Home values are rising again in Bay Area

A perusal of the market updates published in real estate-related sites, as well as  trusted sources of financial market like the Wall Street Journal, shows the home prices in some of the major cities of the 9-county San Francisco Bay Area have gone up steadily, with uneven rebound in prices though.

There are instances of profitable home sales, purchased through foreclosure properties and short sale, projected by Wall Street Journal, quoting the real estate website Zillow.com, to show how the home prices compare with the peak period of Bay Area real estate markets from 2005 to 2007.

It is reported that the differences in home prices are visible in San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley cities, compared to the peak quarter of 2006, during the latest quarter ended May 2010. Overall in the SF Bay Area, excepting Napa and Solano counties, the market-rebound can be observed.

Compared to the peak in home prices during the year 2006, there was a fall in prices overall, on an average to $493,625 during May this year. However, it is said that the prices are picking up from the 28 percent fall noted between the two periods.

In a typical home purchase reported from San Jose housing market – a house of four bedrooms; with a swimming pool and two-car garage  – was purchased in April this year, in the middle of a sliding down home prices observed in San Jose home market by 26 percent. The buyer bought the property through short sale, paying $375,000 – a 44% down price when compared to the 2007 peak price of $675,000 for such a property.

The owner is content that he made a worthwhile investment while commenting upon his purchase.

The change in price trend is not even – while it shows huge differences between the peak period and now – as per the above instance, the prices are holding up firm with not much of difference in high-end markets.

To prove this point, another short sale example is quoted from Berkeley Hills Tilden Regional Park area. A two-bedroom house was purchased in March at $650,000 – less by just 13% from the July 2005 peak period price of $750,000, in 5 years.

But the point proved beyond doubt is a short sale can offer you attractive discounts in home buying.

Posted by Amitesh Kumar on Jul 26 2010. Filed under Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry