What the experts say about market trends in Bay Area?

Bay area latest market trends – as reported by DataQuick Information Systems – are as follows:
Median price of homes sold fell below the $500,000 mark for the first time in the last 4 years to $485,000 in June 2010 – down by 6.2 percent from $517,000 reported in May this year. The total sales of new, resale homes and condos in June were 7,178 in June 2010 – an increase of 15.5 percent from 6,216 properties in May. Industry experts at DataQuick say although June sales were the highest since last August, it was still the second lowest June in their statistical records, which go back to 1988. The last of lower home sales in SF Bay Area in June was in 1993 – when 7,118 housing properties were sold. Between last September and this March, each calendar month had been the slowest on record for that particular month. Over the past few months, home sales figures fared better, since bargain hunters descended on many inland markets, where home prices have fallen the most – oftentimes nearly 30 percent and more from their peaks. Also wherever foreclosure properties sale is in the highest levels, there exist the biggest discounts in sale prices.
The share of foreclosure properties sale was 28.7 percent of all Bay Area resales – showing an upward trend from the month of May, where it was 27.6 percent and really huge compared to 3.5 percent share recorded last year. San Francisco contributed mere 3 percent of foreclosure sales out of the total sales and in Solano County it was as high as 57.7 percent. John Walsh, DataQuick president commented thus – “Once again the quest for a bargain kept Bay Area home sales out of record-low territory; so far it’s been mostly the inland areas where prices have dropped enough to rejuvenate sales; our latest stats might be signaling greater price reductions on the coast, where sales have been severely restrained by several factors; higher prices; tighter lending guidelines,inadequate liquidity for jumbo mortgages and depreciation in inland areas that’s left
home owners there with less equity with which to purchase a home on the coast.”

Posted by Amitesh Kumar on Jun 28 2010. Filed under Foreclosures, Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry