Many economists have their predictions for how the real estate market will perform in 2013, but one thing that is certain and that will likely play a large role is that there are a lot less available homes for sale.

We’ve already seen how this has affected the Bay Area, from hundreds of hopeful buyers lining up for a lotto to buy a new construction model home to prospective buyers creating designer love letters to sellers, telling their life story and how much they want to buy their home.

Real estate site Redfin pulled some stats, showing San Francisco and San Jose starting off the first two weeks of the year with nearly 50% less homes on the market compared to same time last year. Inventory is down all over the country, but it’s particularly worse in the Bay Area.

What’s the reason behind the low inventory?

The Wall Street Journal writes a good article on this, pointing to six reasons:

1. Many homeowners are underwater, and thus can’t sell.
2. Homeowners with equity in their home don’t have enough of it to “trade up” to buy a bigger and more expensive home.
3. Everyone wants to buy at the bottom, but few want to sell when they feel their home will be worth more next year.
4. Investors – from mom and pop and corporate investors have come out and become landlords, taking property that normally would be on the market into the rental realm.
5. With the foreclosure fiasco, banks have been slower at foreclosing homes.
6. There’s been a lot less construction of new homes by home builders.

Unless inventory starts picking up, this will make for a very interesting year for Bay Area real estate.

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/01/23/2013-real-estate-kicks-off-with-inventory-crisis/

Mike Ripson hasn’t built a home in three years, but he is about to. He has been sitting on one hundred sixty acres of land just outside Phoenix, Arizona, which he intends to divide into 121 one-acre lots.

“Now’s the time because we’ve been studying the marketplace, and we noticed beginning late last summer, early fall, that for homes priced less than $100,000, the market was becoming very tight,” says Ripson, whose company is celebrating its ten year anniversary this week.

“Over the last several months that price point has increased such that today, homes priced less than 300,000 dollars, there’s less than a thirty-day supply in the marketplace,” Ripson adds.

The supply of homes for sale in the Phoenix area is down 42 percent from a year ago, and foreclosures are down 52 percent, according to Michael Orr, of the Real Estate Center at ASU. That is bringing demand back to the builders.

Ripson is building about 40 miles outside of Phoenix in Wittmann, where there is less competition from foreclosures.

“To give you an example, within a five mile radius of where we sit here at Sonoran Acres, two months ago there were 18 homes on the market. Today there’s only one,” says Ripson.

That’s why he re-opened his model home two weeks ago, and immediately saw high buyer traffic. He filed permits for two new homes, which he expects to sell in the next few weeks, thanks to his low, $200,000 price point.

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Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47103254?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

By Joel Scanlon

Real estate brokerage firms, East Bay Modern Real Estate and Marin Modern Real Estate, have jointly announced that they will sponsor a workshop on April 21, 2012, which will focus on training and providinginformation to customers in the San Francisco Bay Area about the steps involved in the process of buying or building a modern and eco-friendly prefab home.

The demand for prefabricated homes has been growing steadily since they offer aesthetic style, are eco-friendly, can be constructed within a short period of time, and are affordable.

According to Renee Adelmann, who is the owner of Marin Modern Real Estate, the focus of the workshop is to provide adequate information to customers on the practical advantages of buying or building a prefabricated home in the San Francisco Bay Area. The workshop has been titled “Building a Modernist and Eco-friendly Prefab Home in the San Francisco Bay Area” and will see participation from leading companies in the field of architecture, real estate, finance and design. Representatives from Swatt Miers Architects, East Bay Modern Real Estate, Simpatico Homes, Land Home Financial and Marin Modern Real Estate will make their presentations at the event. Customers who attend the event will be given a personalised tour of a model home built by Simpatico Homes.

Source: http://www.eastbaymodern.com

Posted 6th April 2012

Article source: http://www.azobuild.com/news.asp?newsID=15152

Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight
Tom Papac (left), a Realtor with Caldwell Banker and the listing agent for Highland Park Subdivision, talks with Missy and Jerry Niswander on Friday at one of the model homes in the development.

On a recent weekday afternoon, Kerry Jarvis walked into a model home in west Redding and experienced a kind of sticker shock.

Real estate agent Julia Rossiter asked Jarvis, a contractor looking to relocate to Redding from the San Francisco Bay Area, whether he had been to the new subdivision.

Jarvis answered yes, but it had been a few years. Moreover, the last time he toured the development, some models were listing for around $500,000, Jarvis said with a grin as he peeked into the living room of the $319,600 model.

Not only has the price of new homes in Shasta County plunged since the market peaked five years ago, but builders are dangling goodies in front of buyers to help boost sales in a sagging market. It’s part of a nationwide trend as builders across the United States try to sell new homes often priced far above bank-owned homes.

At Bel Air Estates, where Jarvis was shopping, Ochoa Shehan is offering buyers a $10,000 builder’s credit, money that can be spent on closing costs, a mortgage rate buy-down or backyard landscaping. Homes in the development range from $299,600 to $419,600.

“We are trying to entice buyers. I think the economy is scaring a heck of a lot of people. The price of fuel, the economy, everything that is going on in Japan … people are uneasy about the future, and buying a home is a long-term commitment,” said Jerry Wagar, president of Ochoa Shehan.

Northwest Homes in Redding last week was advertising it would pay the first-year utility bill — up to $200 a month — if you buy a house in its Placer West or Buenaventura Park subdivisions.

Palomar Builders is throwing in backyard landscaping, exterior stone veneer and a window-covering package in its Highland Park subdivision in Redding.

The upgrades are worth between $7,000 and $10,000, depending on the size of the home.

Builders say these giveaways are common this time of year, because spring is peak season for home sellers. Think of it like retailers coaxing customers into stores during the holiday shopping rush.

“We are doing well, but we know it is tough out there. So we are just trying to keep the momentum going,” said Jeb Allen of Palomar Builders, who sold 30 homes last year in Highland Park. Palomar has deals pending on five in 2011.

Some suggest the upgrades are another symptom of how unhealthy the housing market remains.

Nationwide, existing home sales dropped 10 percent in February to their lowest level in nine years. It was the largest drop since July. Forty percent of those sales were distressed properties.

In Shasta County, home sales in February dropped for the second straight month. The median sales price jumped from $142,250 in January to $161,000. The median sales price in February 2010 was $181,000. But more than half of all sales in Shasta County in February were foreclosures.

“The market is all about foreclosures, and buyers are looking for a better deal,” Rossiter of Coldwell Banker CC Properties said of the incentives being offered by homebuilders.

Tom Papac is marketing Highland Park for Palomar Builders. Papac said they’re not trying to compete with foreclosures. Their target audience is buyers looking to move up or downsize. Homes in Highland Park range from $269,800 to $369,800.

Jerry and Missy Niswander were looking at homes in Highland Park last week. The couple moved to Redding from Ohio in 2007 and have been renting ever since.

Jerry Niswander said the upgrades are nice.

“Everybody is looking for the best deal, and we’re doing that, too,” Missy Niswander said.

Jarvis, the Bay Area contractor, said he is growing weary of the foreclosure market. Banks are stubborn about negotiating fixes into the price of a foreclosure. It’s why Jarvis also is looking at new homes.

Jarvis, though, is in no hurry to buy, because he said prices will continue to fall.

“It’s going to get worse,” he said. “The reason I am up here is because I know I can get a better deal.”

That’s an opinion held by many. A recent survey by real estate research firm Trulia.com and Harris Interactive found that nearly 70 percent of renters who aspire to become homeowners say they will wait at least two years before buying. And nearly 60 percent say a housing recovery won’t come until after 2012.

Forecasters expect house prices nationwide to drop at least 5 percent more this year.

Last spring, Fiserv Case-Shiller forecast that home values in Shasta County would bottom out in late 2010 before they return to peak levels in 2025.

So it’s easy to see why home shoppers like Jim and Alice Gossett, who have been renting since moving from Temecula to Redding seven months ago, don’t feel rushed.

The Gossetts were looking at Highland Park off Churn Creek Road.

Alice said no amount of free upgrades and other giveaways would convince her to buy if she doesn’t like the house or neighborhood.

“If I like the house, I’d be willing to pay for it,” she said. “It’s kind of like organic food. I pay extra for organic food because I know it’s better for you.”

This story contains information from the Associated Press.

Article source: http://www.redding.com/news/2011/apr/09/shasta-county-homebuilders-offer-deal-sweet-deal/