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Bay Area homes sales struggle for recovery in 2012

Istvan Fekete — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:59:53 +0000

Across the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area last year was a puzzle with contrary trends, but the main trend was declining home prices for single-family houses and large areas of depressed sales.

However, Bay Area realtors are convinced that a better year is ahead. Looking at the nine-county area, sales of single-family homes in Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara were close to flat from 2010 and about 50% of their 2004 peak, as DataQuick reported Wednesday.

THe median price for a single-family home in the area dropped below the $416,000 median recorded in 2010 to $390,000, the lowest since 2001.

The numbers published by DataQuick show that in San Mateo County December’s median price ($535,000) was down 11.6% from a month prior. However, this was the biggest decline reported in the area, with Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties reporting a light 4% decline in median prices.

Some real estate agents say the downward trend is triggered by a rising number of foreclosures and short sales, that influenced the housing market last year, while low volume of sales was tied to difficulties prying mortgages out of banks and the reluctance of sellers to list their homes at current low prices.

“We’ll remember 2011 as much for what didn’t happen as for what did,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. Except “at the very top of the market,” credit, negative equity and an uncertain economy kept people away, he said.

Bay Area foreclosures drop sharply

Istvan Fekete — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:32:56 +0000

The San Francisco Bay Area has joined the line of the states with dropping foreclosure filings. Although the reason behind the drop can be the holiday foreclosure seizure, it is still encouraging.

RealtyTrac released its monthly report and annual look-back recently, covering the nine-county Bay Area housing market. According to the press release, RealtyTrac believes that rising number of short sales and the robo-signing scandal are the main factors behind the decline of foreclosure filings.

The numbers are the following: Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo county foreclosure dropped 20% from 2010, while in the whole state of California dropped 21% and nationwide 34%.

Santa Clara County reported 1,234 foreclosures for December, a 38% decline from November’s 2,012 foreclosures and down 27% from the 1,691 foreclosures in December 2010.

Last year, Contra Costa County had the highest rate of foreclosures in the South Bay and East Bay, with slightly more than 4% of all homes, or one in every 24. San Mateo County had the lowest rate of foreclosures – one in every 60 homes, or about 1.7%. In Alameda County, 2.7% of all homes had some kind of foreclosure action in 2011, while less than 2% of Santa Clara County homeowners were affected, the Contra Costa Times writes.

Bay Area home values suffered a huge loss, cratering the area’s economy

Istvan Fekete — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:00:15 +0000

Recent studies show that Bay Area homes lost more than 33% of a trillion dollars in value since the financial crisis hit the country four years ago.

The numbers calculated by DataQuick are shocking: the loss in home vale in five Bay Area counties from 2007 to 2011 was $387 billion, which is a 33% drop.

The hardest hit county was Contra Costa, while Alameda ranked second, followed by Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco

The DataQuick report cited by Contra Costa Times show that from 2007 to 2011, homes in Oakland lost an average of $350,000, Concord $289,000; San Jose $267,000 and San Francisco $205,000.

Now, with the new crediting standard, fewer buyers receive green light from banks for new mortgage loans. New home equity lines of credit originated by banks have dropped in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties by nearly 90%, from $6.1 billion issued in the second quarter of 2007 to $674 million in the third quarter of this year, DataQuick’s recently published report highlights.The East Bay has seen a 37% decline in the number of specialty contractors since 2007; the Silicon Valley has seen a 28% drop.

Bay Area high-end home sales decline

Istvan Fekete — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:00:47 +0000

Bay Area luxury home sales dropped in November compared to a year ago, according to DataQuick’s latest report issued Wednesday. The drop is mostly due to the holiday season and uncertain economy.

DataQuick’s data show a double digit drop in luxury home sales or properties priced above $800,000 in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

On the other hand, with the Congress dropping the limit on Fannie and Freddie loans from $729,750 to $625,500 acted as a drawback preventing some people to think about purchasing higher-priced properties.

The median sales price also dropped in eight of the nine counties, with Santa Clara making the exception, recording a significant increase of 3% reaching the $525,000 median price.

Contra Costa County’s median was $260,000, which is unchanged since last November. Alameda’s median dropped to $387,000 and so did San Mateo County’s median, where it dropped to $605,000.

“Sales of homes priced at $500,000 to $800,000 rose 5.8% compared with a year earlier in Santa Clara County,” DataQuick reported. Contra Costa County saw a slight gain in the sales of single-family homes priced at $300,000 to $500,000.

Negative equity on the rise in Bay Area

Istvan Fekete — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:00:26 +0000

The number of Bay Area homeowners who are underwater is up 22.8% compared to a year ago, Zillow’s recent report highlighted.
“Negative equity is growing because you still have foreclosures happening so the housing values are still declining,” said Svenja Gudell, senior economist for Zillow. “As home values decline, negative equity will increase.”
Alameda County reports 20.2% of homes underwater, a 2.5% increase from 17.7%, and in Solano County, 55.4% of homes were underwater, up from 51.5%.
However, not all areas were affected; for instance Santa Clara County, recorded a drop in negative equity as 12% of homes are underwater, while a year ago there were 12.8%.But the report shows Santa Clara as an exception. San Mateo County recorded a 3% rise in negative equity with its 13.7%, up from 10.7% reported in Qs of 2010. .
“Negative equity is still among us. We are still surrounded by it,” said Jeff Pereyda, a broker-realtor with Tri-City Real Estate Brokers in Fremont. “Some are in negative equity and don’t need to sell. Some are in negative equity and need to sell. We’re seeing only the ones that need to sell.”

Bay Area foreclosure activity down

Istvan Fekete — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:00:18 +0000

Fewer Bay Area homeowners received notice of default in July than a year ago, but the improvement is not a sign that the housing crisis is slowing.
This drop is due to an increase in short sales and loan modifications, said Daren Blomquist, manager of communications and marketing for RealtyTrac.
“It’s because foreclosure-prevention programs are having a bigger impact. The problem with that is that unless the economy and home prices and unemployment improves, those foreclosure-prevention programs, at the end of the day, are really short-term Band-Aid solutions,” Blomquist said. “There is still a lot of risk baked into the market.”
In Santa Clara County, 593 notices of default went out, down 22% from last month, and down 14% from a year ago. Another 294 homes became bank-owned, up 5% from June, but down 1% from 2010. In San Mateo County, 228 default notices were handed over, down 45% from June, but up 3% from last year. Banks repossessed 75 homes, 20% less than a month ago and a 23% less than a year ago.
Throughout the Bay Area, some 2,081 homeowners got a notice of default, a 34 percent decline from a year ago, said the report. Another 1,072 homes were taken back by banks, a 27 percent drop.
“The delays that started with robo-signing kind of bought homeowners some time and caused lenders to take a second look at some of these foreclosure-prevention programs,” said Blomquist.

Fewer California homeowners default on their loans

Istvan Fekete — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:00:33 +0000

Californian homes falling into foreclosure have started declining, moreover they managed to reach their four-year-low in Q2, as a result of a more stable housing market as well as policy changes in the mortgage industry, DataQuick reported.
The numbers are the following: a total of 56,633 homeowners received notices of default during the April-to-June period, which means a 17% drop from 68,239 in Q1 and 19.2% from 70,051 recorded a year prior.
This number is the lowest for any quarter since 53,493 notices of default recorded in Q2 of 2007.
“A lot of theories are being floated as to why the numbers are down. Bank policy changes. Legal challenges. Politics. Holding back temporarily so as not to flood the market. The fact of the matter is that no one really knows, outside of lending and servicing industry insiders. One thing is certain: Homeowner distress spreads fastest when home price declines are steepest. And it now appears likely that, barring some new economic shock, the worst of the price declines are behind us,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.
Looking at the median sales price, the news aren’t so positive: it fell from $260,000 recorded in the second quarter of 2010 to $250,000, which means a 7.4% decline.
Although the number of NoDs is 56,633 the number of houses they involve is just 55,153, because some borrowers were in default on multiple loans.

Bay Area foreclosures slow sharply

Istvan Fekete — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Bay Area foreclosures dropped sharply during last months according to a new report released yesterday. But experts warn: this shouldn’t be taken as a sign of an improving market.
Compared with the same month a year ago, foreclosure activity plunged in Alameda County by 27.7 percent, in Contra Costa County by 19.9 percent, in Solano County by 32.9 percent and in San Joaquin County by 32.9 percent, RealtyTrac reported.
"This slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure," said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
When compared to the same period a year ago, the Bay Area foreclosure activity shows a significant 20.5% decline, while compared to a month prior foreclosures declined 19.3% RealtyTrac said.
"It’s more a bureaucratic and paperwork slowdown," said John Holmgren, manager of the Oakland office of Holmgren & Associates/Opes Advisors. "A lot of lenders have slowed things down after the controversy over how foreclosures were being handled," referring to the so-called robo-signing scandals in which banks failed to follow the rules for processing foreclosure paperwork.
Blomquist said "The foreclosures won’t all flood the market at one time. We do expect a gradual increase in foreclosures in the next few months."
Santa Clara foreclosures declined 13.8%, while San Mateo County registered a 28% drop compared to April 2010.
"Unfortunately, most of the forecasts from the real estate associations suggest that the foreclosure problem is expected to continue for a pretty lengthy period," Holmgren said.

Bay Area home sales on the rise

Istvan Fekete — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Home sales in Bay Area registered the best March in four years as prices dropped. A variety of indicators, such as adjustable-rate loan use, investor and cash purchase levels pointed toward a more normal market, though suggested that it’ still a ways off, DataQuick reported.
The research firm published its report which highlights the sales numbers: a total of 7,051 new and resale houses and condominiums were sold in the nine-county area during March. This means a substantial 41.3% growth from 4,991 in February, but a slight increase of 0.2% when compared with a year earlier. However, there was a government incentive at that time, and this year is somehow missing, so these are real numbers that show a county’s potential.
On the other hand an increase in sales from February is normal. Last month’s sales count was the highest for a March since 2007.
"The housing market has certainly moved well back from the abyss of two years ago, but there is quite a ways to go before it’s even remotely normal. The Bay Area has much less of a foreclosure problem than the rest of the state, but by its own standards it’s still a sizeable problem that acts as a drag on prices. The big issue continues to be mortgage financing, which is still problematic for many potential borrowers," said John Walsh, DataQuick president.
When taking the sales numbers by categories we can see that March brought 345 new home sale transactions, which is the lowest of any March in DataQuick’s stats. And this goes back to 1993. The median price paid for all new and resale houses an condominiums in the San Francisco Bay Area was $360,000 last month, rising the price up with almost 7% from $337,250 in February.
The median price of Bay Area houses peaked at $665,000 in June 2007, and hit its bottom in 2009 dropping to $290,000.

Bay Area housing market in first gear during January

Istvan Fekete — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

First months of the year bring slow sales, so when analyzing the January numbers you won’t have any surprise. A total of 4,966 new and resale condominiums were sold in the Bay Area during the first month of the year, bringing a 31% decline from 7,178 in December. This number is higher 2.3% from January 2010 though, DataQuick Information System reported. The median price paid for all homes in the nine county area was $338,000 in January, down 10% from $375,000 in December and down 3.4% from $350,000 a year prior.
Foreclosures accounted 35% of the Bay Area’s resale market, which is the highest since February 2010. This number represents a 30% increase when compared to December sales but down from 36.3% registered in January 2010. Foreclosure resales peaked at 52% in February 2009.
In Santa Clara County a total of 1,134 new and resale homes and condos sold in January, while the median price was down 3% to $439,000.
"Santa Clara County’s housing market did not see a substantial decline this period," commented Gene Lentz, president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors. "We are seeing more activity and there certainly seems to be more optimism this time around, but the sale of high-end homes continues to be impacted because adjustable-rate mortgages and jumbo loans are still difficult to obtain."