homesmillbrae.com » Market News

Bay Area Housing: Santa Rosa House Prices Continue to Rise, Along With …

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 10:39:55 +0000

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

–>

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

–>

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.

Filed under Housing Market News

–>

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

Case-Shiller: San Francisco Home Prices Rose Again in March, Climbing 22 …

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:33:17 +0000

Home News Case-Shiller: San Francisco Home Prices Rose Again in March, Climbing 22% YOY

–>

By Brandon Cornett | Housing Market News
June 14, 2013 | © 2013, All rights reserved

–>

Mortgage shopping?

The housing market in San Francisco continues to be a standout, where prices are concerned. According to the latest release of the SP/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, house values in San Francisco rose 3.9% from February to March of this year. Prices have risen by a whopping 22% annually, when measured from March 2012 to March 2013. There is a two-month reporting lag with the Case-Shiller index, which is published on the last Tuesday of every month.

The chart below shows the 20 cities that make up the Case-Shiller 20-city composite. As you can see, the San Francisco real estate market experienced the second-largest annual gain in home prices, slightly behind Phoenix, Ariz.

San Francisco had the largest monthly gain of any metro in the 20-city index, and one of the largest monthly returns in the country. According to the Case-Shiller index, San Francisco property prices rose by 3.9% from February to March.

The Bay Area real estate market continues to rise a wave of recovery that has spread across the entire state. In the chart above, you’ll also notice strong annual returns for San Diego and Los Angeles. These returns are indicative of the positive housing trends throughout California.

In San Francisco’s real estate market, as in other metros across the Sunshine State, housing inventories have plummeted. According to Realtor.com’s monthly housing summary, the total number of homes listed for sale in San Francisco has dropped by 31.22% over the last year. This trend is being seen in other California cities as well, and often to a larger degree. Listing inventory is down 52% in Orange County, 46% in Oakland, and 45% in San Jose.

These are unprecedented statistics. Imagine half of a local real estate market disappearing in a single year. It’s no wonder home buyers are having trouble finding properties in these markets. The supply-and-demand picture has shifted considerably over the last couple of years, and it’s sending prices north. In short, more buyers are vying for fewer properties.

The median list price within the San Francisco housing market has climbed by more than 20% over the last year, according to Realtor.com.

According to DataQuick, a San Diego-based company that provides real estate market data, the median sale price in the nine-county Bay Area reached $519,000 in May. That was an increase of 1.8% from the previous month and 29.8% from the same time last year. The median for San Francisco County climbed to $870,000 last month — the highest of any county in the Bay Area.

Within the city proper, the median sale price is a cool million. According to the real estate firm Redfin, sellers within the city are getting 112% of their asking prices, on average. Clearly, it’s a good time to be selling a home within the San Francisco real estate market.

Home sales have slowed over the last year. In May 2012, a total of 8,899 sales were recorded across the Bay Area. Last month, 8,541 sales were recorded, 4% fewer than the same time last year. In San Francisco County, home sales have declined by 14% over the last year. But this is certainly not due to a lack of demand. It’s from a lack of inventory. If every buyer who wanted to buy a home in the Bay Area could actually find one, sales would probably be 20% to 30% higher this year.

Filed under Housing Market News

–>

Article source: http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/news/case-shiller-san-francisco-409/

More good housing market news: Bay Area’s August home sales strongest in six …

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 05:08:26 +0000

SAN JOSE — The Bay Area real estate market’s resurgence continued in August, as the region posted its most home sales for the month in six years, DataQuick reported Friday.

A total of 8,579 homes sold in the nine-county Bay Area in August, the real estate information service reported, an increase of 14.2 percent. While the median price dipped slightly from July — from $421,000 to $410,000 — it increased 10.8 percent year-over-year; sales typically increase and median price typically decreases from July to August, DataQuick reported.

Bay Area home sales have increased year-over-year every month since July 2011, as the region’s housing market recovers from the subprime mortgage crisis that sent the economy into the Great Recession and crated home sales and prices.

August was the fifth consecutive month that the median price increased from the same month the previous year, as higher-priced homes have begun selling at a faster clip while fewer foreclosures are purchased. Foreclosures accounted for 14.9 percent of resales in August, the lowest percentage since December 2007, while 40.2 percent of homes sold went for more than $500,000.

While the market has definitely boomeranged during the past year, it is not completely healthy because of a tight credit market that can keep prospective homeowners for obtaining a mortgage loan, DataQuick president John Walsh said Friday.

“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,” Walsh said in Friday’s news release.

Sales and prices increased in all nine counties in August, with the largest leaps in home sales showing up in the North Bay, where Napa County had a 32.2 percent year-over-year increase and Marin had a 29.2 percent jump. San Francisco County sales increased 29.1 percent from August 2011.

The largest median price increase occurred in Contra Costa County, with a 15.2 percent bump from $260,500 to $300,000. The sales bump in Contra Costa was the lowest in the Bay Area, however, as 4.6 percent more homes sold than in August 2011.

Alameda County home sales increased 22 percent year-over-year, while the median price rose 8.9 percent to $380,000. Santa Clara County’s median price jumped higher than $500,000, at $542,750, thanks to a 10.3 percent increase; home sales increased in the South Bay county by 9.3 percent.

San Mateo County’s growth was tame compared with its neighbors, with the Peninsula gaining 5.6 percent in sales and 3.9 percent in median price, at $592,500.

DataQuick is a San Diego-based real estate information service. Due to late data availability, the company estimated August sales in Alameda, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_21544164/more-good-housing-market-news-bay-areas-august