Those workers need more trucks, which has been a boon to companies like Ford and General Motors, which saw sales of pick-ups jump 24 percent and 23 percent respectively.

(Read More: Here’s Why Pick-up Truck Sales are Surging)

Retailers are also seeing the effects of housing growth. Homeowners spend an average $7,400 furnishing a newly built home, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

“Spending at furniture and appliance stores is finally coming back, which has meant more hires there since the start of the year,” added Swonk.

Home prices were up just over 10 percent nationally in February, according to CoreLogic, which continues to bring thousands of homeowners out from underwater on their mortgages. That has allowed more borrowers to refinance to lower monthly payments, which in turn gives them more spending money. It also gives them more confidence that they will be able to afford more in the coming year.

(Read More: Back in Business: Jobs Picture Brightens in April)

“Consumers’ views regarding the housing market have been increasingly more positive,” noted Fannie Mae’s chief economist Doug Duncan. “Our April National Housing Survey, to be released next Tuesday, is expected to show that the housing market is gradually approaching its sweet spot, as the share of consumers who believe that it is a good time to buy remains high while the share of those who think it is a good time to sell continues its upward trend witnessed over the past year.”

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100705522

Sales of newly built homes fell nearly five percent in February, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Inventories did rise, but only slightly, as the nation’s home builders struggle with labor and land shortages, as well as higher costs for materials.

(Read More: Finally: Supply of Homes for Sale Begins to Rise)

Pending home sales fell 2.5 percent month-to-month in the Northeast, rose 0.4 percent in the Midwest, fell 0.3 percent in the South and rose 0.1 percent in the West, according to the Realtors.

“The volume of home sales appears to be leveling off with the constrained inventory conditions, and the leveling of the index means little change is likely in the pace of sales over the next couple months,” Yun added.

(Read More: Map: Tracking the USReal Estate Recovery)

A better sign for March, after two weeks of declines, mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped 7 percent during the past week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This as interest rates fell slightly, due to concerns over the banking crisis in Cyprus.

“The rebound in mortgage applications is a small piece of a brighter housing outlook,” says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. “Interest rates are still at record lows despite their upward trend, and consumers are taking advantage of record home affordability. Look for more buyers to enter the market this spring and a more robust housing recovery to occur.”

(Read More: Compare Mortgage Rates in Your Area)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100596583

Sales of newly built homes fell nearly five percent in February, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Inventories did rise, but only slightly, as the nation’s home builders struggle with labor and land shortages, as well as higher costs for materials.

(Read More: Finally: Supply of Homes for Sale Begins to Rise)

Pending home sales fell 2.5 percent month-to-month in the Northeast, rose 0.4 percent in the Midwest, fell 0.3 percent in the South and rose 0.1 percent in the West, according to the Realtors.

“The volume of home sales appears to be leveling off with the constrained inventory conditions, and the leveling of the index means little change is likely in the pace of sales over the next couple months,” Yun added.

(Read More: Map: Tracking the USReal Estate Recovery)

A better sign for March, after two weeks of declines, mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped 7 percent during the past week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This as interest rates fell slightly, due to concerns over the banking crisis in Cyprus.

“The rebound in mortgage applications is a small piece of a brighter housing outlook,” says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. “Interest rates are still at record lows despite their upward trend, and consumers are taking advantage of record home affordability. Look for more buyers to enter the market this spring and a more robust housing recovery to occur.”

(Read More: Compare Mortgage Rates in Your Area)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100596583

Overall, U.S. home prices registered their biggest annual climb since summer 2006, rising 8.1 percent compared with last year, according to the SP/Case-Shiller composite index. Every one of the 20 major metropolitan areas Case-Shiller tracks posted year-over-year gains. The annual gains accelerated in 19 of the markets, with Detroit the only exception.

“The number that jumps off the page is San Francisco’s 17.5 percent increase in the past 12 months,” David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee for SP Dow Jones Indices, said. “That’s pretty big. Only one city, Phoenix (with a 23.2 percent increase), did better. Compared to the low points, you’re way up there, about 25 percent over the low. It’s a strong comeback.”

Resale homes

Case-Shiller defines the San Francisco metro area as Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties. The index tracks sales of the same single-family houses over time, comparing changes with a base value of 100, which represents values as of January 2000.

The San Francisco index is now 147.45, meaning that prices are 47.45 percent above their January 2000 level. The region’s index peaked at 218.37 in May 2006 and hit a low of 117.74 in March 2009 – so prices are still 32.5 percent below their peak, according to the index.

Several forces propel the upward trend, notably an improving economy, low interest rates, tight inventory and fewer foreclosures.

The San Francisco area “is the second-leading place in the country in job creation (after Houston), and doesn’t build a lot of houses, so supply is very tight,” said Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley. “We added 210,000 jobs to the Bay Area in the past 2 1/2 years – that’s a lot of people.”

Similar forces are driving the rental market, which is also experiencing big price run-ups. Exacerbating that situation, the tight for-sale inventory “is forcing a lot of people who want to be buyers to remain as renters,” Rosen said.

Rosen and others said Case-Shiller actually understates the turnaround – prices have risen even more than the index can capture. In part, that’s because it has a long lag time, measuring prices in January. Real estate service DataQuick, for instance, reported that February median sales prices in the nine-county Bay Area were up 24.6 percent compared with the same time in 2012.

“I would say Case-Shiller under-represents,” said Charmaine Frank, Redfin real estate’s area manager for San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Marin counties. “The market has taken a pretty dramatic turn since January.”

Cash is the fuel

Like agents throughout the Bay Area, she said there are “enormous bidding wars going on. We see upwards of 40 to 60 offers on some properties; typically the top five to eight will be all-cash buyers.”

The numerous cash sales help fuel price appreciation, she said, because buyers skip getting an appraisal since they don’t have a mortgage. Appraisals, which rely on recent comparable sales, would moderate the rapid run-up.

“There’s a huge shortage of homes on the market right now,” said Cindi Hagley, a broker with the Hagley Group at Prudential California Realty in San Ramon. “For example, there are only 12 single-family homes for sale in Dublin right now. Ordinarily there should be 100 to 150 homes for sale there.”

Patrick Newport, U.S. economist with market analyst Global Insight, said that the rising home prices should help boost the economy further. “They stimulate new construction, and they also help consumer spending because they raise the value of people’s homes,” he said.

With multiple bids and properties selling well above asking price, could another real estate bubble be forming?

“Not yet,” said Rosen. “If they keep (interest) rates this low for two more years, the answer is yes.”

“This time, rapidly rising prices are a good thing,” Newport said. “A lot of homeowners are underwater; this helps them come out of that.”

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

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Home-prices-in-Bay-Area-up-17-5-in-January-4386974.php

Zillow on Thursday released new data on the potential impact of Facebook Inc.’s 
 

Facebook Inc.
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IPO on real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Zillow is a home and real estate marketplace that aims to empower consumers with information and tools to make decisions about homes, real estate and mortgages.

The company suggests that for cities near the social networking company’s Menlo Park headquarters, median home values are more than $2 million. In nearby places such as San Jose or Francisco, buyers can pay a quarter of the amount for the same home.

During the three months between Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) IPO filing and its IPO debut, Zillow noted an upward trend of $1 million plus homes for sale — the number of $1 million listings in Menlo Park increased 87 percent during this time period.

Zillow also analyzed what a $1 million, 1,580-square-foot home in Menlo Park would buy elsewhere around the country.

Click here to see Zillow’s graphic representing the data.

Written by Lisa Sibley. She can be reached at 408.299.1830 or lsibley@bizjournals.com.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2012/06/07/zillow-weighs-on-facebook-effect-on.html

By Brandon Cornett | 3/16/11

Reader Question: “We live in Oakland but are considering a move soon. We have an appointment with a real estate agent to go look in Livermore and San Ramon, California. Can you tell me anything about the real estate market in these areas, or the San Francisco Bay Area in general? I’m wondering about home prices and how much they’ve come down. Are we at the bottom? Would now be a good time to buy?”

Bay Area Home Prices Real Estate Trends

The real estate market in the Bay Area is very diverse, in terms of home prices. There’s a lot of price differential from one city to the next, and sometimes from one neighborhood to the next within the same city. With that said, I don’t think the Bay Area as a whole has hit bottom yet. In fact, they just experienced one of the biggest price drops of any metro area in the U.S.

According to Altos Research, home prices in the San Francisco metro area declined by 3.53% from January to February. The 90-day trend showed an even bigger decline: “All 27 of the major markets tracked by Altos showed price decreases during the most recent quarter, most significantly in San Francisco … which showed declines of 9.31%.”

Here’s a must-read article from the Wall Street Journal. It talks about San Francisco home prices in 2010, but the article was published recently. So it will give you some insight into where the market has been, and where it might be headed.

San Ramon home prices seem to be stabilizing faster than Livermore, but both areas could see continued declines in the coming months. San Ramon looks like it might (keyword “might”) be bouncing along the bottom right now. This would mean small ups and down for the near future, with an upward trend in the next 6 – 12 months. Just note that I used the word might two times in that sentence.

A lot of San Francisco real estate agents will point to the steady appreciation that occurred during the first half of 2010. But this was almost entirely due to the California tax credit for home buyers, which has since expired. It was artificial market stimulation that evaporated when the government stopped the incentive.

Real estate agents will say anything to make things seem better than they really are — it’s in their interest to do so. You can’t blame them really. You just have to take it with a grain of salt. On a side note, if your agent wants to throw tomatoes at me when reading this, please make sure they’re organic.

And then there’s the whole foreclosure situation. I think foreclosures will drive inventories up through most of this year, which puts even more downward pressure on home prices. RealtyTrac already predicted a 20% rise in foreclosure filings for 2011, with an all-time high occurring sometime this year.

I’d Buy Outside of San Francisco

What does all this mean? You can probably expect further declines in home prices for most cities in San Francisco metro area. But the true bottom may not be far off. I’d buy a house in the outskirts right now, but probably not within the city of San Francisco. I think the outlying cities are going to see some appreciation much sooner than the metro.

Even if prices drop a little after you buy a house, it’s probably nothing to worry about. Barring another housing crisis, you’ll start seeing some appreciation soon — and it could be significant appreciation.

You have more bargaining power than the seller does right now. But tread carefully when making an offer. Some homeowners realize that it’s a tough market to sell in, so they’ve priced their homes competitively. Despite the sluggish housing market, a multiple-offer scenario could still occur if the home is priced well. So if you come in and low-ball the homeowner out of a false sense of security, you could see your offer rejected. In other words, you should make your offer based on the realism of the asking price.

This article makes a good companion piece for everything we’ve just discussed:
Is now a good time to buy a home?

Disclaimer: This QA response contains forward-looking statements about real estate prices in the San Francisco area. These statements are based on information available at this time. The real estate market changes rapidly. So these remarks should not be taken as gospel.

Filed under Home Prices

Article source: http://www.homebuyinginstitute.com/news/san-francisco-prices-155/