Many US Cities Becoming Sellers’

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:38:30 +0000

EMERYVILLE, CAZipRealty, Inc.(http://www.ziprealty.com),the leading online technology-enabled residential real estatebrokerage company, has released a list of the Top 10 Best Cities for Home Sellers as part of its List Price to Close Price Ratio Report, which is based on MLS data covering 32 U.S. markets. The exclusive study found that the gap between the listing price and closing price of an average home in the United States continues to narrow, with a growing number of sellers able to achieve more than 98% of their homes listing price. In addition, the median days a home spent on the market dropped to 44 nationwide in 2012, a 23% decline from 2011s 57 days.

A limited inventory of homes on the market, combined with the extremely low cost of mortgage financing, has resulted in homes selling above asking price in many western markets, boosting the average listing to closing price ratio, explains Lanny Baker, Chief Executive Officer and President of ZipRealty. The median amount of time that homes are listed on the market before they sell has shortened by more than two weeks since last year, and in some areas we are seeing one-in-five newly listed homes sell in less than seven days. Multiple-bid situations are also increasingly common in the markets we reviewed.

In January 2011, the list to close price ratio in the U.S. reached 97.1%, and increased 40 basis points to 97.5% in 2012. The ratio hit 98.3% nationwide as of December 2012, according to ZipRealty data.

TheTop 10 Best Cities for Home Sellersbased on ZipRealtys List Price to Close Price RatioReport are: San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Denver, Tucson, Portland and Seattle.

Article source: http://www.globest.com/news/12_540/sanfrancisco/other/Many-US-Cities-Becoming-Sellers-Real-Estate-Markets-According-to-ZipRealty-330074.html

Rent or buy?: Condo ownership might make sense in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 06:34:15 +0000

As home prices fall and rents climb, it could make sense to buy in the Bay Area’s three largest cities, according to a report from San Francisco real estate website Trulia.

The site compared rents and list prices for two-bedroom apartments, condominiums and townhomes in the nation’s 50 largest cities. Trulia calculated a “rent-to-buy” ratio of 12 for San Jose, based on rents for two-bedroom apartments of $1,500 to $2,000 a month and listing prices of $200,000 to $300,000 for two-bedroom condos. According to Trulia, a rent-to-buy ratio of 15 or less means the costs of ownership are less than the expense of renting.

San Francisco and Oakland, meanwhile, are cities where renting is less expensive, but buying might be a better option depending on individual financial circumstances.

San Francisco has a rent-to-buy ratio of 19, based on rents of $3,000 to $3,500 a month and listing prices at $700,000 to $800,000. Oakland has a rent-to-buy ratio of 16, based on $1,000 to $1,500 monthly rents and listing prices at $200,000 to $300,000.

Among other West Coast cities, Trulia says buying is better in Fresno, Long Beach, Sacramento and San Diego; buying might make sense in Portland, Ore., and Seattle; and renting is more affordable in Los Angeles.

The Trulia report — including information on other big cities nationwide — can be found at http://explore.trulia.com/datavis/rentvsbuy/Q2-2011/.

Contact Frank Russell at 408-920-5876. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercspike.

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/real-estate/ci_17950061

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Many US Cities Becoming Sellers’

Rent or buy?: Condo ownership might make sense in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland