Testimonials for Blog

The success of the technology industry and desirable location are continuing to influence home listing prices in the San Francisco Bay Area, elevating it to one of the priciest real estate markets in the country. Today, the Home Listing Report (HLR) revealing several of the country’s most expensive real estate markets are in Northern California. Google, Apple, Facebook and Stanford University are all located within 15 minutes of this year’s most expensive market, Los Altos, Calif.,where the average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home is 1,706,688. “The success of many of our native tech companies has shined aspotlight on

The latest real estate market trends show continued improvement with an increase in existing home sales and prices, and rising confidence among home builders, according to industry data released today. Existing home sales rose 2.1 percent in October, while median home prices posted a year-over-year gain of 11.1 percent, according to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Builder confidence rose for the seventh straight month to a high last seen in May 2006, according to the Housing Market Index released today by the National Association of Home Builders or NAHB. Total existing home sales sold

California’s real estate market bucked the typical fall slowdown last month, with buyers snapping up pricier homes and sales roaring up 18% over the prior month. Sales hit a three-year high for an October, rising 25% from the same month last year. The median sale price for a Southern California  home last month was $315,000, equal to September and up 17% from October 2011, according to real estate research firm DataQuick. A decline in the number of foreclosed homes has caused a shortage of inventory in entry-level neighborhoods, pushing up home prices. Demand from investors also remains strong, with these

The 2012 annual housing market study by the California Association of Realtors is pointing out what listing agents and brokers have been claiming for many months: Properties are getting multiple offers — especially those priced in the affordable echelon, the C.A.R. report says. Homes are also selling twice as fast as they did in 2011. Fifty-seven percent of home sales received multiple offers, representing the highest percentage in the last 12 years. Each home landed 4.2 offers, up from 3.5 in 2011. Lower priced homes, think REO (real-estate owned) or short sales, drew more offers than straight-up sales. Seven out of

In the days leading up to the great recession, California led the country in subprime mortgage loans — reckless transactions that played a major role in the housing market bust, both here and throughout the rest of the country. However, a new RealtyTrac data report published in the San Francisco Chronicle shows the California housing market now leading the way to real estate recovery through a combination of reduced defaults, increased demand in move-up markets and lively activity on the part of investors. After being buried in the aftermath of countless foreclosures following the implosion of the housing bubble, California

California home sales and prices will likely rise this year and in 2013, though low inventory and restricted lending will continue to curb housing market growth, according to a forecast from the California Association of Realtors. Sales of existing, single-family homes are up 6.5 percent through August compared to the same period last year. After a slight 1.1 percent increase in 2011, CAR expects sales to jump for the second year in a row this year to 530,300 homes, up 5.1 percent from 2011. CAR anticipates a further 1.3 percent increase in 2013, to 530,000 homes. “The market has improved

In another positive sign for the housing market, the nation’s so-called shadow inventory of properties in the foreclosure pipeline fell by more than 10 percent in July from the same period a year before, CoreLogic reported Tuesday. The tracking firm in Irvine, Calif., said the number of housing units in jeopardy of foreclosure — or that lenders have repossessed but not yet listed for sale — dropped to 2.3 million this July from 2.6 million a year earlier. “This is yet another hopeful sign that the housing market is slowly healing,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. The

Pro Teck Valuation Services’ September Home Value Forecast Update examines why there will not be a flood of foreclosure housing stock across the U.S. market and how metro areas in Southern California, Texas and Maryland are experiencing positive real estate trends. “With regard to the U.S. foreclosure inventory, there has been a misperception that it is a problem for the entire market. In fact, it is quite concentrated in specific cities and neighborhoods,” said Tom O’Grady, CEO of Pro Teck Valuation Services. “For this reason, potential buyers who have been waiting for bargain prices in desirable neighborhoods may be disappointed.”

Radar Logic and other people are still cranky about the housing market. They opine that the recent strength in national housing price figures won’t last because of something latent lurking out there on the supply side. In statistics, latent variables can be perfectly legitimate — but if it results in perennially brushing aside contradicting observable data, it begins having a legitimacy problem. There are clearly two trends in the housing market that can be observed directly. One is the significant decline of what some people call transactional inventory and the market share of distressed sales. The other is that home