Linda Kay's Blog

California Homes Sales - January 2012

Okay, so, the DQ News January Home Report has been released.  The California Home Report for January is quite interesting.  Now remember, all real estate is extremely local at this time - even down to the neighborhood.  While this report is statewide but still gives an great picture of what's actually happening in California.  

More than 28,000 condos and houses were sold in January.  Is that good you ask?  When compared with December that figure is down 25.5%.  However when compared with January of 2011, that's up 1.5%. This figure combines existing homes and new homes together.  More than half of these home sales were distressed properties.  So we are still seeing quite a few short sales and foreclosures which is projected to happen all the way through 2013.  

This information is good for home buyers.  Combined with the fact that the interest rates are to stay low until the end of 2013, and inventories of homes are dropping, NOW is the perfect time to purchase your new home!

 Home prices appear to still be dropping.  The month of January boasts a median home price of $236,000 which is down 4.1% from December 2011 and down 1.3% from the previous January.  I believe this will continue to happen for a few more months.  However, if you purchase a home now with the expectation of owning it for at least five years, you should be able to recap your original purchase money and will probably have some equity as things start to edge back up.

The mortgage payment average in January was $893 which is the lowest since February 1999 when it was at $882.  When adjusted for inflation purposes, it was the lowest since 1988.  Good for homeowners!  This mortgage payment is really feasible for almost everyone you can think of.  And buyers are being more conscious and aware beforehand, making sure that the mortgage payment will not put them in dire straits.  Again, good for the buyers!

For more information you should click on the link provided above.

As always, if you want to buy, sell or lease real estate in the area, or simply have questions about real estate, please feel free to contact me.  I will be more than happy to assist you. Call me for your free home market analysis! 

October 2011 Homes Sales in California

Okay, so it's time once again to get 'the bigger' picture.  These statistics and figures are obtained from DQ News, a real estate data capturer and are really accurate.

According to the DQ News Article, home sales in California for the month of October 2011 were down 3.7% from September and up 4.3% from last October.  so overall, this points to an upswing in home sales over the year.

The median price for a home went down to $240,000 from $249,000 in September which is a 3.6% decrease in value in just a month.  Last October the median price was $256,000 in October of 2010.  The home values in California have been consistently dropping every month for the last 13 months.  Interestingly the bottom value was $221,000 in April, 2009 while the peak for this cycle was $484,000 in early 2007.

Distressed Properties (short sales and foreclosures) continue to make up over half our the current home sales in California. Of the existing homes sold last month 34.1% were foreclosures.  This figure was up from September but down from last year.  The all time high was in Feburary 2009 and was 58.8%. As for short sales, they made up 19.5% of the existing home sales in October.

Buyers are committing to lower and lower mortgage payments as time goes on. The average payment was $924 which is much lower ( I can attest) than the mortgage payments which were being handled early on in this housing bubble. In fact, the $924 is the lowest mortgage payment on record and down 58% from the spring peak of 1989and 66% lower than the current cycles peak in June of 2006.

If you are interested in buying or selling or simply have questions about real estate, please feel free to contact me.  I will be more than happy to assist you!

CALIFORNIA HOME SALES, AUGUST 2011

Okay, so I was looking at an article, (reading requires brain participation and I think my brain is on vacation today) in DQ news about the home sales in CALIFORNIA for August 2011.  The good news is that August was up from July by 8.8%!  Things are looking up, although it seemed like the slowest summer on record.  It was also up 10.2% from last August.  The article suggested that home prices are continuing to decline with the median sales price being $249,000 which was down from July by 1.2% and last August by 4.2%  

In the article it mentions distressed home sales (short sale and foreclosed on homes) making up more than half of CALIFORNIA'S sales for the month.  34.6% of the existing homes sold last month were REO's (foreclosed on homes).  That was up .1% from July and down from 35.6% last August.  Short sale statistics claimed a whopping 17.8% of the sales in August which was up .5% from July and down .2% from last August.

For further information, check out the article HERE.

CALIFORNIA LIVING!