Home prices were up over 12 percent in the nation’s top 20 housing markets in July, according to a report this week from SP/Case-Shiller. While the price gains are moderating, the jumps make it increasingly difficult for first-time home buyers to get into the housing market.

(Read more: Forget easing prices, new homes are up, up, up)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101065140

The median price of $540,000 paid across the nine-county region was up 31.7 percent from a year earlier, said DataQuick of San Diego. Meanwhile, the 8,616 new and resale homes and condos that changed hands in August were 0.6 percent shy of the number sold in August 2012.

“No matter which price gauge or index you look at, prices are up a lot – much more than people had expected,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. “The median has been up around 30 percent (compared with the previous year) for the past five months, but I don’t expect that this rate of increase will continue much longer.”

Several trends should soon slow the growth, including rising mortgage interest rates, more homes for sale, fewer cash-paying investors, and dwindling of bargain distress sales.

More homes to see

Real estate agents said that rising inventory is quite apparent.

“I’m definitely starting to see more houses for sale,” said Corey Weinstein, an agent with Red Oak Realty in the East Bay. “The brokers’ tour list for this week was bigger. The Sunday open house guide was a lot longer. There’s an optimism among buyers that there is a lot more out there to see.”

One result is that bidding wars, while still a factor, now involve just a handful of potential buyers, rather than a dozen.

Increasingly more homeowners are finding out that the math works out for them to sell now.

Graham Humphreys and Anissa Burnley are listing their three-plus bedroom Cape Cod-style home near Oakland’s Glen Echo Creek, close to lower Piedmont Avenue and Adams Point.

“We bought the house in 2005 at the peak of the market,” Humphreys said. “It’s a beautiful house that we absolutely loved, but in the interim, like a lot of people, we had our time of being underwater, our time when we might have wanted to move but couldn’t sell.”

Better for buyers

Now as they seek more space for a growing family, they’re able to put it on the market, asking $679,000, a bit more than the $644,000 they paid.

“In the space of a couple of years, it’s gone from a relatively dire situation for many of us to an opportunity for both the sellers and buyers,” Humphreys said. “Everything has changed.”

For home buyers who’ve faced frustrating bidding wars and dearth of inventory, the increase in for-sale listings is welcome news.

“Home shopping should be much more enjoyable this fall than it was earlier in the year,” LePage said. “People will still bemoan the increase in prices, but there will be more homes to choose from. The typical home buyer won’t feel as rushed.”

Around the Bay Area some of the biggest price increases were in lower-cost counties. Solano County saw the median jump 46.1 percent, albeit starting from a low base. It is now $277.500. Contra Costa’s median was up 40.9 percent to $420,250.

The rising prices helped fuel another trend: Condo sales hit an eight-year high for the month of August with 1,960 changing hands at a median price of $445,000.

Lower-priced condos are typically a way that first-time buyers get a foothold in the market when they’re priced out of single-family homes in their desired area.

As is normal in the late summer, both price and sales dipped in August compared with the previous month. The median was 3.9 percent short of July’s $562,000 median, and sales were down 7.7 percent from July.

Home values increase

About three-quarters of the median’s rise stemmed from an actual increase in home values, with the remainder being due to a changing market mix.

Distress sales were less than half the level of a year ago. Foreclosure resales accounted for 4.6 percent of August resales (the same as in July) versus 14.5 percent a year earlier. That 4.6 percent is the lowest share since August 2007, just before the credit crunch hit.

Short sales, or homes sold for less than is owed on the mortgage, were 10 percent of resales, down from 23.3 percent in August 2012.

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

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Bay-Area-home-sales-subside-but-prices-increase-4813295.php

(Read more: Banks hit the brakes on mortgage operations)

The summer has not proved much better for the builders. Mortgage applications to purchase a newly built home dropped 14 percent from July, according to a new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Still, demand is there, and after building next to nothing during the housing crash, U.S. builders are now faced with renewing the nation’s housing stock. That, Pulte executives say, is why innovation is so important.

“When I was at my first conference, I met someone and referenced that I was doing market research,” said Ian Wild, Pulte’s director of market research. “The fellow said, ‘Let me tell you how I do market research. I get in my car and I drive down the road to the competition and I say what’s selling and why?’ And as a result of that, the innovation in the home building industry is, well, there’s very little.”

So on a hot September morning, with the roar of O’Hare’s traffic overhead, small groups of homeowners wind their way through the rows of homes in frames of back doors and out frames of front doors, gripping their clipboards and checklists, and eyeing every detail and every measure of space.

“It’s much easier than looking at a blueprint, where you keep turning it around trying to understand which way the door swings. Will this be this way?” asked Chicago-area homeowner Sasha Zingerman, motioning. “It’s much more comprehendible, and you can physically picture yourself in that space. You could see how you would orient yourself there.”

The subjects are paid to offer their opinions, and after the tours they sit down with a moderator to tell what they like, and more importantly what they do not like.

(Read more: Jobs report tempers mortgage rates)

“I like how it all flows together. It’s open, it’s airy, there’s a lot of light coming in. It seems like a happy environment,” said one woman.

Pulte gets at least five new design ideas from each of these events, which are held across the country, according to Wahl. The latest trends are full home automation (running every system in the home through a smartphone), larger mud rooms, or as Pulte calls them, Everyday Entries. Dining rooms are out, larger kids’ bathrooms are in.

“I don’t think I would ever use the formal dining room, so it would be a wasted space for a room that I don’t use often enough,” added another.

After living through the worst housing crash since the Great Depression, today’s home buyers are more skeptical and less trusting of home builders. Some blame builders for throwing up far too many houses, selling them to speculators and turning a blind eye to an overheated market that was bound to bust. They are treading back in slowly and finding higher prices.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101029507

What a difference two months (and 1.11%) makes: Higher rates mean this Brisbane condo would now pencil out to $254 more a month (Kiesha Stephens/Redfin)

Mortgage interest rates are on a tear. Last week they registered their sharpest one-week spike in years, hitting 4.46% for a fixed-rate 30-year home loan, according to Freddie Mac. Less than two months earlier, the rate was 3.35%.

Today’s Chronicle looks at the impact on the housing market; click here for the story.

Is a percentage more really that big a deal? Well, just ask all the folks who refinanced to carve that 1% off their mortgage rate.

Those who have not yet refinanced, perhaps because they were either underwater or close to it (lacking that magic 20% equity) are getting worried they may be out of luck. It’s a balancing act to see what will happen faster: Higher home values to increase their equity or higher mortgage rates that will make a refi less attractive.

Some home buyers, as well as those refinancing, may see the rising rates as motivation to get in the game.

“The rate increase spurred a lot of people to pull the trigger,” said Jay Voorhees, owner/broker of JVM Lending in Walnut Creek. “We’ve had an uptick in volume recently with both purchases and refinances.”

In his blog, mortgage broker Julian Hebron of RPM Mortgage in San Francisco discusses the possibility that rates could hit 5% in the near future.

While many experts say the housing market as a whole is likely to shrug off the higher rates, for some individual buyers, especially those on a shoestring budget, the impact will be stronger.

Consider these two homes now on the market, a condo very close to the Bay Area median, and a more high end home. Assuming a standard 20% down payment, look at what the monthly mortgage payments would be under today’s rate, and what it would have been in early May with the 3.35% rate.

This Brisbane two-bedroom condo “steps from the great outdoors,” (at top) is listed at $499,000. At today’s rate of 4.6%, monthly mortgage payments would be $2,017.  Monthly payments at 3.35% would be $1,763, or $254 less.

This San Jose 5-bedroom with an “inviting floor plan” and “lush backyard” in the Cambrian neighborhood (below)  lists at $889,000. The monthly cost at 4.6%: $3,587.  At 3.35%: 3,135. The difference: $452 a month. (Caveat: In reality this jumbo mortgage might mean a higher rate, but the spread between two months ago and now would be consistent.)

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. For Bay Area real estate news and insights, follow  her on Twitter: @csaid

This 5-bedroom in San Jose’s Cambrian neighborhood lists for $889,000. (Ashley Rabello/Redfin)

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/06/30/mortgage-interest-rates-on-upswing-heres-the-pocketbook-impact/

“This implies a continuation of double-digit price increases from a year earlier, with a strong push from pent-up demand.”

(Read More: Rising Mortgage Rates Cause ‘Rush to ARMs’)

The average rate on the 30-year fixed conforming mortgage is up about 100 basis points from the beginning of May to around 4.5 percent. The rate spiked the most in the past week, before these May contracts were signed.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100847085

Concerns about rising mortgage rates, which spiked in to the mid-4 percent range in just the past week, have dampened expectations for home price gains this summer. Analysts also worry that prices are rising too fast, far faster than income growth, and will soon price too many potential buyers out of the housing market.

“Today’s Case-Shiller numbers may reflect where the housing market has been in some of the frothier metros, but they are not indicative of where it’s headed,” said Zillow’s chief economist, Stan Humphries. “The housing market worm has turned over the past few weeks—inventory levels are beginning to show signs of easing, and mortgage interest rates are creeping up. Going forward, both of these factors will help mitigate extreme price spikes caused by very strong housing demand and very low housing supply.”

This latest report only tracks prices on a three-month moving average through the end of April, well before mortgage rates began their climb. Still, Blitzer contends that rising rates will not slow price gains.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100839986

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If you’re looking for a home in the Bay Area, you will probably need two things on your side: luck, and a lot of cash.

Those who aren’t willing to compete with up to dozens of other offers on a home are now trying to buy it – hours after it’s listed on the market.

The new trend has been dubbed by realty experts as “flash sales” – any sale that happens within 24 hours.

For example, a home in East Palo Alto on Gates Street was put on the market on March 19. It got nine offers the same day and sold for above asking price within 24 hours.

Glenn Kelman, CEO of online real estate brokerage Redfin which is set up in 19 U.S. markets, said that trend is growing in the Bay Area and calls it “Ground Zero” for an incredibly hot housing market, one that experienced an incredible boom at the start of 2013 in January.

“In the Bay Area in the past six months, we’ve seen 1,000 homes get under contract in less than 24 hours. It used to be a fast sale was three days – now, it’s three hours,” Kelman said.

Ken DeLeon, a realtor, said his latest listing is a 1200 square foot home in Palo Alto that he just put on the market Thursday. “The amazing part is just within 24 hours, we already had a client with a Chinese all-cash buyer offer us more than 300,000 above and we said, ‘No thank you, please wait,’” DeLeon said.

He and other realtors said they’re still catering to those wealthy foreign buyers, mostly from China and Russia; however, with historic-low mortgage interest rates and an inventory that’s also hitting record lows, they said the competitive cash offers are no longer limited to the high-end homes.

“That’s the main trend. It’s spreading out to other neighborhoods that once weren’t so hot,” added Kelman.

The Silicon Valley Association of Realtors compiled data from MLS listings for the South Bay. According to its numbers, for single family homes between February 2012 and February 2013, inventory was slashed by 52 percent in Santa Clara Country and 44 percent in San Mateo County.

Both experienced more than 30 percent in increase of median sale price. Redfin’s numbers show just how competitive it’s gotten in the last couple of months.

A San Francisco home in the Sunset District had 29 offers, a townhouse in Oakland got 15, and one on Dauphine Avenue in Fremont was hit with a stunning 65 offers. That house eventually sold for at least $100,000 more than the half-a-million asking price.

“There are sometimes traffic jams outside open houses,” said Kelman. “Folks get worried they can’t wait for the offer deadline on Sundays, so they make a preemptive strike to try and buy it on the spot.”

He said Redfin and other companies offer “mobile alerts” that let customers know almost immediately after there’s a new listing on the market. He believes that has also contributed to the high competition and quick sales.

Both he and DeLeon agreed on one more thing: the only relief, if it comes, will be when people decide to start selling, and when you’re talking about the Bay Area, there is no way to predict when that will happen, or if prices will go up or down.

“I hate it when people ask me about Bay Area real estate because it defies all the laws of physics,” Kelman lamented. “When you look at Chicago real estate, Atlanta real estate, you know what goes up must come down. It’s going to act like a normal economic market, but in the Bay Area, it seems there’s all sorts of money from the tech economy. There’s all sorts of people who want to move here for the sun. I can’t way when it will ever let up.”

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Real-Estate-Flash-Sales-Prove-Market-Is-Hot--199652731.html

The median home price in Marin also rose to $650,000 last month, a 21.4 percent increase over February 2012 and a $10,000 jump from the median sale price in the county in January.

Marin fell in line with regional and statewide real estate trends last month, which saw fewer homes sales than in February 2012, according to figures provided by DataQuick, a San Diego-based analysis service.

Sales are generally flat from January to February, according to DataQuick’s analysts.

Marin saw a slight decline in the number of homes sold between February 2013 (201 homes) and February 2012 (203 homes). But more homes were sold in Marin County in February than in January of this year, when 181 houses traded hands.

The median price of a home sold in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area skyrocketed nearly 25 percent when comparing February 2013 to February 2012, the data showed. The median has had a double-digit year-over-year increase the last nine months, and the past four months have seen gains above 20 percent.

Other interesting real estate market facts this month? DataQuick supplied these:

• The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,460. That was down from $1,479 in January, and up from $1,243 a year ago.
• The most active lenders to Bay Area home buyers last month were Wells Fargo with 15.0 percent of the market, Stearns Lending with 4.0 percent, and RPM Mortgage with 3.7 percent.
• Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 13.6 percent in the Bay Area in February. That’s the lowest since November 2007.

“…[W]ith 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,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. “This spring is going to be interesting.”

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Article source: http://larkspurcortemadera.patch.com/articles/marin-home-prices-rose-more-than-20-percent-in-february-323dc8ba

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.

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