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U.S. home prices jumped 10.9 percent in March compared with a year ago, the most since April 2006.

A growing number of buyers are bidding on a tight supply of homes, driving prices higher and helping the housing market recover. The Standard Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday also showed that all 20 cities measured by the report posted year-over-year gains for the third straight month. And prices rose in 15 cities in March from February. That’s up from only 11 in the previous month.

The monthly figures aren’t seasonally adjusted and may reflect the beginning of the spring buying season.

Prices rose in Phoenix by 22.5 percent over the past 12 months, the biggest gain among cities. It was followed by San Francisco (22.2 percent) and Las Vegas (20.6 percent). New York City had the smallest year-over-year increase at 2.6 percent, followed by Cleveland at 4.8 percent.

“Rising home prices may begin to alleviate a lack of housing inventory … by encouraging more homeowners to put their properties on the market,” said Maninder Sibia, an economist with Economic Advisory Service, in a note to clients.

“The housing market is clearly improving.” The index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The March figures are the latest available.

The U.S. housing market is steadily recovering, buoyed by solid job gains and near-record low mortgage rates.

Sales of new homes rose in April to nearly a five-year high. And sales of previously occupied homes ticked up in April to the highest level in three and a half years. Despite the gains, a limited number of homeowners are putting their houses on the market. That’s helped lift home prices. And it’s made builders more willing to ramp up construction. Applications for building permits rose in April to the highest level in nearly five years.

The supply of available homes jumped in April, but was still 14 percent below its level a year earlier. Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow, a real estate data provider, said that the increase in the Case-Shiller index has been skewed higher by cities such as Phoenix and San Francisco.

Fewer homes are available in those areas because many homeowners still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

That makes it difficult to sell. Still, even excluding those markets, home prices are rising steadily nationwide, Humphries said. The increases are “certainly confirmation that the housing market is experiencing a brisk recovery,” he added.

The housing recovery is creating more construction jobs and bolstering the economy in other ways. Higher home prices make homeowners feel wealthier and encourages them to spend more.

Rising prices also encourage more would-be buyers to purchase homes, before prices rise further.

They also enable more homeowners to sell homes, by reducing the number of people who owe more on their mortgages than the homes are worth. Prices have been increasing steadily since last summer.

Still, they are about 29 percent below the peak reached in July 2006. Banks have raised their credit standards since the housing bubble burst and are demanding larger down payments. That’s made it particularly hard for potential first-time buyers to get a mortgage.

Copyright Associated Press

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Bay-Area-Housing-Prices-Take-Big-Jump-209268641.html

It’s a good time to sell your house. Home prices in 20 major markets are at their highest in seven years. You can bet the San Francisco Bay Area is on the list.

The S P/Case-Shiller home price index calculated growth rates for a 12 month period ending last February. They looked at 20 major markets and found home prices went up 9.3 percent.

The housing recovery’s been driven by near record low mortgage rates, lower unemployment and more buyers than sellers.

This last factor is a big one in California and the Bay Area where the inventory of homes on the market is one of the tightest in the country.

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If you’re looking for a home in the Bay Area, you will probably need two things on your side: luck, and a lot of cash.

Those who aren’t willing to compete with up to dozens of other offers on a home are now trying to buy it – hours after it’s listed on the market.

The new trend has been dubbed by realty experts as “flash sales” – any sale that happens within 24 hours.

For example, a home in East Palo Alto on Gates Street was put on the market on March 19. It got nine offers the same day and sold for above asking price within 24 hours.

Glenn Kelman, CEO of online real estate brokerage Redfin which is set up in 19 U.S. markets, said that trend is growing in the Bay Area and calls it “Ground Zero” for an incredibly hot housing market, one that experienced an incredible boom at the start of 2013 in January.

“In the Bay Area in the past six months, we’ve seen 1,000 homes get under contract in less than 24 hours. It used to be a fast sale was three days – now, it’s three hours,” Kelman said.

Ken DeLeon, a realtor, said his latest listing is a 1200 square foot home in Palo Alto that he just put on the market Thursday. “The amazing part is just within 24 hours, we already had a client with a Chinese all-cash buyer offer us more than 300,000 above and we said, ‘No thank you, please wait,’” DeLeon said.

He and other realtors said they’re still catering to those wealthy foreign buyers, mostly from China and Russia; however, with historic-low mortgage interest rates and an inventory that’s also hitting record lows, they said the competitive cash offers are no longer limited to the high-end homes.

“That’s the main trend. It’s spreading out to other neighborhoods that once weren’t so hot,” added Kelman.

The Silicon Valley Association of Realtors compiled data from MLS listings for the South Bay. According to its numbers, for single family homes between February 2012 and February 2013, inventory was slashed by 52 percent in Santa Clara Country and 44 percent in San Mateo County.

Both experienced more than 30 percent in increase of median sale price. Redfin’s numbers show just how competitive it’s gotten in the last couple of months.

A San Francisco home in the Sunset District had 29 offers, a townhouse in Oakland got 15, and one on Dauphine Avenue in Fremont was hit with a stunning 65 offers. That house eventually sold for at least $100,000 more than the half-a-million asking price.

“There are sometimes traffic jams outside open houses,” said Kelman. “Folks get worried they can’t wait for the offer deadline on Sundays, so they make a preemptive strike to try and buy it on the spot.”

He said Redfin and other companies offer “mobile alerts” that let customers know almost immediately after there’s a new listing on the market. He believes that has also contributed to the high competition and quick sales.

Both he and DeLeon agreed on one more thing: the only relief, if it comes, will be when people decide to start selling, and when you’re talking about the Bay Area, there is no way to predict when that will happen, or if prices will go up or down.

“I hate it when people ask me about Bay Area real estate because it defies all the laws of physics,” Kelman lamented. “When you look at Chicago real estate, Atlanta real estate, you know what goes up must come down. It’s going to act like a normal economic market, but in the Bay Area, it seems there’s all sorts of money from the tech economy. There’s all sorts of people who want to move here for the sun. I can’t way when it will ever let up.”

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Real-Estate-Flash-Sales-Prove-Market-Is-Hot--199652731.html

The median home price in Marin also rose to $650,000 last month, a 21.4 percent increase over February 2012 and a $10,000 jump from the median sale price in the county in January.

Marin fell in line with regional and statewide real estate trends last month, which saw fewer homes sales than in February 2012, according to figures provided by DataQuick, a San Diego-based analysis service.

Sales are generally flat from January to February, according to DataQuick’s analysts.

Marin saw a slight decline in the number of homes sold between February 2013 (201 homes) and February 2012 (203 homes). But more homes were sold in Marin County in February than in January of this year, when 181 houses traded hands.

The median price of a home sold in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area skyrocketed nearly 25 percent when comparing February 2013 to February 2012, the data showed. The median has had a double-digit year-over-year increase the last nine months, and the past four months have seen gains above 20 percent.

Other interesting real estate market facts this month? DataQuick supplied these:

• The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,460. That was down from $1,479 in January, and up from $1,243 a year ago.
• The most active lenders to Bay Area home buyers last month were Wells Fargo with 15.0 percent of the market, Stearns Lending with 4.0 percent, and RPM Mortgage with 3.7 percent.
• Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 13.6 percent in the Bay Area in February. That’s the lowest since November 2007.

“…[W]ith a recovering economy, prices still closer to the bottom than to the top, with ultra-low mortgage interest rates and tight supply, the stage is set for price gains,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. “This spring is going to be interesting.”

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Article source: http://larkspurcortemadera.patch.com/articles/marin-home-prices-rose-more-than-20-percent-in-february-323dc8ba

A total of 5,404 houses and condominiums were sold, down 1.8 percent from January and more than 6 percent from February of 2012, DataQuick said.

The median sales price for a home in the nine-county area was $405,000. That was down 2.4 percent from January but still nearly 25 percent higher than a year ago.

Although prices remain well below the peak of several years ago, they have soared by double digits each month for the past nine months when compared with the same months a year earlier. The gains have topped 20 percent in the past four months in year-over-year comparisons, DataQuick said.

“Isn’t this Economics 101? Supply and demand?” DataQuick President John Walsh asked in a statement. “If demand outstrips supply in a free market, the price goes up.”

“Now, with a recovering economy, prices still closer to the bottom than to the top, with ultra-low mortgage interest rates and tight supply, the stage is set for price gains. This spring is going to be interesting,” Walsh said.

There were continuing indications that California’s housing market is recovering from its five-year slump.

“Foreclosure activity is well below peak levels reached in the last few years. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, and down payment sizes are stable,” DataQuick said in a statement.

Sales in February shifted from low-cost, distressed homes to mid-market and higher properties, with the number of homes selling for $500,000 or more jumping by 27.7 percent, DataQuick reported.

Foreclosures and short sales, those in which the price was less than the amount owed on the property, both were down over January and there were a lot fewer of them compared with February a year ago.

Investors, as compared with first-time homebuyers, accounted for a sizeable chunk of the sales. Absentee buyers, who mostly are investors, bought 28.2 percent of all Bay area homes.

That was an all-time high based on DataQuick figures going back to 2000, the company said.

In Southern California, homes sales continued strong, with 15,945 sold – the most for a February in the past six years.

The median sales price in Los Angeles and five other counties was $320,000, DataQuick reported Wednesday.

Article source: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/mar/14/sf-bay-area-february-home-sales-dip/

A total of 5,404 houses and condominiums were sold, down 1.8 percent from January and more than 6 percent from February of 2012, DataQuick said.

The median sales price for a home in the nine-county area was $405,000. That was down 2.4 percent from January but still nearly 25 percent higher than a year ago.

Although prices remain well below the peak of several years ago, they have soared by double digits each month for the past nine months when compared with the same months a year earlier. The gains have topped 20 percent in the past four months in year-over-year comparisons, DataQuick said.

“Isn’t this Economics 101? Supply and demand?” DataQuick President John Walsh asked in a statement. “If demand outstrips supply in a free market, the price goes up.”

“Now, with a recovering economy, prices still closer to the bottom than to the top, with ultra-low mortgage interest rates and tight supply, the stage is set for price gains. This spring is going to be interesting,” Walsh said.

There were continuing indications that California’s housing market is recovering from its five-year slump.

“Foreclosure activity is well below peak levels reached in the last few years. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, and down payment sizes are stable,” DataQuick said in a statement.

Sales in February shifted from low-cost, distressed homes to mid-market and higher properties, with the number of homes selling for $500,000 or more jumping by 27.7 percent, DataQuick reported.

Foreclosures and short sales, those in which the price was less than the amount owed on the property, both were down over January and there were a lot fewer of them compared with February a year ago.

Investors, as compared with first-time homebuyers, accounted for a sizeable chunk of the sales. Absentee buyers, who mostly are investors, bought 28.2 percent of all Bay area homes.

That was an all-time high based on DataQuick figures going back to 2000, the company said.

In Southern California, homes sales continued strong, with 15,945 sold – the most for a February in the past six years.

The median sales price in Los Angeles and five other counties was $320,000, DataQuick reported Wednesday.

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Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/14/5262908/sf-bay-area-february-home-sales.html

“I do think some of these delinquent properties will still end up as foreclosures down the road,” notes Blomquist. “But this type of legislation is also forcing lenders to consider other creative ways of disposing of the delinquencies that may not be as difficult as foreclosure has become.”

That includes short sales, deeds in lieu of foreclosure and a growing trend of selling off bad loans to investors. The investors, since they are buying at a deep discount, are able to offer more drastic modifications to keep borrowers in their homes.

(Read More: Americans Are UsingTheir Houses as ATMs Again)

Short sales, when the property is sold for less than the mortgage, are becoming ever more frequent. Nearly 26 percent of Southern California home sales in January were short sales, according to DataQuick, while just 15 percent were foreclosure sales. Investor and cash buying was at or near record levels.

“A lot of today’s housing demand is fueled not by spectacular job growth and soaring consumer confidence, but by super-low mortgage rates and unusually high levels of investor and cash purchases. Take away any one of those elements and it will matter,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

With legal changes in California, Florida now has the dubious distinction of having the most properties with foreclosure filings in the nation. One in every 300 homes had a filing in January, according to RealtyTrac. That is twice the national average.

(Read More: Big Banks Told to Review Their Own Foreclosures )

States that require a judge in the foreclosure process, like Illinois and New Jersey, saw big January jumps in foreclosure auctions (sales back to the bank or to an investor), but non-judicial states saw the biggest increases in newly started foreclosures. In Nevada, where new legislation slowed the process dramatically last year, foreclosure starts were up 87 percent from a year ago.

While the numbers can be parsed in many ways, the bottom line is that while fewer borrowers are getting into trouble, an enormous backlog of distress is still moving through the foreclosure system, in some places quite quickly, and in others ever more slowly. Until the overall numbers come down to a more normal level, any speculation on overall price stability is risky at best.

(Read More: Mortgage Mess StillMires US Housing Recovery)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100460456

Developers are rushing to increase supply of multi-family apartments, as there are now more This even as single-family rentals continue to gain market share. Continued uncertainty in the housing market, tighter mortgage underwriting and weaker consumer wealth has pushed ever more Americans to rent; the foreclosure crisis forced others.

The boom in multi-family is already raising red flags.

“We are incrementally more cautious on the multi-family sub-sector, as we see a rising supply environment in 2014,” note analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald. “Although at this point, data indicate demand remains strong and absorption in check.

(Read More: One Overlooked Fact About the Housing Recovery)

Apartment demand increased “noticeably” in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to Reis Inc. This despite record-low mortgage rates and renewed faith in the housing market. Rents continued to rise, although at a slower pace than the previous quarter. They still managed to hit another all-time high, “propelled by strong demand, limited new supply growth, and a still weak for-sale housing market.”

The single-family housing market is rebounding off its historic lows, but the very limited supply of homes for sale gives cause for concern.

Low inventories are pushing prices higher, faster than expected. All-cash investors are pushing those gains, and in turn pushing out first-time home buyers. While non-investors are slowly moving back into the market, they are not arriving in the necessary numbers, and they are also not finding much to choose from.

(Read More: Home Builder Confidence Stalls)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100388194

     A total of 8,579 new and resale homes were sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was up 1.4 percent from 8,461 in July, and up 14.2 percent from 7,513 for August 2011.

     A July-to-August sales increase is normal for the Bay Area summer season. August sales have varied from 6,688 in 1992 to 13,940 in 2004, while the average for all months of August since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics start, is 9,638.

     The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Bay Area last month was $410,000. That was down 2.6 percent from $421,000 in July, and up 10.8 percent from $370,000 in August 2011.

     The Bay Area median almost always drops from July to August. Roughly half the year-over-year increase in the median can be attributed to a shift in market mix.

     The median’s low point of the current real estate cycle was $290,000 in March 2009. The peak was $665,000 in June/July 2007. Around half of the median’s peak-to-trough drop was the result of a decline in home values, while the other half was the result of a shift in the sales mix.

     “Most economists agree that the housing market is off bottom. But there’s a big gap between the market being ‘off bottom’ and being normal, which it’s not. The single biggest bottleneck is still the dysfunctional mortgage lending market. It’ll be interesting to see how yesterday’s announcement that the Fed is going to buy mortgage-backed securities plays out,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

     Jumbo loans, mortgages above the old conforming limit of $417,000, accounted for 38.7 percent of last month’s purchase lending, up from a revised 38.6 percent in July, and up from 32.9 percent a year ago. Last month was the highest since 43.4 percent in November 2007. In the current cycle, jumbo usage dropped to as low as 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, declined again last month, accounting for 12.8 percent of the Bay Area’s home purchase loans. That was down from a revised 13.5 percent in July, and down from 16.0 percent in August last year. Since 2000, ARMs have accounted for 49.4 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 16.1 percent of all Bay Area home purchase mortgages last month. That was the same as in July and down from 21.1 percent a year earlier.

     The most active lenders to Bay Area home buyers last month were Wells Fargo with 17.0 percent of the market, RPM Mortgage with 4.6 percent and Bank of America with 3.3 percent. A year ago, Bank of America’s market share was 8.2 percent.

     Last month 40.2 percent of Bay Area sales were for $500,000 or more, down from a revised 42.0 percent in July, and up from 35.9 percent in August 2011. The low for the current cycle was January 2009, when just 22.7 percent of sales crossed the $500,000 threshold. Over the past 10 years, a monthly average of 48.0 percent of homes sold for $500,000-plus.

     Last month distressed property sales – the combination of foreclosure resales and “short sales” – made up about 33.8 percent of the Bay Area’s resale market. That was down from 34.0 percent in July and down from 43.8 percent a year ago.

     Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 14.9 percent of resales in August, down from a revised 15.1 percent in July, and down from 25.7 percent a year ago. Last month was the lowest since 14.0 percent in December 2007. Foreclosure resales peaked at 52.0 percent in February 2009. The Bay Area’s 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 18.9 percent of Bay Area resales last month. That was the same as in July and up from 18.1 percent a year earlier.

     Absentee buyers – mostly investors – purchased 23.0 percent of all Bay Area homes sold last month, up from a revised 22.6 percent in July, and up from 21.2 percent a year ago. Absentee buyers paid a median $264,500 in August, up 5.8 percent from a year ago.

     Buyers who appear to have paid all cash – meaning there was no evidence of a corresponding purchase loan in the public record – accounted for 28.0 percent of August sales. That was up from a revised 27.6 percent in July, and up from 27.5 percent a year ago. The monthly average going back to 1988 is 12.6 percent. Cash buyers paid a median $273,250 in August, up 9.3 percent from 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 Francisco and San Mateo counties.

     The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,491, down from $1,522 in July, and up from $1,460 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, last month’s payment was 46.6 percent below the typical payment in spring 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 60.6 percent below the current cycle’s peak in July 2007.

     Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains high by historical standards but below peak levels reached over the last three years. Financing with multiple mortgages is low and down payment sizes are stable, DataQuick reported.

(chart)

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

                   Aug-11   Aug-12     Chng      Aug-11      Aug-12      Chng

Alameda             1,498    1,828    22.0%    $349,000    $380,000      8.9%

Contra Costa        1,576    1,649     4.6%    $260,500    $300,000     15.2%

Marin                 264      341    29.2%    $619,500    $634,000      2.3%

Napa                  121      160    32.2%    $320,000    $350,000      9.4%

Santa Clara         1,731    1,892     9.3%    $492,000    $542,750     10.3%

San Francisco         484      625    29.1%    $618,500    $700,000     13.2%

San Mateo             678      716     5.6%    $570,000    $592,500      3.9%

Solano                595      693    16.5%    $185,000    $190,000      2.7%

Sonoma                566      675    19.3%    $305,000    $345,000     13.1%

Bay Area            7,513    8,579    14.2%    $370,000    $410,000     10.8%

Source: DataQuick, DQNews.com

Article source: http://www.kionrightnow.com/story/19578820/bay-area-august-home-sales-highest-since-2006

Umpqua Bank CEO Ray Davis has made Bay Area growth a priority.

Umpqua Bank 
 

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has hired Bruce Lawrie to lead its new commercial real estate lending office in Walnut Creek, Calif., outside San Francisco.

As the San Francisco Business Times reports, the new office caters to developers and investors with construction lending on income properties, a market segment that fell out of favor, to put it mildly, in the dark days of the downturn.

Portland-based Umpqua has been rapidly expanding its footprint, with Bay Area growth a priority.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/morning_call/2012/05/umpqua-bank-expands-bay-area-real.html