Keepingitreal

Bay Area home prices get hammered once again

Despite a brisk business in foreclosure sales, the Bay Area real estate market showed little sign of recovery as the summer selling season concluded, according to a real estate report released Thursday. Although more existing single-family homes changed hands in the nine-county region in August compared with a year ago, 36.1 percent were foreclosures, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego research firm.All those bargain-priced bank-owned properties sent the median price plunging to $450,000 - the same level it was in May 2003. It was the third month in a row the median was below the half-million-dollar mark."For a healing housing market, you want to see sales (of resale homes) rise at the same time foreclosures are decreasing at the same time prices stay steady or go up," said Mark Hanson, a 20-year mortgage industry veteran based in Walnut Creek. "If you increase resales and foreclosures continue to go up, you're not chewing through existing inventory."A total of 5,267 existing single-family homes sold in August, up 11.2 percent from a year ago, according to MDA DataQuick. Including new homes and condominiums, there were 7,232 sales in August, down 0.9 percent year over year. It was the slowest August since 1992.For all homes - including existing, new and condos - the median price dropped 31.8 percent to $447,000, compared with $655,000 a year ago.Will the foreclosures keep coming? Data on defaults and the downward spiral in home prices seem to indicate that there's no end in sight."I'm hesitant to say we have any meaningful evidence the wave has passed," said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. In fact, he added, "Next year, we could see more prime and Alt-A (one step below prime) mortgages go bad."As has consistently been the case, counties with the most foreclosures experienced the most sales activity and the biggest drops in prices. Contra Costa County resale volume was up 69.9 percent compared with August 2007, with 1,339 homes changing hands. More than half - 54.4 percent - of Contra Costa resale homes were foreclosures, DataQuick said. The resale median price plunged 48.4 percent to $315,000 from $610,000 a year ago. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM

Bay home prices plunge; foreclosures boost sales

08-19) 14:28 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area home prices plunged to a 53-month low in July as a brisk business in foreclosed properties depressed prices and buoyed sales volume, according to a real estate report released Tuesday.The median price for both new and resale homes and condos stood at $470,000, down 29.3 percent from a year ago, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. For resale homes, the median was $485,000, a 34.3 percent drop from last July. A full 33 percent of all resale homes were foreclosed properties, which banks generally sell at a discount - further depressing prices in the vicinity. In July 2007, just 4.2 percent of existing home sales were foreclosed properties. The highest percentage of foreclosed sales was in Solano County, where two-thirds of all resold homes were foreclosures. The lowest was in San Francisco at 4.6 percent of existing-home sales. A total of 7,586 new and resales houses and condos changed hands in the nine-county region in July, up 2.2 percent from a year ago. For resale homes, a total of 5,585 sold, up 11.9 percent from a year ago. DataQuick cautioned that the increase in sales was not a harbinger of market recovery. "So much of today's market is driven by distress," said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president. "Unless interpreted in that context, the stats give a rather distorted view of the overall market. We know one-third of the Bay Area's resales in July were homes fresh off foreclosure. Who knows how many more involved a desperate seller and a lender who accepted a short sale." SOURCE:SFGATE.COM

All Aboard The Foreclosure Bus

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, a dozen passengers spilled out of a small white bus bearing the sign Foreclosure Bus Tour and flocked into a Santa Rosa ranch-style house with a for-sale sign outside. Snippets of conversation floated on the air as they went through the rooms, flicking on light switches and peering into closets and cabinets. "This isn't bad; I've seen some that are really trashed." "I'd put a hot tub on that patio.""I can see having a housewarming party in the family room." Foreclosure tours are the latest wrinkle in house hunting. Enterprising real estate agents load up a busload of bargain seekers and drive them to visit foreclosed homes being sold by banks. For the agents, it's a way to prospect for clients; for the passengers, it's a way to learn about the foreclosure market. With the number of bank-repossessed homes skyrocketing, the foreclosure tour is emerging as a phenomenon from coast to coast, especially in markets most stricken by the housing crisis, such as Stockton, Las Vegas and Miami.Last week in Santa Rosa, agents from Cash Back Home and Loans took a small group of house hunters on a two-hour tour of six foreclosed properties, all three- or four-bedroom homes and town homes, built from 2000 to 2003 in cookie-cutter subdivisions on the city's southwest side. Ranging from $277,000 to $375,000, all the houses were in relatively good shape, although one had a kicked-in bedroom door ("They must've been angry when they left," one house hunter said). Several had the "foreclosure theme song," a smoke alarm incessantly chirping because its batteries are low. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM

Realtors Agree to Stop Blocking Web Listings

   

WASHINGTON  — The Justice Department and the National Association of Realtors reached a major antitrust settlement Tuesday that government officials said should spur competition among brokers and ultimately bring down hefty sales commissions. The deal frees Internet brokers and other real-estate agents offering heavily discounted commissions to operate on a level playing field with traditional brokers by using the multiple listing services that are the lifeblood of the industry, government officials said.The Justice Department sued the National Association of Realtors in federal court in 2005 on antitrust grounds, charging that its policies were stifling competition and hurting consumers. That case was scheduled to go to trial in Chicago in July. The settlement “is a win for consumers, certainly, who will now have the benefit of unrestricted competition,” Deborah A. Garza, deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust, said in an interview. “There inevitably will be more efficiency and more competition in the market.”Real estate agents earned $93 billion in commissions in 2006, with a median commission of about $11,600, Justice Department officials said. Internet brokers, offering pared-down services, provided average rebates of 1 percent on commissions that normally ran 5 or 6 percent, translating into thousands of dollars per sale. Consumer advocates hailed the settlement as an important and somewhat surprising step by the Bush administration, which has staked out a position on many antitrust issues seen as favorable to business interests. Consumer advocates hailed the settlement as an important and somewhat surprising step by the Bush administration, which has staked out a position on many antitrust issues seen as favorable to business interests. SOURCE: NYTIMES.COM