A total of 9,339 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in the nine-county Bay Area in July – up 13.3 percent from July 2012, said DataQuick, a San Diego real estate research firm. The median paid was $562,000, a 33.5 percent increase from the same time last year.

Pent-up buyer demand, an improving regional economy and low interest rates have propelled home prices upward for many months. But a dearth of homes for sale meant the number being sold fell on a year-over-year basis every month since January. That trajectory reversed course in July.

“It was a really strong month,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst.

Rising inventory shows the real estate market regaining equilibrium.

“Sellers want to jump on the train by putting their properties on the market, which levels supply and demand,” said Tanja Beck, an agent with Zephyr Real Estate in San Francisco.

Fewer bids

More inventory, as well as rising interest rates, should soon rein in the sharp price increases. Although bidding wars still occur, many agents say multiple offers now are measured in smaller numbers – perhaps three bids instead of a dozen.

While San Francisco is the nation’s most competitive market, with 80.5 percent of successful home buyers facing other bids, multiple offers in the city dropped nearly 10 percent from June to July, according to a report from real estate firm Redfin.

Nationwide, fewer bidding wars “points toward the strong sellers’ market beginning to shift toward more balance, giving frustrated home buyers a bit of relief,” Redfin said.

Distress sales are down sharply, another sign of a return to normal. Foreclosure resales were under 5 percent of the total – their lowest level since August 2007, before the credit crunch hit. In February 2009, foreclosure resales were 52 percent of the market, DataQuick said. Their historic monthly average in the Bay Area is about 10 percent of sales.

Short sales – properties sold for less than is owed on the mortgage – were 10 percent of July resales, down from 23.7 percent a year earlier.

Fewer distress sales also mean that people who sell their homes are likely to turn around and buy another property, creating a positive upward spiral.

“There was a time when more than half the sales were the lender pocketing money (in a foreclosure resale) so they just ended there,” LePage said. “Now a greater and greater percentage are traditional sellers, who will move up and buy from someone who themselves will move up.”

Upward mobility

Jessica and Josh Rowe exemplify that move-up buyer. The couple, along with their toddler and two French bulldogs, wants to move from San Francisco to the South Bay to live closer to their jobs. They listed their condo in Haight-Ashbury, a three-bedroom remodeled Victorian, at $949,000. It’s likely to go for well above asking price.

“To go from being sellers to being buyers, your confidence gets crazy-hacked,” said Jessica Rowe. “As a seller, you’re on top of the world, you make all this money – but as a buyer you can’t afford to get (something comparable) to what you just sold.”

The Haight condo itself illustrates the market turnaround. When the Rowes bought it three years ago – near the market’s bottom – the previous owners were on the brink of foreclosure. After unsuccessfully listing it at $799,000 for a month, they slashed the price to $755,000, which is what the Rowes paid.

The Bay Area’s median price is now 15.5 percent off the $665,000 peak it reached in summer 2007, LePage said. During the downturn, its nadir was $290,000 in March 2009.

The median represents the middle value of homes sold, meaning half sold for more and half for less. DataQuick said about three-quarters of the median’s increase stems from rising home values, the remainder from a shift in market mix.

More high-end homes and fewer inexpensive ones sold in July. Just over half (51 percent) of sales had mortgages above the old jumbo limit of $417,000, compared with 38.6 percent a year earlier and the low point of 17.1 percent in January 2009.

Federal Housing Administration loans, mostly used by first-time buyers, were 10.6 percent of purchase mortgages in July, down from 16 percent a year earlier. First-time home buyers consistently report getting squeezed out by investors and others paying all cash.

All-cash sales continued to be a strong force, accounting for 24 percent of July purchases, DataQuick said. In February, they peaked at 32.3 percent of sales.

Absentee buyers, who are mainly investors, snapped up 20.9 percent of Bay Area homes in July. Their market share also peaked in February, at 28.7 percent.

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

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bay-Area-home-prices-sales-climb-in-July-4736589.php

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – The real estate tracking firm DataQuick said Thursday that the median price for homes in the nine-county San Francisco Bay area reached $555,000 in June, an increase of 6.9 percent over the previous month.

The real estate data firm is reporting the median year-over-year price paid for a Bay Area home rose at its fastest pace on record in June.

DataQuick said Thursday that the rise was the result of disappearing distress sales, an improving economy and mortgage rates remaining low.

However, the number of homes sold dropped 7.5 percent to 7,897 in June. DataQuick attributes the decrease to the number of homes for sale falling short of demand and an easing of purchases by cash and investor buyers.

The real estate information service says last month’s sales were 20.9 percent below the June average of 9,993 sales.

• See the full DataQuick report and County-by-County sales breakdown

Home prices in the Bay Area are through the roof according to a new study by Data Quick.

Back in 2009, during the depths of the recession, the median price of a home was $290,000. Now that figure is $555,000; six percent higher than last month and 33 percent higher than one year ago.

Data Quick Analyst Andrew LePage said it’s a matter of supply and demand. We’ve seen sales fall on a year-over-year basis for the last five months in a row.

Richard Green with the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California said much of it is the shortage of homes for sale.

“Inventories are very small,” he said adding that there are many more all cash transactions than ever, which drives up the market for higher-end homes and drives up sale prices.

Speculators have said that things could ease with fewer homes underwater, prompting sales and increasing supply. In addition, developers are also starting to build new homes again.

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

Article source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/07/18/median-bay-area-home-price-jumps-again-as-inventory-remains-tight/

advertisement

IMAGES: Famous Homes in San Francisco

LOOK

Bank-Owned $35 Million SF Penthouse Sells

LOOK

More Photos and Videos

The real estate glory days have returned to San Francisco.

The median price for a home in the city is back at the $1 million mark, according to the SFGate.com real estate blog On the Block.

It appears that the data from April reveals a median price increase of 32 percent from 2012, according to the Business Journal. That’s higher than the average list price of $799,000, which means “too many buyers [are] vying for too few properties,” the blog reported.

Supply and demand means that a home that sold at auction in 1998 for $106,500 in Twin Peaks is now listed for $995,000, the blog reported.

In general, sellers are getting 112 percent of their asking prices for San Francisco homes, according to Redfin.

A seller’s market — but could it get any hotter?

Yes. Another home, bought in November 2012 for $875,000, is back on the market, less than a year later — for an asking price of $1.2 million. Will it sell for a 100 percent profit? It could — which is saying something.

Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/SF-Median-Home-Price-Tops-1-Million-211448041.html

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.

Order Reprint

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

(Read More: Could Rentals Be the New Red Flags in Real Estate?)

Healthy housing market gains are historically driven by increasing employment and income, not by lack of supply; the latter leads to price bubbles. First-time home buyers, who generally account for 40 percent of the home-buying market or higher are still under-represented at just 30 percent, according to the Realtors. This is due to tighter credit conditions in the mortgage market and now decreasing affordability.

December’s disappointing drop in home sales, month-to-month is a clear warning for the housing recovery going forward. Rising home prices are not the sole measure of a healthy market. Supply and demand need to fall closer in line, and a robust economic recovery should be driving both home sales and prices.

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

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100397644

Mortgage rates may also be headed higher. Several members of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) thought it would “probably be appropriate to slow or to stop purchases [of assets including mortgage-backed securities] well before the end of 2013,” according to minutes of the committee’s latest meeting. Doing so would push mortgage rates higher. (Read More: Mortgage Recovery Still Rocky.)

Fitch analysts admit price recovery will vary widely depending on the local market conditions, but their case seems more bearish than most. Or is it?

“I personally think that a lot of the price appreciation we’re seeing in many markets right now is because the market of tradable homes is thinner than usual because of high negative equity,” said Zillow’s chief economist Stan Humphries. “This condition will change as home price gains pull homeowners out of negative equity and the market becomes more fluid.”

Zillow’s home value index was up 5.2 percent annually in November, but Humphries expects appreciation over the next twelve months of just 2.5 percent. He cites decreasing unemployment, rent increases, rising household formation and “essentially a five-year hiatus” in home building. (Read More: Most Affordable US Cities.)

Supply and demand, as they always have historically, will determine home prices going forward; unfortunately, both of those are currently too complicated and too economically sensitive to predict.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100355400

The shift in the sales mix is also largely due to a drop in the number of distressed homes for sale. Foreclosures and short sales made up just 22 percent of home sales in November, according to the Realtors, the lowest share in five years. Much of that is due to a lack of supply on the distressed side, as investors continue to compete for these properties to take advantage of the still-lucrative rental market.

The Realtors claim the distressed share of sales will continue to decline in 2013, due to fewer seriously delinquent loans, but banks are now ramping up foreclosures of long-delayed delinquent loans, so there could be another bump in that supply before it finally falls dramatically. Bank repossessionsjumped 11 percent month-to-month in November and saw the first annual increase since 2010, according to RealtyTrac.

Overall, the supply of all homes nationally is at its lowest level in 7 years,, just 4.8 months’ worth at the current sales pace.

(Read More: Best US HousingMarkets for Buyers and Sellers)

“With the homebuyer affordability index near multi-decade highs combined with decent job creation at the same time renting has gotten more expensive — all lead to a continued improvement in sales,” writes Peter Boockvar of Miller Tabak. “This said, sales are still 30 percent below the bubble highs and are still where they were in 1998, both pointing to the degree of possible improvement ahead but also evidence of the damage that was done where historically the pace of recovery takes time.”

(Read More: New Nightmare forHome Builders: Not Enough Skilled Workers)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100331527

Mill Valley, CA (PRWEB) May 26, 2012

James Wavro of the San Francisco property management and leasing firm J.Wavro Associates was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article that covered the lucrative San Francisco rental market, where he explains how competition is driving rental prices sky high.

In the article, Wavro suggests part of the reason the rental market is so competitive in San Francisco is that home prices are so high that rental rates are still much cheaper than mortgage payments. He also says traditional supply and demand economics are in play, as the current boom in the technology sector keeps adding hundreds to thousands of new workers to the Bay Area every year.

This comes as no surprise to people living in San Francisco, as many residents willingly pay the price to rent a property in such a technology-fueled, innovative city. “It’s a competitive market for a reason and the people who live here know they’re paying for a location and lifestyle that are unlike any other city,” explained Wavro.

Trulia’s Winter 2012 Rent vs. Buy Index that was released in March shows just how true this rings. Trulia looked at rental prices and prices of equivalent homes across 100 metro areas, and found that it’s still smarter to rent than buy in only two of those cities, Honolulu and San Francisco.

“We have a long way to go up in rents before we achieve parity with the cost of housing,” Wavro told the Wall Street Journal.

J.Wavro has over a decade of experience finding the best rental properties in San Francisco. The latest available apartments, town-homes and houses for rent in the area can be found at www.jwavro.com.

“It’s a battle for apartments around here, but we have the biggest selection of rental properties in the area and we’ve helped a ton of people get leases.”

For more information about San Francisco property rentals, available apartments for rent, or any of J.Wavro Associates services, call (415) 675-8804 or visit jwavro.com.

About J.Wavro Associates

J.Wavro Associates is a group of licensed real estate professionals specializing in rental property leasing and executive relocation in the San Francisco Bay Area. They specialize in helping to lease rental properties, and have an extensive corporate and private network that allows them to consistently attract suitable tenants. Their Bay Area executive relocation specialists offer rental assistance to people looking to move to the Bay Area or locals looking for a new home. The real estate professionals of J.Wavro Associates can provide a wealth of knowledge on a particular neighborhood or neighborhoods of interest to clients. They will also identify specific properties that fit the client’s exact needs and budget. As part of their executive relocation service, J.Wavro Associates will arrange appointments, provide property tours and assist in lease negotiations.

J.Wavro Associates employs more than 20 licensed real estate professionals who specialize in rental property leasing and executive relocation service in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their leasing services help property owners enjoy the profit from their rental investments without any of the hassle. Their relocation specialists save renters time and money by quickly finding the right apartment to fit their needs.

J.Wavro Associates serves the City of San Francisco and other Bay Area locations including the South Bay and Marin.

For more information about J.Wavro Associates, call them at (415) 675-8804 or visit them on the web at jwavro-sf.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebrental-properties/san-francisco/prweb9538626.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/05/26/prweb9538626.DTL

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/45858675?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS