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.”

El Dorado Hills Real Estate Market Update

El Dorado Hills is a neighborhood found in the outskirts of the San Francisco metropolitan area. The El Dorado Hills real estate market centers around the trends of the larger Bay Area’s indicators. Foreclosures have started to decline in the rest of the greater San Francisco area, a possibly positive indication for the El Dorado Hills market in particular. According to a February 16, 2010 article published by MSN Money, “Notices of default declined in the four-county region last month, but the number of banks who received the keys to homes increased compared to a year ago, according to a report released Tuesday. And foreclosure activity statewide increased last month from January 2009, according to ForeclosureRadar.” Looking specifically at the El Dorado area, the article found that “The county had 180 notices of default, while back to the bank properties almost doubled to 94 from a year ago.”

Some trouble signs for Sacramento homes for sale were noted by an article in the Sacramento Business Journal. According to the piece, written by Michael Shaw, “The Sacramento region’s median home price inched up 3 percent in January, compared to a year ago, much lower than the 15 percent increase statewide, according to a California Association of Realtors report Tuesday.” The piece, written on February 23, 2010, also noted that “The association estimated that the four-county Sacramento region’s median price was $174,830 in January, though that figure varies widely within the counties that make up the metro area, reaching as high as $310,000 in El Dorado County.  The statewide median price is $287,400. The overall number of sales for the month in the Sacramento region was down 24.9 percent compared with January 2009 – and off 29.5 percent from December.”

A larger theme for Sacramento homes and other real estate in the county was noted by a March 2, 2010 article in the Sacramento Business Journal. The article, written by Jeff Clabaugh, found that “The median sales price in Sacramento County for homes of all types, including newly built ones, was $165,000 in January, the same price compared to January 2008.”

Pleasanton

Though located in California, one of the hardest hit states in the country, Pleasanton real estate has managed to hang on without falling off the real estate cliff. Recent numbers are encouraging, suggesting this Bay Area city may be on its way to climbing out of the real estate market plunge as sales volume is up and buyers are flocking back to this market in search of a good deal for investment.

According to data from The San Francisco Chronicle, sales in Pleasanton in August were up in both of the city’s ZIP codes, by 14.6% and 26.5% from figures reported in August 2008. Median prices were $761,000 and $557,000. Though those represented slight price declines, sales volume has been up recently.

Local real estate broker Angela Manatt reports that real estate in Pleasanton is now in a buyer’s market, as prices in the area are down from 10% to 30% from their peaks, but sales volume was up in September for the fourth month in row, suggesting there are many buyers out there actively seeking homes on the market.  Fellow realtor Sheila Cunha reports that the average number of days on the market for a Pleasanton home is just 43, a very low figure when compared with some current national averages.

According to data from Zillow made available on Yahoo! Real Estate, in mid-October 2009, there were almost 260 homes for sale in Pleasanton. Those homes had a median price of just under $900,000, a slight increase of just 0.1% from September prices. There was just one new home for sale, but more than 270 foreclosed homes also graced the market. These bank-owned homes are selling for a median price of just over $540,000, a fall of 3.3% from September figures.