Real Estate News for Thursday, November 17th, 2005

Real estate sales slump continues in S.F. Bay Area. Median prices up 17% since October 2004. San Francisco Bay Area home sales declined on a year-over-year basis for the seventh month in a row in October, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate information company. The median home price in October was up 17.2 percent since October 2004 but slipped 0.3 percent from September 2005. Sales have been lower compared to 2004 every month since April. So far this year 107,099 Bay Area homes have been sold, 5.1 percent fewer than 112,873 for the same ten-month period last year. "We look at today's market as normalizing. Everybody seems to have gotten used to the records set last year and the year before. The fact is that last month was the third-strongest October since we started keeping records in 1988. It was about 20 percent above average," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president. "Indicators of market distress are still largely absent. Foreclosure rates are low, down payment sizes are stable and there have been no significant shifts in market mix," DataQuick reported. Click here to read more.

San Francisco Real Estate Buyers Celebrate Better Bargaining Position. Real Estate buyers in San Francisco find themselves with more negotiating power than they have had since the mid 1990’s. For the first time in years, buyers are acquiring San Francisco homes at prices below asking. Supply and demand are the fundamental barometers that economists watch to forecast whether prices rise or fall -- and the balance is swinging to the advantage of buyers for the first time since 2001. In San Francisco, inventories are rising, some prices are dropping, and some properties are going unsold. With inventories growing, buyers are beginning to understand that they can take their time and be more selective. They have more listings to look at typically.. Click here to read more.

Seniors Reveal More Browsing For Housing Versatility. Not quite as many older buyers as the general population use the Internet when shopping for a home, but they are just as versatile in their surfing and use the Net to go well beyond just browsing for housing. Nearly half of all home buyers 50 years and older use the Internet as a part of the home buying process. Among that group 92 percent research comparable prices, 61 percent look for a specific real estate agent and 19 percent research neighborhoods. Overall, the percentage of home buyers who used the Internet as an integral part of the home buying process increased to 62 percent in 2005, compared with 56 percent the previous year. Among that group, none of those surveyed said the Internet information was more useful than that obtained from their agent. "Home buyers ultimately turned to their Realtor for both interpretation of information gleaned from the Internet, and for their Realtor's expertise and judgment throughout the home buying process. Home buyers clearly view the Internet as a tool to enhance their ability to research the real estate market, rather than a replacement for a Realtor's expertise in the field," said Jim Hamilton, CAR president. Click here to read more.

Real estate's November report card. Guest perspective: New-home sales strong despite seasonality. The housing market is going through its usual seasonal slowdown this year. New-home builders, which have migrated more to the higher-priced segments of the market, are experiencing more than a 28 percent decline, as higher-priced home sales typically slow down more because their buyers have children in school. Click here to read more.

~Tina Jan~
Coldwell Banker Kivett-Teeters
1655 E. Sixth St.
Beaumont, CA 92223
Work: 951-845-5520 Ext. 105
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tina.jan@coldwellbanker.com
www.tinajan.com