SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – If you’re planning on purchasing a home in the Bay Area soon, you may be up against steep competition.

According to San Diego-based company DataQuick, house and condo sales throughout the Bay Area in July were the highest since 2005.

A total of 9,339 sales were finalized, up 13.3 percent from July 2012, when 8,241 homes were sold, according to DataQuick.

The sales were at its highest since 12,538 homes sold in July 2005, the data company stated.

The spike in sales was most evident in Santa Clara County, where 2,244 homes were sold, 26.1 percent more than the 1,779 from July last year.

In San Francisco, 718 homes sold last month, up 31.3 percent from last July’s 547 sales.

Solano County was the only Bay Area county that recorded fewer sales this July from last, totaling a 0.8 percent decrease, from 610 last year to 605 last month.

With the rise in sales, the median price of homes in the Bay Area has also increased, reaching its highest price in more than five and a half years.

In July, the median price was $562,000, the highest since December 2007 when homes were averaging a price tag of roughly $587,500, according to DataQuick.

Twelve months ago, the median price of homes in the nine-county region was 33.5 percent less, averaging roughly $421,000 per sale.

All counties throughout the Bay Area recorded an increase in median sale prices, but none more than in Contra Costa County, which had its median sale price rise nearly 43 percent from $308,000 to $440,000, according to DataQuick.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Article source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/08/15/bay-area-home-sales-home-prices-climbing/

(Read more: What you need to know if Fannie and Freddie go)

“Consumers have taken the interest rate rise in stride. Expectations for continued improvement in housing persist, and sentiment toward the current buying and selling environment is back on track from its dip last month,” said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae. “These results are consistent with our own analysis of previous housing cycles, which finds that interest rates and home prices are not strongly correlated.”

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Another survey from home builder PulteGroup found 43 percent of move-up buyers indicating they are planning to buy a new home within the next five years, with 76 percent saying they believe they can sell their current home within the next two years for enough to move up. Pulte targets the move-up buyer.

Mortgage applications to purchase a newly built home rose 14 percent month to month, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, but new home buyers may be less sensitive to rates, as builders can buy down mortgage rates as part of the deal.

It all prompts the question: With rates still historically low, does a 1 percentage point jump in rates really matter?

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100952350

Overall mortgage delinquencies are still down 6.5 percent from a year ago, according to Lender Processing Services. Some of the spike may be attributed to “a seasonal phenomenon,” according to LPS analysts, but this particular spike is larger than usual. Delinquencies ticked up just 3.4 percent in June 2012. The rise also spanned products and regions.

(Read more: Investors are moving out of housing)

Despite receding from the high levels during the housing crash, 4.8 million loans are delinquent or in foreclosure, according to LPS.

The states with the highest percentage of noncurrent loans are Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York and Maine.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100914292

Bank repossessions, the final stage of the foreclosure process, fell 9 percent month-to-month and were down 35 percent from a year ago. Still the numbers are on pace for nearly a half a million properties to be repossessed in 2013. That’s an improvement, but still well above normal levels.

(Read More: Dire Predictions For Housing Recovery)

The picture is also mixed geographically – Arkansas (up 143 percent), Oklahoma (up 103 percent), Maryland (up 74 percent), Washington (up 71 percent), New Jersey (up 33 percent), and New York (up 21 percent) –as states that require a judge in the foreclosure process as well as those with new laws protecting borrowers, are seeing a spike in repossessions.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100877414

Bank repossessions, the final stage of the foreclosure process, fell 9 percent month-to-month and were down 35 percent from a year ago. Still the numbers are on pace for nearly a half a million properties to be repossessed in 2013. That’s an improvement, but still well above normal levels.

(Read More: Dire Predictions For Housing Recovery)

The picture is also mixed geographically – Arkansas (up 143 percent), Oklahoma (up 103 percent), Maryland (up 74 percent), Washington (up 71 percent), New Jersey (up 33 percent), and New York (up 21 percent) –as states that require a judge in the foreclosure process as well as those with new laws protecting borrowers, are seeing a spike in repossessions.

“The increases in judicial foreclosure auctions demonstrate that these delayed foreclosure cases are now being moved more quickly through to foreclosure completion,” notes RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist in the report.

(Read More: Map: Tracking the US Real Estate Recovery)

“Given the rising home prices in most of these markets, it is an opportune time for lenders to dispose of these distressed properties, either at the foreclosure auction to a third-party buyer, or by repossessing the property at the auction and subsequently selling it as a bank-owned home.”

Judicial foreclosure auctions were up 34 percent from June of 2012, as Realtors report “brisk” sales of these distressed properties. Investors and regular buyers have been competing for a decreasing supply of properties. Nationwide, inventories of all homes are down dramatically, as a large number of underwater borrowers and borrowers with very little home equity are still unable to sell.

(Read More: Apartments Reap Rewards of Rising Rates)

Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Ohio and Georgia posted the top five state foreclosure rates for the first half of the year, according to RealtyTrac.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100877414

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 26, 2013

The Real Estate Marketing Insider announced this week’s recipient of the “Toby’s Choice” award for the best market for middle-income homes and properties. Following news from SFGate of a surge in home sales and a price spike in late 2012, the winner of this week’s award was the San Francisco Bay Area.

Over the course of 2012, the Bay Area saw its home sales accelerate steadily with prices keeping pace. By the end of 2012, according to research firm DataQuick, the market looked completely different from one year earlier. The price median among the nine counties of the Bay Area ended the year at $442,750. That marks a 32 percent increase from 2011, a record-setting spike. The total sales of homes and condos touched 7,800 in December, a 4.5 percent year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, home sales that resulted from foreclosures and short sales decreased from over 50 percent, to about a third.

These new numbers are great news for home sellers in the Bay Area. The numbers show that the area is popular with buyers, with high turnover for new properties. Sellers that arm themselves with online marketing campaigns can easily uncover real estate buyer leads and find high demand for Bay Area listings. The market in the Bay Area represents a great opportunity for real estate agents. Realtors looking for new mid-range listings should take a close look at this week’s “Toby’s Choice”.

The Real Estate Marketing Insider named its “Toby’s Choice” Market of the Week, an award that recognizes outstanding real estate markets for mid-range homes. REMI chose the San Francisco Bay Area as the Market of the Week, after DataQuick released figures showing record sales and price increases in 2012.

About Real Estate Marketing Insider:

The Real Estate Marketing Insider provides up-to-the-minute news, real estate tips, and insider analysis of the real estate market. An invaluable resource for home buyers, home sellers, and real estate professionals, REMI is based in La Jolla, Calif.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebreal-estate-market/bay-area-san-francisco/prweb10365181.htm

Article source: http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2013/01/26/remi-announces-bay-area-%E2%80%9Ctoby%E2%80%99s-choice%E2%80%9D-market-week

Asking prices for homes for sale around the Bay Area rose substantially in December compared with the same time last year, according to San Francisco real estate website Trulia, ranging from a 16.3 percent spike in tech-fueled Santa Clara County to a 7.6 percent increase in Napa County. The nine-county Bay Area saw an average increase of 13 percent. By comparison, asking prices nationwide rose 5.1 percent in December compared with December 2011, Trulia said.

“Both job growth and tighter inventory gave (sale) prices a lift,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist. “Price increases accelerated throughout 2012, getting bigger as the year went on.”

Analyzing asking prices of homes currently for sale provides a leading indicator of what sales numbers are likely to look like in a few months’ time, Trulia said.

Data on sales throughout much of 2012 have shown the housing market recovering from the extended downturn that started in 2007.

Nationwide, Trulia said, “2012 marked a huge turnaround year for most local housing markets” with prices increasing in 82 of the 100 largest metro areas in December. In December 2011, only 12 markets had price increases.

Las Vegas, Seattle and Phoenix were Trulia’s “top turnaround” markets, followed by Oakland metro (Alameda and Contra Costa counties) and San Jose metro (Santa Clara and San Benito counties).

California cities such as Sacramento and Fresno that were devastated by the housing crisis also saw strong gains in 2012, Trulia said.

“Nine of the top 10 turnaround markets in 2012 were in the West,” Kolko said. “The only one east of the Rockies was Atlanta.”

Asking rents also rose, with Alameda County seeing the biggest spike (13.2 percent) and already pricey San Francisco the least (2.9 percent), Trulia said. The average increase for eight Bay Area counties (Napa did not have enough data) was 7.8 percent. Nationwide, rents grew 5.2 percent.

“We’re seeing rent increases across the region,” Kolko said. “In San Francisco they were smaller because rents are already so much higher there than elsewhere and it has had strong rent increases before this. The slower increase doesn’t make the city affordable.”

While rising home prices illustrate a housing market beginning to recover – and to stimulate economic recovery – they of course are not good news for those house hunting.

“They come with the perennial challenge of affordability in the Bay Area,” Kolko said.

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

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Bay-Area-rents-home-prices-up-sharply-4163037.php

The yield on the ten-year Treasury note touched a new low Monday, 1.396 percent, before coming up slightly, and mortgage rates track that yield. Money flooded into Treasuries amid new concern surrounding debt in Greece and Spain.

“Now it’s like 1.4 [percent] is commonplace, and we’re probably going to see one and a quarter before too long,” said Holly Liss, ABN Amro’s Global Future’s Director in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

Mortgage rates are a full percentage point below where they were one year ago, and that recently sparked yet another spike in mortgage refinance applications, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It did not, however, do the same for applications to purchase a home.

“If the 30 year fixed were to drop to 3 percent, that would open up yet another wave of refi’s, perhaps more than the industry can handle,” says mortgage lender Craig Strent of Rockville, Maryland-based Apex Home Loans. “Certainly a 3 percent 30-year fixed would make home buying more affordable for some people that may not qualify at 3.5 percent, but if people are not entering the market at 3.5 percent, which is already insanely low, then they may not enter at 3 percent, as they may simply prefer to rent or may not have the down payment needed to buy.”

Strent is reluctant to predict where the 30-year fixed will end up, but Dan Green, loan officer and mortgage blogger with Waterstone Mortgage in Cincinnati expects the rate to hit 3 percent.

“There’s a case for them to be at 3 percent now. It’s just that lenders are overworked with new applications, so there’s little reason to get price competitive,” says Green. He agrees that 3 percent would just push more borrowers to refinance, even if they already did so recently.

Despite a spring surge in home buying this year, especially in new construction, these lower rates should make the surge bigger and continue it throughout the summer, but that does not appear to be the case. The National Association of Realtors reported a surprise drop in home sales in June, due to low inventory on the low end of the market, which is not as dependent on mortgage rates.

While the housing market needs more home purchases, the overall economy would get a boost from a new surge in refinances, giving more Americans more spending power. Remember, however, those rock-bottom rates don’t apply to homeowners cashing equity out of their homes.

Questions?  Comments?  And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick