Homes millbrae blog | homesmillbrae.com

Social media is an echo-chamber of misery over home prices

Posted on May 26, 2018 by

As my colleague Lou Hansen makes clear in his story this week on nosebleed housing prices in the San Francisco Bay Area that continue to make noses bleed, the dream of buying a home in this region remains, for most, just that: a dream.

Thanks to an out-of-whack supply and demand ratio, made worse by a widening wage gap among earners unable to come up with a down payment, the median price in April for a single-family home reached a record $893,000, according to CoreLogic. “Prices for existing homes in the nine-county region jumped 11.6 percent from a year ago,” Hansen writes.

But Hansen isn’t the only one writing about these out-of-control property values. People with virtual pens have taken big-time to social media to comment, vent, rant and rage.

Here’s a sampling:

I think it’s rly unfair that I’ve lived in California my entire life probably will never be able to buy a house in the Bay Area bc these dumbass techies from butt fuck nowhere decided to skyrocket housing prices in the bay

— tat (@teencatm0m) May 23, 2018

The bullish Bay Area housing market delights property owners while it frustrates and dismays home searchers. Median home prices have risen 73 straight months, year-over-year, throughout the region…. https://t.co/xiTHe524xM

— Criterion Homes (@criterionhomes) May 25, 2018

Supply and demand. Rents and house prices have doubled in last five years in Bay Area due to lack of sufficient housing, so yes it’s mainly due to cost of shelter. This is pushing out those with lower incomes to more affordable states.

— Oaklander (@AlexinOak) May 25, 2018

If we look at a graph of housing prices, tech bubble and crunch and current bubble don’t appear. It’s more then just a bay area problem, but all of costal CA, most of which doesn’t have tech. People have moved to California in search of wealth ever since 1849.

— Watson Ladd (@WatsonLadd) May 24, 2018

When lawyer Kate Dowing announced that she would move out of Silicon Valley due to the exorbitant housing prices, the story went viral. It emphasized what many Bay Area residents know all too well: If you come… https://t.co/20285DsIee

— Life in the Bay (@Life_in_the_Bay) May 24, 2018

Bay area housing prices are going to keep going up, pushing more people to commute from places like Livermore. The ridership projects are difficult to forecast given the uncertainties. I think BART would capture far more than the projected additional commuters, but that’s IMHO.

— Andrew Davidson (@AndrewKDavidson) May 24, 2018

wait, one of the model’s core assumptions is that “housing supply appears fairly elastic and rents/house prices appear to be mainly determined by construction costs” i.e. conditions that do not describe anywhere in the Bay Area? pic.twitter.com/1JzFm3ji6r

— Aaron ???????????????? (@aceckhouse) May 24, 2018

This is absolutely true – as housing prices continue to skyrocket, we are seeing a fast increase in homelessness and housing insecurity.

Did you know that 82% of homeless people here lived in… https://t.co/JXRw4gBlSP

— BACS (@CommunitySvcs) May 23, 2018

Amid soaring Bay Area housing prices, a struggle to keep home aides https://t.co/PCETnXUSvr

— Kirsten (@Kirstie_Schultz) May 23, 2018

Housing prices have risen so fast in the Bay Area that I don’t think public perception has kept up. https://t.co/EJsjSrXnSu

— ???????????? (@crzwdjk) May 22, 2018

……..And taxes, and housing costs, and most homeless, and dumbest elected officials, etc, etc, etc….

San Francisco Bay Area has highest gas prices in U.S., just ahead of Memorial Day weekend https://t.co/4rrhbH9OxE

— Bob williamson (@Bobwill72505311) May 25, 2018

Please don’t come to Portland. Our housing prices are skyrocketing because Bay Area transplants come up here flush with cash from selling their property down there!

— lost_grrl (@lost_grrl) May 21, 2018

Well yeah, but part of what’s driving up housing prices right now in Denver/Boulder metro is actual people from SF and the Bay Area flocking here to snatch up the “cheap” real estate, thereby inflating our prices to Bay Area levels

— Erin Blakemore (@heroinebook) May 21, 2018

Sounds great, right? Sounds really great! Ask someone in the Bay Area how many jobs they would need to work in order to make enough to meet the insane cost of living. Housing prices here are astronomical. https://t.co/bpkYZrVbQP

— PositiveTrifecta (@KristianneMrsC) May 19, 2018

@GavinNewsom what are you going to do about the housing prices in the Bay Area? Normal everyday people can’t work live there!

— Ram (@Giantphin831) May 18, 2018

Yes my brother just moved to Denver from the S.F. Bay Area, and my cousin’s daughter did the same. They love it there, but the locals are complaining about richer people moving in, rising housing prices, their kids won’t be able to afford living there when they’re grown, etc..

— AJ Fish (@aljfish) May 17, 2018

As someone living in Sacramento, that has seen housing prices go up due to the influx of Bay Area “investors”, the price point on the initial purchase has nothing to do with anything I’m talking about.

— Jeff C. (@Dawgish1) May 17, 2018

Article source: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/25/bay-area-homebuyers-cant-catch-a-break-and-they-unleash-on-twitter/

Posted in SF Bay Area News | Tagged homes millbrae | Leave a comment

Sacramento home prices jump to highest level since big bubble years

Posted on May 26, 2018 by

Buyers in Sacramento County’s hot but tight home sales market saw prices jump last month to the highest levels since the big bubble years in the mid-2000s.

The median price has now risen every month in the last six years, hitting $357,000 in April, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data company. That’s 12 percent higher than the $317,000 median sales price a year ago.

El Dorado County had the highest median sales price in the region, at $486,000. Placer’s median home price in April was $482,000. Both were up substantially over the past year. Yolo County’s median price took a big leap too, to $467,000.

But, comparatively speaking, the local prices remain bargain basement compared to San Francisco, where the median price for a house topped $1.3 million in April. In the Bay Area as a whole, the median was $850,000.

Despite 72 straight months of increases, Sacramento County’s median is still below the all-time high of $360,000 back in 2006, in the bubble days before the housing price collapse. This April’s number is substantially lower, in fact, than that 2006 median price when counting for inflation, which would cost $442,000 today.

New home sales rose 20 percent during the first four months of the year in Sacramento County compared to the same months last year, a reflection of pent-up demand stemming from nearly a decade when very few new homes were built.

However, sales of existing detached houses rose less than 1 percent, suggesting few homeowners are putting their places on the market this year.

Limited supply, desperate demand: Bay Area home sales blast through new records

Posted on May 25, 2018 by

Don’t blame soaring home prices on the weather or the views of the water or the beautiful hills. Call it simply limited supply and seemingly unlimited, desperate demand.

The median price in April for a single-family home in the Bay Area reached a record $893,000, topping recent record-breaking numbers in the region’s super-heated market, according to a report Thursday from real estate data firm CoreLogic. Prices for existing homes in the nine-county region jumped 11.6 percent from a year ago.

Strong hiring by Silicon Valley firms and historically low inventories of homes for sale — due to a lack of new construction and homeowners staying put — continue to push prices higher. Homeowners have watched their personal wealth grow with soaring property values, while home searchers have contorted their budgets just to get into the market.

“It’s a pretty strong start to the spring home-buying season,” said CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage. “Can we hold the pace?”

The surge in April was led by Santa Clara County, where resale home prices leaped nearly 25 percent from the previous year, hitting a median price of $1.308 million, according to the report. Alameda County homes gained 11.8 percent, setting a new record price at $900,000. San Mateo County rose 7.1 percent to $1.5 million, San Francisco went up 15 percent to $1.565 million, and Contra Costa grew 10 percent to $649,000.

The record-breaking run now is entering the sixth year of year-over-year rising prices. For the last nine months, median sale prices have made double-digit gains, according to CoreLogic.

In a shift, the number of homes for sale increased from last April, with a 7 percent uptick in transactions for a total of 5,315 sales in the Bay Area, according to the data. But total April home sales were still about 16 percent below the historical average from the last three decades. “We’re burning through inventory,” LePage said.

Sandy Jamison of Tuscana Properties in San Jose said sellers are receiving fewer offers, but the bids remain strong. Some homeowners are rejecting offers, hoping the market will continue to rise.

But bids often drop if a home lingers on the market, Jamison said. “If you get a good offer,” she tells sellers, “take it.”

Bay Area buyers are fighting through multiple bids to win a new set of keys and a big mortgage payment.

John Tomlinson, a housing general contractor in San Jose, started looking for a new home in January 2017. His family wanted to expand from their three-bedroom home in Blossom Valley and have room for his aging parents.

He looked at dozens of homes and made 11 unsuccessful bids. “It moves lightning quick,” said Tomlinson, 52, owner of Tomlinson Kitchen and Bath. “You have to move quick.”

Finally, with a new agent, the family found a larger three-bedroom home on just over an acre in Morgan Hill, with room to build. They scheduled an appointment before an open house, arrived 20 minutes early and, after a tour, bid $165,000 over asking price. The sellers accepted their $1.37 million preemptive offer.

Agent Joe Messineo completed the paperwork early the next morning. “It was the fastest (offer) letter I ever put together,” he said.

“We knew the market was hot,” Tomlinson said. But he thinks the trend of multi-generations living under the same roof will grow. “Honestly, I’m not looking at this as a bad investment.”

The swift-moving market has buyers looking for creative ways to jump in.

Rohit Ingale, a 36-year-old engineer in the pharmaceutical industry, wanted to find a property for his young family. Soaring single-family home prices exceeded the budget of the two-income couple, so Ingale and his wife invested in a smaller way.

They decide to continue to rent a home in Walnut Creek while looking to buy a condominium in Emeryville. After a few unsuccessful bids, Ingale closed on a one- bedroom unit for $400,000.

Ingale sees the purchase as a good investment — the unit is already rented — and it allows the family flexibility going forward.

“The market is very competitive,” he said. Watching some of the bidding wars, he thought, “You’re putting out so much money. Is it really worth it?”

The fundamentals of the robust housing market — limited supply, growing demand — point to more increases in the short term, several agents and real estate watchers said.

A normal market would have about as many active listings as pending sales, Messineo said. But pending sales outnumber homes on the market by about 3-1, he said. “We’re in an abnormal market.”

Article source: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/05/24/bay-area-home-prices-blast-through-new-records/

Posted in SF Bay Area News | Tagged homes millbrae | Leave a comment