It’s been a bumpy week, so let’s take a look at what’s happening in Bay Area real estate:
- East Bay—Berkeley continues to struggle with low inventory in some of its core markets including Berkeley, Albany, Kensington and El Cerrito. Just to give you an idea, there was a mob scene at a new Berkeley listing the other day despite the fact that it was a 60-step walk-up to the door and there were two football games playing and a street fair down the street. Castro Valley remains a hot spot for the first time home buyer with the market sizzling in the $275,000 to $350,000 range. Fremont is reporting that REOs continue to drive much of its market and CB’s Livermore office noted that of the seven new pending sales this week, five were REOs and four of those five were at or below $215,000—these are prices we haven’t seen in years, folks. Lamorinda, which hasn’t been quite as affected by REOs is reporting that the market remains steady, though Agents who have had trouble putting deals together due to financing issues, are finally starting to see success—a good sign (hopefully) of things to come.
- Monterey County—The market remained steady this week with a total of 17 ratified offers.
- North Bay—Marin County, according to CB’s Greenbrae office, seemed to be impacted by the news on Wall Street. Buyers in this market were a bit skittish this week as they watched things unfold on the nightly news. Having said that, Agents were still quite busy with activity and searches so we’ll wait to see if those housing searches translate into ratified sales over the next several weeks. CB’s San Rafael office is noting that some condos in San Rafael are listed at an all time low of $125,000 and Novato is seeing an increase in activity in the $400,000-500,000 price point. Our Southern Marin office reported a well-priced waterfront Larkspur listing had four offers in the first weekend. Sonoma County sales continue to thrive thanks to REOs. Petaluma reported this week that four out of the six multiple-offer sales had 10 or more multiple offers. Santa Rosa reports that the under $500,000 market is moving quickly with anything above (typically) sitting.
- Peninsula—News on the coast is bright! CB’s Half Moon Bay office reported that listings are up 40% this week, the largest increase in listings in several years. Overall the Peninsula seems to be enjoying a pick-up in the market this week, largely due to an increase in new inventory. Menlo Park Santa Cruz Avenue is reporting that new listings hit last week and more are to come; buyers, however, seem to be playing the wait and see game. Our Redwood City/San Carlos office reported that buyers are looking but aren’t quite ready to commit.
- San Francisco—Lots of new inventory in the City! The well priced listings are going quickly—some with multiple offers—as evidenced by our Market Street office’s news that all but one property this week received three or more offers. Our Lombard office noted that San Francisco is at a good inventory balance right now which creates a positive environment for both buyers and sellers. The Van Ness office is reporting that things are picking up (as expected after the Labor Day holiday) in all price ranges.
- Silicon Valley—Things are looking pretty bright for Silicon Valley real estate. Cupertino DeAnza notes that “things are picking up and there is a lot of optimism.” Los Altos First Street reports that buyers are still lining up for a few select properties. We had one very nicely redone and staged Cupertino townhome listed at $588,000. The listing had 14 offers and sold in the mid $600,000s. Los Altos San Antonio reports that we are seeing more floor time activity including a walk-in that translated into a $3 million listing and a floor call on a $1.5 million listing. While the news throughout Silicon Valley seems to be good, San Jose Almaden did report that the Wall Street news was ruffling quite a few feathers and was causing concern for some. We’ll have to watch as this plays out over the next few weeks and I would once again caution would be buyers that despite the economic hardships that our nation is enduring right now, real estate remains one of the strongest investments that you can put your dollar towards.
- South County—The market seems to be relatively stable, driven largely by REOs. We saw a limited number of multiple offers this week, almost all were on REO properties.
Okay, so in looking at it, yes, the nation’s economic news did nothing to help our wallets this week. Some are still sobbing over their investment portfolios. But as you can see, real estate has remained pretty stable in the face of the negative news on Wall Street. Real estate values don’t ever reset to zero like you are seeing in some of the equities markets right now. There is only so much desirable land in our metropolitan areas, and as a result, real estate has always been more resilient than most other financial investments. Overall it appears buyers are starting to get the idea that it may just be time to get into the housing market and sitting on the sidelines may cost them plenty—in terms of higher prices, higher interest rates and less inventory.
