Testimonials for Blog

Today’s second-quarter GDP report is expected to deliver upbeat news about the US economy. Wobbly housing data may be telling a different story. It’s premature to assume the worst, but the weak year-over-year trends in several housing indicators suggest that today’s Q2 snapshot should be used cautiously as a guide to managing expectations for the near-term future. Econoday.com’s consensus forecast calls for a 4.2% increase in real GDP for Q2 (seasonally adjusted annual rate). If the estimate is correct, output will expand at the strongest pace in three-and-a-half years and more than double the rate over this year’s Q1. But

The typical home that sold in May went under contract in 34 days, according to Redfin. May broke April’s record of 36 days, which was the fastest month recorded going back to 2010.  Amid the speed, the national median home sale price rose to $305,600, a 6.3 percent increase from May 2017 across the 174 markets that Redfin tracks.   The number of newly listed homes for sale increased 4.3 percent compared to May of last year, driving a 3.6 percent increase in the number of homes sold. However, the overall supply of homes declined 5.4 percent during the same time period. Just 2.5 months of supply

  For Bay Area renters struggling to afford apartments that keep getting more expensive, the latest numbers could seem too good to be true — the region’s runaway rent prices finally may be starting to level off. San Jose is looking at the slowest start to the summer rental season in years. Rents in San Francisco are flat-lining. And Oakland saw a minuscule increase in rent prices last month. That’s according to a new study by apartment search website RentCafe, which found the Bay Area is part of a nation-wide trend — while rents continue to increase, they’re doing it at a

  Southern California-based data company CoreLogic released its quarterly National Home Price Index Tuesday and found that San Francisco’s home price bounce since 2017 was the third highest in country. Over the past two months, sources like the California Association of Realtors and Paragon Real Estate Group peg the median asking price of a San Francisco home at a record $1.6 million, nearly double what it was just five years ago.     So, it’s not surprising that CoreLogic’s Case-Shiller Index indicates an ongoing typhoon of housing expenses too, although the way that the Case-Shiller process calculates value does make for a few

A renters’ revolt in California could be heading to the November ballot as a campaign to lift decades-old restrictions on rent control reported Friday it had gathered more than enough signatures to qualify. Organizers are planning rallies in Sacramento, Oakland and Los Angeles on Monday as they hand in the signatures, which must be counted and verified by election officials before the initiative makes it on the ballot. “People are paying a higher percentage of their income toward housing than they ever have before. That is not normal,” said Amy Schur, campaign director for the Alliance of Californians for Community

  Southern California house hunters are putting 9 percent fewer existing homes into escrow this spring, a dip that caused one analyst to make “Cracks Appearing” the title of his latest report. ReportsOnHousing tracks regional homebuying patterns found in real estate broker networks: supply (active listings); demand (new escrows in past 30 days); and “market time” (a measure of selling speed of days it takes a typical listing to enter escrow). Steve Thomas, the man behind ReportsOnHousing, wrote: “Noticeable cracks have appeared that illustrate a cooling market. It is not as if housing has suddenly tilted in favor of buyers.

Why are California housing costs so high? At its most basic level, it’s a story of supply and demand — lots of people want to live here, and there aren’t enough homes to go around. But there are lots of uniquely California factors — from the shape of our coastline to Prop 13 — that have attached a painfully expensive price tag to the California dream. The median price of a home is now well over half a million dollars–that number is about $240,000 nationally. More than 20 percent of Californians pay more than half their income for housing. Here are five reasons the state’s housing market got

  How the mighty have fallen! For the first time in years, California markets aren’t fully dominating our monthly list of the hottest markets on realtor.com®.  In fact, the Golden State has even ceded its long-held No. 1 spot! Each month at realtor.com®, we rank the top metro areas where homes sell the fastest, and where eager house hunters are clicking up a storm on our listings. And each month, California reliably hogs the greatest share of the top 20 spots of any state. But while 11 of the top 20 markets in March could be found in the Golden State, in April, that

New residents to the Bay Area are earning far more than the people they’re chasing out, a new report says, pushing up home prices and highlighting the gap between owners and renters in Silicon Valley. Lower income workers moving out of the Bay Area were being replaced by younger workers making about $12,640 more annually from 2005 to 2016, according to a national study released Wednesday by BuildZoom. The Bay Area income gap has accelerated  from 2010 to 2016, with the average newcomer out-earning the typical former resident by about $18,700. “In the Bay Area, you have a tremendous demand

Mortgage rates were steady over the past week, holding near their lowest levels since mid-February and down about 10 basis points from their early March peak. Rates are still about 40 basis points higher than where they stood in spring 2017. Markets were calm leading into the Good Friday holiday, despite fears about an escalation in trade tensions between the United States and China, along with some stock market volatility. However, these fears have not yet meaningfully spilled over into bond markets. That could change at any time. Over the coming week, Friday’s jobs report is the most important economic data release