A total of 9,339 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in the nine-county Bay Area in July – up 13.3 percent from July 2012, said DataQuick, a San Diego real estate research firm. The median paid was $562,000, a 33.5 percent increase from the same time last year.

Pent-up buyer demand, an improving regional economy and low interest rates have propelled home prices upward for many months. But a dearth of homes for sale meant the number being sold fell on a year-over-year basis every month since January. That trajectory reversed course in July.

“It was a really strong month,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst.

Rising inventory shows the real estate market regaining equilibrium.

“Sellers want to jump on the train by putting their properties on the market, which levels supply and demand,” said Tanja Beck, an agent with Zephyr Real Estate in San Francisco.

Fewer bids

More inventory, as well as rising interest rates, should soon rein in the sharp price increases. Although bidding wars still occur, many agents say multiple offers now are measured in smaller numbers – perhaps three bids instead of a dozen.

While San Francisco is the nation’s most competitive market, with 80.5 percent of successful home buyers facing other bids, multiple offers in the city dropped nearly 10 percent from June to July, according to a report from real estate firm Redfin.

Nationwide, fewer bidding wars “points toward the strong sellers’ market beginning to shift toward more balance, giving frustrated home buyers a bit of relief,” Redfin said.

Distress sales are down sharply, another sign of a return to normal. Foreclosure resales were under 5 percent of the total – their lowest level since August 2007, before the credit crunch hit. In February 2009, foreclosure resales were 52 percent of the market, DataQuick said. Their historic monthly average in the Bay Area is about 10 percent of sales.

Short sales – properties sold for less than is owed on the mortgage – were 10 percent of July resales, down from 23.7 percent a year earlier.

Fewer distress sales also mean that people who sell their homes are likely to turn around and buy another property, creating a positive upward spiral.

“There was a time when more than half the sales were the lender pocketing money (in a foreclosure resale) so they just ended there,” LePage said. “Now a greater and greater percentage are traditional sellers, who will move up and buy from someone who themselves will move up.”

Upward mobility

Jessica and Josh Rowe exemplify that move-up buyer. The couple, along with their toddler and two French bulldogs, wants to move from San Francisco to the South Bay to live closer to their jobs. They listed their condo in Haight-Ashbury, a three-bedroom remodeled Victorian, at $949,000. It’s likely to go for well above asking price.

“To go from being sellers to being buyers, your confidence gets crazy-hacked,” said Jessica Rowe. “As a seller, you’re on top of the world, you make all this money – but as a buyer you can’t afford to get (something comparable) to what you just sold.”

The Haight condo itself illustrates the market turnaround. When the Rowes bought it three years ago – near the market’s bottom – the previous owners were on the brink of foreclosure. After unsuccessfully listing it at $799,000 for a month, they slashed the price to $755,000, which is what the Rowes paid.

The Bay Area’s median price is now 15.5 percent off the $665,000 peak it reached in summer 2007, LePage said. During the downturn, its nadir was $290,000 in March 2009.

The median represents the middle value of homes sold, meaning half sold for more and half for less. DataQuick said about three-quarters of the median’s increase stems from rising home values, the remainder from a shift in market mix.

More high-end homes and fewer inexpensive ones sold in July. Just over half (51 percent) of sales had mortgages above the old jumbo limit of $417,000, compared with 38.6 percent a year earlier and the low point of 17.1 percent in January 2009.

Federal Housing Administration loans, mostly used by first-time buyers, were 10.6 percent of purchase mortgages in July, down from 16 percent a year earlier. First-time home buyers consistently report getting squeezed out by investors and others paying all cash.

All-cash sales continued to be a strong force, accounting for 24 percent of July purchases, DataQuick said. In February, they peaked at 32.3 percent of sales.

Absentee buyers, who are mainly investors, snapped up 20.9 percent of Bay Area homes in July. Their market share also peaked in February, at 28.7 percent.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bay-Area-home-prices-sales-climb-in-July-4736589.php

Home News Bay Area Housing: Santa Rosa House Prices Continue to Rise, Along With Demand

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By Brandon Cornett | Housing Market News
August 5, 2013 | © 2013, All rights reserved

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By Brandon Cornett | August 5, 2013 | 2013, All rights reserved

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Mortgage shopping?

If Zillow’s Home Value Index (ZHVI) is any indication, the Santa Rosa real estate market is undergoing a major transformation right now. The ZHVI for Santa Rosa increased by 24.6% over the last year or so.

Granted, the ZHVI is not an exact science. But it does give us some insight into which way the market is moving. And the Santa Rosa housing market is clearly headed north, where home prices are concerned. The same could be said for the entire San Francisco Bay Area.

The median sale price is arguably a better indicator, because it’s based on actual sales prices. Here again, the trend is undeniable. According to Zillow, the median price paid for homes in Santa Rosa has risen by more than 27% in the last year or so. The median list price climbed by 21.7% during the same period.

Data from Trulia, another real estate information website, confirms this trend. Trulia’s numbers show a 28% increase in Santa Rosa’s median sale price over the last year, closely matching Zillow’s figures.

These are tremendous gains, and they mirror the broader trends we are seeing across the San Francisco Bay Area housing market. All across the nine-county Bay Area, home prices are surging in response to inventory shortage and growing demand. It’s good news for homeowners. But it presents certain challenges for home buyers.

Bay Area Housing Market En Fuego

The entire Bay Area real estate market is on fire right now – for better or worse. Consider the evidence. According to DataQuick, a San Diego-based company that tracks housing trends in key cities across the country, the region’s median sale price rose at its fastest pace ever in June 2013.

The largest gain occurred in Alameda County, where the median rose by a whopping 44% over the last year. Sonoma County’s median sale price rose by 29.8% during the same 12-month period.

Granted, home prices in the Santa Rosa real estate market (and elsewhere across the Bay Area) are still well below their pre-crisis peaks. This is partly why we are seeing such big gains right now.

According to DataQuick president John Walsh: “It’s easier for a market to regain lost ground than to push into new territory. We’re still bouncing off the bottom.”

Santa Rosa Real Estate Trends Good for Sellers

This is all good news for Santa Rosa area homeowners, particularly those who lost a significant amount of equity during the housing downturn. While home prices are still well below their pre-crisis peaks, they are gaining ground quickly.

This could be a game changer for homeowners who were unable to sell or refinance their homes in the past, due to their negative or low-equity situations. Property values in the area will likely continue to rise for some time, further empowering homeowners by restoring lost equity.

But the news is not so good for home buyers. The real estate market in Santa Rosa, California has become increasingly competitive. Housing demand has increased on the heels of economic improvement, but inventory levels have fallen over the last year. This means there are more buyers competing for fewer properties. This is what we’re seeing across the entire Bay Area housing market right now.

“There’s a slew of buyers, and there’s nothing for them out there,” said Santa Rosa real estate agent Mike Kelly, when speaking to the Press Democrat recently.

At the same time, rising prices will create affordability issues for many would-be buyers.

The Santa Rosa housing market is emblematic of what is happening across the entire San Francisco Bay Area. Declining inventories, along with the release of pent-up demand, are driving prices north with surprising speed. It’s not a question of if home prices will continue rising through the end of 2013. The question is, by how much.

Disclaimer: This story contains forward-looking statements about the Bay Area real estate market in general, and Santa Rosa in particular. These statements represent an educated guess made by the author. They should not be viewed as facts or financial advice. We make no guarantees about the future of home prices or other housing trends.

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Filed under Housing Market News

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Article source: http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/news/santa-rosa-prices-rise-437/

While the number of distressed homes is falling, the remnants of the housing crash are still weighing on the recovery. There are still 5.1 million properties where the owner is either delinquent on the mortgage or the home is already in the foreclosure process, according to a new report from Lender Processing Services. As banks ramp up the foreclosure process, following delays due to processing fraud over the past few years, more distressed properties will come to the market. That may ease some of the price gains, although investors, still reaping rental rewards, seem ready for all of it.

(Read More: No Money? No Worries. Home Lenders Ease Rules)

What remains to be seen is for how long those rents will stay strong? With more Americans looking to buy and souring on renting, rent rates could start to come down. In addition, new supply of rental apartment buildings will be hitting the market in force over the next two years, as developers have been increasing multi-family housing construction.

(Read More: Defying Gravity: Miami Condos Soar Again)

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick; Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick or on Facebook at facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100592690

(Read More: Housing Recovery Leaves Some Behind)

“I don’t buy it,” said Mark Hanson, a California-based housing analyst. “Yes, the investor will give them a chance to bid on it, but in this market Wall Street will put the houses on the MLS in hopes of a bidding war.”

Home prices are already moving higher across the nation, largely due to a severe lack of for-sale supply. Miller is unconcerned about the swift price increases and points to a mortgage credit thaw as a counter-balance.

(Read More: Home Buyers Are Back, but Where Are the Houses?)

The big banks say it is not so much a thaw on their side as improving consumer balance sheets.

“Credit standards haven’t changed in terms of solid fundamentals around income and documentation,” said Kevin Watters, CEO of mortgage banking at JPMorgan Chase. “What has changed a little bit: Consumers’ balance sheets have improved, so their debt is down.”

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100558148

(Read More: Home Buyers Are Back, but Where Are the Houses?)

“What’s holding people back from buying a property is a fear of selling their property and not being able to find one. That’s what the problem is,” noted Herrera.

The Las Vegas market is being fueled by investors, but even the investors can’t find the great bargains anymore. While the economy has improved some, the drop in foreclosures is really due to a new law that went into effect in Nevada last year; it criminalizes faulty foreclosures. Banks have therefore tried to do more short sales and loan modifications. Foreclosures in Nevada dropped 36 percent in 2012 from the previous year, according to RealtyTrac, but the distress is still there.

“People in Las Vegas talk about shadow inventory to the point where nobody really wants to talk about it anymore, said Mike Brunson, a local appraiser. “People will argue and say it isn’t, but I can name a dozen people off the top of my head who have been in their houses for over three years without a payment.”

Brunson called Las Vegas the Titanic of the real estate market. It was once thought unsinkable, and even now that the worst is over, he still thinks the market is on a well-provisioned life raft, not on solid ground.

“The only thing that concerns me is that we have been here before and the market itself is not what is driving the price increases. It’s not that we have new employers coming in and creating tens of thousands of new jobs that are leading to people buying new houses. It’s ‘Las Vegas is on sale,’ and investors are buying up everything they can in the used market.

Whatever the cause, the result is new construction and new life breathed into the nation’s home builders.

“There’s been a lot of talk about shadow inventory. It’s gone on for years, and the reality is there’s not enough inventory out there to meet demand today. Demand has increased, certainly our buyers see that, and we’re getting a lot of buyers because of that,” argued Andrews, whose company is, he said, building 150 percent more homes than a year ago.

(Read More: Home Buyers Are Back, but Where Are the Houses?)

Brunson acknowledged there is no question the demand is real. The sales are real. But he still worries about the fundamentals, such as the slow economic growth and the fact that so much of the funding for new home sales is coming from low down payment, government-backed mortgages.

“We have been here before,” said Brunson.

What remains to be seen is if history will repeat itself or if this recovery is as unique as the collapse that preceded it.

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick; Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick or on Facebook at facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Questions? Comments? RealtyCheck@cnbc.com

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100522314

“Market prices have to go higher to provide incentives for more new houses to be built,” said Aaron Edelheit, CEO of Atlanta-based The American Home, a company that invests in distressed properties and turns them into rentals. “I believe we are on the cusp of a massive housing shortage in many parts of the country due to the historic lack of residential investment in the last five years. This summer, I expect the housing market to be ‘blue flame’ hot.”

(Read More: What Tops Home Buyers’ Wish List Now)

Prices today are rising fast because supplies of homes for sale are so low. Both new and existing homes are running near four month supplies.

For new homes, builders just aren’t able to start fast enough, due to labor and land restraints.

For existing homes, there are fewer distressed properties for sale, a segment that has driven the market into recovery, and organic homeowners are either unwilling to list their homes for fear of selling at the bottom, or unable to list because they are still underwater on their mortgages.

(Read More: Foreclosures Fall Due to New Laws)

“Taking new and existing homes together, the relationship between the months’ supply of unsold homes and house prices points to an acceleration in the pace of house prices gains in the year ahead,” said Paul Diggle of Capital Economics.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100496564

Rising rents and increased demand for rental apartments has fueled the theory that from young Millenials to downsizing Baby Boomers, the recent housing crash has changed the way Americans want to live, shifted attitudes toward home ownership and created a strong new desire for big-city living. Rising gas prices have also pushed more home buyers closer to city centers.

(Read More: Why Women are Driving the Demand for Rental Apartments)

While 23 percent of survey respondents categorically reject the idea of living in a city center, others could be swayed if, again, offered the right amenities. These include walking/jogging trails, nearby parks and an outdoor swimming pool. That bodes well for planned, gated communities.

The age of the McMansion may be over, as money spent on space is reallocated to energy efficiency and home technology. Builders today will look to do more with less space, and buyers who can now afford to be picky about amenities, certainly will be.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100491599

Crashing home prices and sketchy mortgage products caused millions of Americans to default on their loans and eventually lose their homes. For some, it was a tragic fight to the end to keep their single largest investment; for others it was a conscious decision to walk away from their mortgage commitments, given the real fact that they would likely not see home equity again for many years to come.

Some saw this as morally reprehensible, others as a sensible business decision.

(Read More: Fewer Borrowers Are Behind on Mortgages, but for How Long?)

While home ownership has fallen dramatically since the recent housing boom, from a high of 69.2 percent in 2004 to 65.4 percent at the end of 2012, according to the U.S. Census, the desire to own a home is still strong. 70 percent of Americans surveyed by online real estate website Trulia.com said homeownership was still a part of the “American Dream.” 65 percent of those surveyed by Fannie Mae in January of 2013 said that if they had to move, they would buy a home, rather than rent.

Coming back to home ownership may not be as difficult as some think. Consumers who only defaulted on their mortgage during the recent recession were far better risks than those who went delinquent on multiple credit accounts, like credit cards and auto loans, according to a 2011 study by TransUnion.

“There appears to be a pocket of opportunity among mortgage-only defaulters that is not the result of excess liquidity, but rather the unique circumstances of the recent recession,” said Steve Chaouki, group vice president in TransUnion’s financial services business unit in the study release. “This new market segment that the recession created is an important one for lenders to understand. They have the potential, today, to be stronger and more reliable customers.”

Not surprisingly, given this potential, YouWalkAway.com is launching the “AfterForeclosure.com Pass/Fail App,” which claims to tell potential borrowers in just one minute, “if they have a shot at home ownership.”

“We want people to know that it’s possible and, in a lot of cases, it’s advantageous,” says Jon Maddux, former CEO and co-founder of YouWalkAway.com.

(Read More: US Homeowners RiseAbove Water on Mortgages)

It is possible, but mortgage underwriting is far more strict today than during the housing boom, and there are varying waiting periods before former homeowners who went through foreclosure can qualify for a new loan. The Federal Housing Administration, the government insurer of home loans which now backs just over 20 percent of new loan originations, requires a three-year wait. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee the bulk of the remaining new loan originations, require up to seven years for a strategic defaulter to qualify again for a mortgage.

(Read More: Americans Are Using Their Houses as ATMs Again)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100485159

Instead, she opted for a condo. Like many buyers this year, she was outbid several times before finally settling on a new unit at Oakland’s Uptown Place near the 19th Street BART Station.

“The rental market has changed so much that it’s cheaper to own (in Oakland) than rent even a studio in San Francisco,” she said. “A condo was the right fit for me. I couldn’t afford a single-family home unless I lived way far away.”

Many other Bay Area home buyers, especially first-time buyers, investors and empty nesters, are making similar calculations. As the real estate market heated up in 2012, condo sales surged, particularly at existing complexes. (Supply of new units remains low as home building has been stalled for the past several years.)

Most since 2006

A total of 15,853 resale condos changed hands in the Bay Area in the first 10 months of 2012 , the highest level for that time period since the bubble days of 2006, when 16,720 sold, according to San Diego DataQuick, a real estate information service.

“It’s a traditional first foothold in the housing market for a lot of people,” said Andrew Le-Page, a DataQuick analyst. “In a year where mortgage rates were unbelievably low and prices started to ratchet higher in many Bay Area communities, condos looked better to a lot of people. Both first-time buyers and investors were getting pushed out of single-family markets because of price or lack of inventory.”

It’s a big turnaround from the downturn days.

“Two or three years ago you couldn’t give condos away,” said Davey Cetina, an agent with Better Homes Gardens Real Estate in Berkeley who specializes in condos. In 2008, for instance, fewer than 10,000 condos changed hands in the first 10 months of the year.

One big reason sales fell was because tight financing guidelines often meant that condo purchases had to be all cash. Too many delinquencies on homeowner dues and too many condos that weren’t occupied by owners scotched the ability to get a mortgage at many complexes.

Additional problems

Condos can come with other problems, too. Older complexes may have deferred maintenance projects that can result in higher homeowner assessments down the road. Homeowner association dues, usually a few hundred dollars a month, add to the costs. But still, their affordability outshines that of single-family homes.

“The purchase prices are significantly less than single-family homes because there is no land involved, so we are still able to find condos under $500,000, even under $300,000,” said Zanna Knight, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Berkeley. “For first-time buyers, a condo is a nice transition to homeownership. They don’t have to worry so much about upkeep and can graduate into a single-family house when their circumstances permit.”

“It tends to be a fall-back category for people who either can’t afford a single-family home in a decent neighborhood or have gotten beaten up with rejected offers too many times,” said Jeff Weissman, an agent with Highland Partners/BHG. “I also see condo buyers who are coming back into the real estate market after family issues or having lost a house to foreclosure, as well as a few empty nesters.”

Condo prices are still far off their peaks. The median price in the Bay Area is $295,000, or $256 per square foot. That’s only a tad higher than the trough reached in 2011 of $257,000, or $229 per square foot. At the peak in 2007, the median was $505,000, or $432 a square foot.

“Condos are the last to go up in price (in a rising market) and the first to drop off when things change,” said Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Attractive investment

Investors are an increasingly potent force in the Bay Area condo market, with absentee buyers accounting for about a third of resale condo purchases in 2012, DataQuick said. That’s almost double their share in 2008, when they were 18.5 percent of the market. But in the cheapest county, Solano, where the 2012 median condo price was just $82,000, investors account for 62 percent of sales, DataQuick said.

“Condos are an appealing investment because rents relative to prices are pretty good and they are a manageable size,” said Andrew Jeffery, principal of Cirrios Real Estate, an investment firm in San Francisco. As a sideline to his company’s business of buying apartment buildings with outside money, he and four partners are investing in a few Oakland condos.

“To buy a $60,000 or $80,000 condo is a bite-sized chunk for us,” he said. “If we see one we like, we all pony up small amounts of cash.”

In late 2011, the group bought two one-bedroom condos in the Adams Point neighborhood near Oakland’s Lake Merritt, a neighborhood that they deemed “up and coming ” – one for $60,000 plus $25,000 in renovation costs, the other for $50,000. Both bring in enough rent to cover 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, homeowner dues and other expenses. The partners just made an offer on a third one for $92,000.

“None of us are going to retire off of them, but they’ll fund my golf habit or whatever I want to do with the (rental income) in 15 years when they’re paid off,” Jeffery said.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Condo-sales-picking-up-in-Bay-Area-4207185.php

La Jolla, CA. – January 16, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — The pace at which the Bay Area housing market is making up for lost ground quickened at the end of 2012 as sales increased year-over-year for the 18th month in a row and the median price rose at its fastest rate in more than 25 years. The market remained constrained by a tight supply of homes for sale and a fussy home loan environment, a real estate information service reported.

The median price paid for a home in the nine-county Bay Area was $442,750 in December. That was up 1.1 percent from $438,000 in November and up 32.0 percent from $335,500 in December a year ago. Last month’s median was the highest since August 2008 when it was $447,000, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.

The 32.0 percent year-over-year increase in the median is the highest in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. At least half that increase is due to a change in market mix, with sales shifting away from low-cost distress homes toward more mid-market and move-up homes.

The median reached a high of $665,000 in June/July 2007 and then fell to a low of $290,000 in March 2009. On a year-over-year basis it dropped more than 30 percent each month from August 2008 through May 2009. At the median’s current rate of increase, sometime this spring it will have recovered about half of its loss since its summer 2007 peak.

“Prices are in the midst of bouncing off bottom right now, and nobody really knows what the trajectory of this bounce will be beyond this point. So far, supply has been a bottleneck, but as prices go up, more homes will be put up for sale,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

“Another bottleneck these days is that mortgage lenders are swamped. Not only by home buyers, but by homeowners who want to refinance. Rising home prices also mean higher appraisals, and tens of thousands of homeowners who couldn’t refinance half a year ago, now can,” Walsh said.

The number of new and resale houses and condos sold last month in the Bay Area was 7,832. That was up 7.3 percent from 7,296 in November, and up 4.5 percent from 7,494 for December 2011.

While last month’s sales count was the highest for any December since 8,372 were sold in 2006, it was still 9.0 percent below the 8,611 average for all Decembers since 1988. December sales have ranged from 5,065 in 2007 to 12,349 in 2003.

The number of homes sold for less than $500,000 decreased 12.6 percent year-over-year, while the number that sold for more than $500,000 shot up 61.2 percent, DataQuick reported.

Last month distressed property sales – the combination of foreclosure resales and “short sales” – made up 34.2 percent of the resale market. That was down from 35.5 percent in November and down from 52.4 percent a year ago.

Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 11.8 percent of resales in December, down from a revised 12.5 percent in November, and down from 27.8 percent a year ago. Last month was the lowest since 10.1 percent in November 2007. Foreclosure resales peaked at 52.0 percent in February 2009. The monthly average for foreclosure resales over the past 17 years is about 10 percent.

Short sales – transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property – made up an estimated 22.4 percent of Bay Area resales last month. That was down from an estimated 23.0 percent in November and down from 24.6 percent a year earlier.

Jumbo loans, mortgages above the old conforming limit of $417,000, accounted for 40.2 percent of last month’s purchase lending, down from a revised 40.3 percent in November, and up from 26.5 percent a year ago. Jumbo usage dropped to 17.1 percent in January 2009. Before the credit crunch struck in August 2007, jumbos accounted for nearly 60 percent of the Bay Area purchase loan market.

Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), an important indicator of mortgage availability, accounted for 11.1 percent of the Bay Area’s home purchase loans. That was down from a revised 12.0 percent in November, and down from 11.6 percent in December last year. Since 2000, ARMs have accounted for 48.7 percent of all purchase loans. ARMs hit a low of 3.0 percent of loans in January 2009.

Government-insured FHA home purchase loans, a popular choice among first-time buyers, accounted for 18.9 percent of all Bay Area home purchase mortgages in December, up from 17.0 percent in November and down from 22.9 percent a year earlier. In recent months the FHA level has the been the lowest since summer 2008, reflecting both tougher qualifying standards and the difficulties first-time buyers have competing with investors and other cash buyers.

The most active lenders to Bay Area home buyers last month were Wells Fargo with 15.5 percent of the market, RPM Mortgage with 4.2 percent and Stearns Lending with 3.4 percent.

Last month absentee buyers – mostly investors – purchased 25.8 percent of all Bay Area homes, an all-time high (absentee statistics go back to January 1999). Last month’s absentee level was up from 24.9 percent in November, and up from 23.8 percent a year ago. Absentee buyers paid a median $315,000 in December, up 34.0 percent from $235,000 a year earlier.

Buyers who appear to have paid all cash – meaning no corresponding purchase loan was found in the public record – accounted for 29.3 percent of sales in December. That was unchanged from November, and up from 27.3 percent a year ago. The monthly average going back to 1988 is 12.5 percent. Cash buyers paid a median $312,500 in December, up 36.2 percent from $229,500 a year earlier.

San Diego-based DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Because of late data availability, sales were estimated in Alameda, San Mateo and San Francisco counties.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,561. That was up from $1,544 in November, and up from $1,336 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, last month’s payment was 44.9 percent below the typical payment in spring 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 59.3 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.

Indicators of market distress continue to decline. Foreclosure activity remains high by historical standards but well below peak levels reached three years ago. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, down payment sizes are stable, DataQuick reported.

(chart)

All Homes           #Sold     #Sold     Pct.     $Median      Median      Pct.

Dec-11    Dec-12     Chng      Dec-11      Dec-12      Chng

Alameda             1,584     1,623     2.5%    $328,000    $410,000     25.0%

Contra Costa        1,534     1,530    -0.3%    $259,000    $333,500     28.8%

Marin                 280       291     3.9%    $517,818    $660,750     27.6%

Napa                  132       129    -2.3%    $317,500    $350,000     10.2%

Santa Clara         1,611     1,822    13.1%    $440,000    $544,500     23.8%

San Francisco         499       646    29.5%    $594,500    $720,000     21.1%

San Mateo             602       626     4.0%    $500,000    $600,000     20.0%

Solano                714       610   -14.6%    $182,250    $218,000     19.6%

Sonoma                538       555     3.2%    $279,500    $345,000     23.4%

Bay Area            7,494     7,832     4.5%    $335,500    $442,750     32.0%

Source: DataQuick, DQNews.com

edia calls: Andrew LePage (916)456-7157

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  Washington, DC – January 20, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — Existing-home sales continued on an uptrend in December, rising for three consecutive months and remaining above a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors®….

• Pending Home Sales Continue Recovery, Gradual Improvement Seen in 2011
  Washington, DC – December 30, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) –Pending home sales rose again in November, with the broad trend over the past five months indicating a gradual recovery into 2011, according to the National Association of Realtors®…

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  • South Carolina REALTORS® UnConference a Success
  • Canyon Gate Real Estate Services’ Vice President Kim Corcoran Named to APCM Board of Directors

Article source: http://www.realestaterama.com/2013/01/16/rate-of-recovery-for-bay-area-real-estate-speeds-up-ID018152.html