Last week we had great housing news with the announcement that May home prices posted their first monthly increase since the summer of 2006 (based on the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Schiller 20-city index).

We also learned that sales of newly built and existing homes rose in June for the third consecutive month.  New home construction, though still weak, is the best it has been since the fall.

This week the good news continued.  As announced by the Mortgage Bankers Association, Mortgage loan application volume increased 4.4 percent compared to the previous week.  On an adjusted basis, the Index increased 4.1 percent compared with the previous week and 18 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.  In addition, the Refinance Index increased 7.2 percent from the previous week. The Index has climbed about 35 percent above its recent low at the end of June. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 0.9 percent from one week earlier.

Also interesting to note is this week’s release of the National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index revealed an increase of 3.6% during the month.  That was 6.7% higher than June 2008.  It was the fifth straight month of increases, the first time that has happened since July 2003.  The jump was much higher than expected with a consensus of industry experts put together by Briefing.com forecasting an increase of just 0.7%.

NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun had this to say, “Historically low mortgage interest rates, affordable home prices and large selection are encouraging buyers who’ve been on the sidelines.”  It seems all of these incentives, much like the Cash for Clunkers program in the auto industry, is finally pushing people off of the fence. 

Now, let’s take a look at this week in our local real estate:

• East Bay—Castro Valley reports open houses had slightly fewer visitors last weekend.  Could be the buyers are taking a breath (or out buying a new car?) or could be August vacation time.  We’ll know soon.  Danville reports of the 19 homes pending sale in Alamo between 1million and 2million, 8 (42%) are either short sales or bank owned.  There are 3 pending sales above 2 million in Alamo and 2 of these have had 1million + price reductions.  So we are beginning to see movement and price adjustments at the high end.  Fremont reports the market is doing well for houses priced under $600,000.  If a house is priced competitively then it becomes a multiple offer situation.  Oakland reports our in-house loan officer is swamped with applications for loans.  The properties that are foreclosures are all hot and homes under $500K move very quickly.  Short sales are not taking as long to approve and some of the properties that have been pending for a long time are starting to close
• Monterey County—Activity seems to be continuing at a somewhat increased pace.  Agents are holding lots of open houses, showing property, writing offers and getting a few more of those into escrow.  Last week was a productive and interesting one, as we put a trophy property listed at $35 million into escrow and we closed many escrows including a wide variety of properties from $84,000 in Salinas to over $9 million in Pebble Beach.
• North Bay—San Rafael/Novato reports low end inventory continues to be the most attractive to buyers with multiple offers driving prices up.  Southern Marin reports more pending sales than we have seen in any one week in a long time priced from $789 to $1,520,000. Closings are robust. Seems buyers are getting off the fence in all price ranges, including Previews, our luxury home market.  Sebastopol notes all multiples in the under $350,000 range. Just not enough inventory in this range to satisfy the demand. New listings are exceedingly slow.  Santa Rosa reports the market is currently defined by the shortage of inventory. One Agent had a new short sale generate 24 offers with the bulk of offers less than $10,000 apart.
• Peninsula—The Half Moon Bay office reported a busier than usual week. Seeing more sellers taking all contingencies to move upper end properties. Pending sales this month more than doubled from April.  Menlo Park El Camino reports that we’re struggling still at the $1,500,000 range and up. Scarcity of comps is making it hard to define prices and buyers are still holding back.  Palo Alto Downtown reports we’re still building inventory in the Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Los Altos areas. If well priced, we will have multiple offers.  Redwood City reports an active market in the $600-$900,000 range.  Short sales and REOs are garnering multiple offers; we had 19 offers on an REO in Hayward, eight were all cash. Good open house activity both Saturday and Sunday – buyers are out there many without Agents.  Woodside and Portola Valley have been seriously impacted by the financial downturn. Portola Valley has faired better due to some prices being in the low range for county property. Woodside is pretty much frozen. The San Mateo office says the lack of saleable listings is slowing down sales activity.
• San Francisco The Market Street office reports there were 150+ buyers through a two bedroom unit on Bryant St over the weekend looking for a deal. The rest of our open houses were well attended. One of the properties that received multiple offers was ratified after the first open house. Conference rooms have been full this week with Agents writing offers.  The Van Ness office reported the market remains strong with agents ratifying and closing transactions. SF Noriega says that some anticipated REO listings they’ve been looking for are beginning  to flow back in –and hoping it’s a steady flow, not a flood.
• Santa Cruz County—The local market continues to be about the same with limited inventory, multiple offers on properties under $500K.  The REO inventory has dried up .  Very few sales in the upper end however there are a lot more showings.  The slow but steady gains in the stock market along with the  more positive media housing information lately seems to have contributed to a more optimistic attitude by buyers.  With three months of housing price increases, buyers are realizing that we may be at the bottom.
• Silicon Valley— The Cupertino office reported the office is buzzing with activity and the vibes are positive.  The Los Gatos office reported good movement if priced right. The over $2.5 is still very weak.  The San Jose Almaden office reports REOs continue to be hot and receive multiple offers.  Short sales in some cases are moving a little faster and in other cases, not.  It depends on the bank and Agent.  Outlook among Agents is positive as there are numerous signs that the market is improving and properties are selling.  The San Jose Willow Glen office reports the lower to middle end is extremely active.  We’re still seeing multiple offers in many cases.
• South County—Hollister reports active inventory for San Benito County is down.  June new listings for SFRs were 94.  We had 78 new listings for the month of July.  Average list price for June was $288K.   REO and short sale offers competing with cash buyers.  There are appraisal issues for properties way over list price offers.  The good news is we have lots of buyers that are pre-approved and ready to buy!  Morgan Hill reported, although short sales and REO’s remain the order of the day, the office has experienced several “Civilian Sales” (not short or REO).  In fact, a Gilroy home listed with a Morgan Hill Agent at over a million had two offers in the first week that it was on the market.  In addition, this week the office put two homes into contract listed for over $750,000 that were also “Civilian” listings.  

Overall the market this week is much like it has been over the last several.  Low-end sales have been the strongest segment of the market, an indication that the first-time homebuyers tax credit is contributing to the rise.  The clock, however, is ticking on this credit and it may have buyers stepping up their shopping to get their purchases in under the wire.  Because it may take as long as two months to close on a home after signing a contract, first time home buyers must act fairly soon to take advantage of the credit.  To qualify, they must close on the sale by November 30.

I’m also pleased to report more Previews high-end sales this week from our Luxury Leader Coldwell Banker offices.  Among last week’s closings are:   San Francisco -$11.5M    Ross -$11M    Pebble Beach- $9.2M    Hillsborough- $8M     Atherton- a $5.3M and a $3.9M closing   Monte Sereno (Los Gatos/Saratoga) -$4.2M    Orinda $3.5M    Los Altos  $3.6M   and 5 more in the City between $2M and $3M.  I’m very proud of the fact that we are not only the Bay Area Market Leader – but also, thanks to our Previews program, and our incredible Previews agents –we dominate the Luxury market as well. As confidence begins to return to several economic sectors (some of us are finally starting to open up the mail when the 401K statements come), we will see continued activity in our Previews markets around the Bay Area.  Price/Value/Condition will remain to be key and critical for these sales to continue.

All the Best until Next Week-

Rick

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports. Here’s what Mr. Weeks says about last week’s activity:

If ever there was a week to sing that old Disney® song, it was last week when Americans received some good employment news. Despite a worse-than-expected ADP National Employment report – which isn’t known for its accuracy – the Initial Jobless Claims report came in on Thursday with some good news. According to the report, Americans filing for unemployment benefits came in at 550,000, versus the 580,000 expected. In addition, the four-week moving average declined for the sixth consecutive week.

The markets received more evidence of an improving job market on Friday. The Labor Department reported 247,000 jobs lost in July versus economists’ expectations of 328,000 jobs lost. As you can see in the chart below, this is down pretty sharply from June’s lower, revised 443,000 jobs lost and the smallest loss since August 2008. Even better, the Unemployment Rate dropped to 9.4%, from the prior month’s reading of 9.5%. This reading broke a streak of 9 straight monthly increases and gave a lot of credibility to the good news in the job market.

Read the entire article here.

This was reported August 5, 2009 in the San Francisco Chronicle: Back in September, when Tae Hong signed a contract to buy a condominium in Oakland’s new Pacific Cannery Lofts, he expected to move in quickly. With a 20 percent down payment, excellent credit and good employment as an options trader, he seemed assured of qualifying for a home loan.

But Hong, 26, couldn’t get a mortgage. The problem wasn’t with him – it was with new, tighter rules for condo loans that are affecting entire developments.

“Suddenly, the (Federal Housing Administration) increased the presale requirement from 25 percent to 51 percent” of the units, said Gail Stark, director of sales for the Pacific Cannery Lofts. “Then we had months of uncertainty. It was extremely frustrating; we had about 10 canceled contracts with buyers who couldn’t wait any longer.”

Eventually, the lender that had financed the construction of the lofts stepped in to issue mortgages to those wanting to buy them.

Hong finally closed on his unit in July, more than 10 months after agreeing to buy.

“It was very inconvenient,” he said. “Every week that went by, I was looking at interest rates going up little by little and worrying.”

Bottom line? What was true one day may not necessarily true the next. Be sure your mortgage broker is experienced. Read the rest of the story here.

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

Even with summer here, the San Francisco market does not seem to be letting up. Our office has been staying consistent and office reports are that August could be one of our record months.

Here are the numbers for the week of 8/5/09:

• 6 new listings (average price $1,409,167, low $599,000, high $3,500,000)
• 11 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,902,800, low $625,000, high $5,500,000, 1 confidential)
• 14 closed sales (average price $988,433, low $500,000, high $2,195,000. 2 confidential)
• 3 reduced ($688,000 and 2 at $1,998,000)

- Janis Stone – DRE 00517072

We at Coldwell Banker in Northern California have a great story to share with our friends, family and clients about our partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

Over the past 10 years that we have supported Habitat for Humanity, we have raised $1.9 million, helped build 95 homes, volunteered more than 41,000 hours of labor to home construction projects and most importantly, brought so many local families and homes together.

Today, we are launching our 11th annual Habitat for Humanity Raffle. The theme of this year’s campaign is Building Hope for Humanity, because we are truly helping to build hope for deserving families in our community through our work with Habitat for Humanity.

Your challenge this year is to personally raise $100 for Habitat for Humanity. And to help you do that, we are once again offering FREE Habitat for Humanity note cards (available through your Office Administrator or Habitat Champion) that you can send to your friends, family and clients letting them know about our raffle and the work you are doing on behalf of Habitat for Humanity. If you use the note card, be sure to purchase the associated $2 raffle ticket and enclose the stub within the card so your acquaintances can see that you’ve given them the opportunity to win a host of prizes, including the grand prize of $5,000 generously donated by Princeton Capital.

There are a variety of materials now available in the Habitat Hub on myREcafe.com > Marketing > Charities > Habitat for Humanity to help you in your fundraising efforts, including:

2009 fundraiser website – include the link on your personal website, Facebook page or Twitter account to help spread the word about your charitable efforts
Prospecting flyer
Virtual postcard
“How to Get Involved” flyer
Raffle prize list and mini raffle prize list for note cards
And much more!

In addition, we are mixing things up this year with our plans for a Coldwell Banker Blitz Build Week September 21-25. During this week, I and Coldwell Banker Agents, Managers, staff and Support Center employees throughout Northern California will be participating in a local Habitat for Humanity build. It’s going to be a huge event and a lot of fun, and I look forward to building alongside you so get your work boots ready!

We at Coldwell Banker in Northern California are proud of our partnership with Habitat for Humanity and in today’s economy; our continued support of Habitat for Humanity sends a great message to our friends and the public about the character, integrity and compassion of our company

Rick Turley
President

There was no new report for this week from Rick Turley, however we released our market statistics for July’s activity as well as our monthly newsletter.

- Janis Stone
DRE# 00517072

Note: While Avram Goldman is no longer with Coldwell Banker, he is a friend and associate at Pacific Union with an excellent handle on San Francisco Real Estate:

Across the Great Divide

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports. Here’s what Mr. Weeks says about last week’s activity:

“ENERGY AND PERSISTENCE CONQUER ALL THINGS.” Benjamin Franklin. And indeed, Bonds and home loan rates definitely showed some serious energy and persistence this week, despite some serious headwinds, including additional supply flooding the market from this week’s big Treasury auctions.

The Treasury unloaded an enormous supply of paper onto the markets this week…and remember, anytime there is more supply than demand, it means prices will naturally decline. And when Bonds are concerned, when prices decline, home loan rates go up. The heavy supply hitting the market caused some wild volatility for rates midweek, but overall home loan rates managed to find some improvement by the end of the week. However, it won’t be long before another enormous supply of Treasuries comes on the market. In just two weeks, we’ll be looking at a fresh round of auctions…and the size of those auctions will be announced on August 5th. This announcement date of August 5th, and the following week’s auction dates of the 11th, 12th and 13th will probably have high volatility and provide a headwind for Bonds. It used to be that the dates of economic news would be circled on the calendar as the ones to watch for greater movement in Bond prices…but right now, the supply issue has become so important that it now may be the most dominant current factor in Bond pricing and home loan rates.

In other news, Advanced Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 2nd Quarter came in better than expected, while the 1st Quarter GDP was revised lower. GDP measures the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year. Overall, GDP has fallen four quarters in a row for the first time since government records started in 1947. The report also showed consumer spending is down, as consumer savings increased to the highest level since 1998.

Read the entire article here.

Our July San Francisco real estate market statistics are now online.

- Janis Stone
DRE# 00517072