the market as risky. Before the last two booms, the real estate markets in both the Bay Area and Sacramento region were relatively stable. Today, the Bay Area is recovering faster than Sacramento.

Despite that recovery, home prices in San Francisco are still at 2004 levels. (They are at 2000 levels in Sacramento.) So a lot of Bay Area residents aren’t feeling priced out of the market, unlike during much of the housing boom.

Other Bay Area residents bit the poison apple and refinanced during the boom, leaving them underwater on their mortgages and unable to pull out equity for homes here.

“Even if you have plenty of equity left, you might want to wait a bit” until the market stabilizes, said Jeff Michael, an economist at the University of the Pacific.

For those without much cash, a move to Sacramento can be tough, largely because of the tight job market.

Unemployment in the Sacramento region has hovered at 12 percent for more than a year, roughly three percentage points higher than the rate in the San Francisco-Marin-San Mateo area.

Affordable housing doesn’t mean much to working families if it doesn’t come with employment.

Some, like Booher, might choose to live here on the cheap and commute to San Francisco. But home prices are also low in places closer to the bay, like Vacaville and Fairfield. Why commute from Sacramento when a shorter drive is available?

“Some of that underbrush has to clear first” before extreme commuters start coming here, said Wehrli.

Those obstacles are immediate, but likely transitory, said economist Stephen Levy. The Bay Area and Sacramento have danced to this tune before, and they’ll probably one day dance to it again.

During the last boom, Levy noted, people felt priced out of the Bay Area and moved here. Likewise, many Sacramento residents felt priced out here and moved to even-cheaper places like Texas.

The last several years, then, have marked a massive, dramatic, painful correction, said Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto.

When the dust settles, if people from the Bay Area ? or anywhere ? think housing costs have gotten too high in their community, there’s a good chance they will look to places like Sacramento.

And that’s a selling point for the region, he said.

“This makes the Sacramento region more competitive,” Levy said. “If I was a leader in Sacramento, I’d be talking to businesses about how their workers can afford to live here.”

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Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/16/3983170/hope-in-housing-gap.html

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