Scripps Ranch housing market

The Scripps Ranch housing market, one of the numerous subsidiary sectors of the larger San Diego County real estate markets, has been on a streak of strong months. According to a May 25, 2010 report from NBC 739 News, “There’s no doubt housing prices have come roaring back this year. New numbers released this morning showed San Diego County home prices rose again in March – marking the 11^th straight month they’ve headed up.” The piece by Kelly Bennett went on to state that “Local prices rose 10.8 percent between March last year and this March – when buyers scrambled into the market to take advantage of an expiring federal tax credit. That was the second largest increase in any of the 20 cities measured in the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index, a closely watched indicator for the housing market.”

The rate of purchase for Scripps Ranch real estate decreased along, partially as a result of the rise in the median price. According to a May 18, 2010 piece from Reuters, “Sales of new and resale homes totaled 20,299 in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties last month, down 0.9 percent from March and down 1.0 percent from a year earlier, the report by the real estate information service said.” The article by Jim Christie went on to state that “The median price paid for a home in April in California’s most populous region was $285,000, the same as in March and up 15.4 percent from a year earlier, the report added.”

The Scripps Ranch market was also included as part of the larger San Diego region in a June 9, 2010 article tracking the top markets for “flipping” properties. The piece in the San Francisco Chronicle stated that “According to the Case-Shiller Index, San Diego has seen 11 consecutive months of home prices increases…Real estate investors should keep an eye on two troublesome indicators, however: San Diego’s unemployment rate, which at 10.9% is 1.2% above the national average, and new single-family housing permits, which had significantly increased since last year as of April. New homes mean more inventory, which can lower prices.”

Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara real estate market continues to show signs of strength during the second quarter of the fiscal year. According to an Associated Press article, “The median home price in Southern California rose 14 percent last month from March 2009, as more high-end homes trickled into the region’s sales mix, a tracking firm said Tuesday. San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported that last month’s median of $285,000 was up from $250,000 in March 2009 and up almost 4 percent from February’s $275,000.” The article, written by Jacob Adelman, continued to state that “The increase came as the proportion of sales tilted away from low-cost foreclosures and toward pricier homes in more expensive neighborhoods. March’s sales of homes priced as $500,000 or more made up 19.4 percent of all transactions, compared with 18.5 percent in February and 14.9 percent in March 2009.”

This same general strength should continue to help Santa Barbara homes for sale recover from the lows reached during the recession. According to an April 15, 2010 article in the Central Valley Business Times, “Home sales and prices continued a steady but pokey climb up from the bottom in Southern California last month as buyers scrambled to take advantage of low prices and low mortgage interest rates, says a report from MDA DataQuick of La Jolla, a real estate information company.” The piece, released in La Jolla, continued to state that “The market is still tilted towards low-cost distress sales, but not by as much as previously, the report says. A total of 20,476 new and resale homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month.”

Santa Barbara real estate has shown especial strength in the area of home sales, according to an April 13, 2010 article from TheStreet. The piece noted that “the median peaked at $505,000 in mid 2007 and appears, so far, to have bottomed out at $247,000 in April last year. The peak-to-trough drop in the median was due to a decline in home values as well as a shift in sales toward low-cost homes, especially foreclosures.”

Walnut Creek Real Estate

The Walnut Creek real estate market is heavily dependent on the larger East Bay and Bay Area real estate markets. According to a March 11, 2010 article in KGO San Ramon, “For the first time in a long time, some of the Bay Area’s hardest hit counties are seeing their foreclosure numbers drop compared with last year. In San Joaquin County, foreclosure filings have dropped 42 percent since February 2009; in Alameda, foreclosure filings are down 16 percent and in Contra Costa County, filings are down 3 percent.” The piece, composed by Laura Anthony, continued to say that “At least temporarily, fewer bank-owned properties are coming on the market. In some areas of Contra Costa County, there is intense competition for them among buyers.”

The median price for Walnut Creek homes for sale rallied slightly in the month of February, according to a March 18, 2010 article in the Los Angeles Times. This article found that “The median price paid for a Bay Area home jumped 20% in February as fewer foreclosures were on the market, the San Diego research firm MDA DataQuick said Thursday. Sales fell for the second month in a row. Potential buyers had trouble securing financing, were concerned about job security or had a difficult time competing for a home as inventory tightened, DataQuick said.” According to John Walsh, the president of DataQuick, “The market remains fundamentally off kilter. There’s still relatively little lending going on in the upper price ranges, and little adjustable-rate financing, which had been vital to the Bay Area.”

Despite this good news for Walnut Creek real estate for sale, some indicators pointed in the opposite direction, according to a March 19, 2010 article in the Contra Costa Times. The piece, composed by Eve Mitchell, continued to say that “Bay Area home sale prices rose for the fifth-straight month while the number of homes sold fell for the second-consecutive month on a year-to-year basis as some buyers are finding it harder to get into a home due to worries about job security, a lack of inventory and difficulty getting financing.”