Greater South Bay Real Estate: Third Quarter 2009

The bar chart above represents 15 months of Real Estate activity in the Greater South Bay area from July 2008 through September 2009. This is a great representation (in our unique market) of our journey through the leading edge of the sub-prime fiasco, election 2008 and the challenging economy of the first three quarters of 2009.

Inventory is down nearly 57%, however sales and sales pending are up for the period. Granted this is the entire South Bay region and the micro views tell a more accurate tale for individual property owners. There are various factors that have contributed to the recent stabilization of the real estate market. The first-time buyers’ tax credit, low interest rates, depreciation in general and the frenzy to snap up short sales and REOs have fueled the increase in sales and price per square foot in some areas.

Well priced properties are attracting multiple offers while those sellers’ looking to set or guess the upper end of the market sit for months or until the price drops significantly or they retreat from the market. One of the tactics being employed on some sales (especially short sales and REOs) is to list a price well below the median market to encourage a bidding war and drive the upward. In a true eBay auction fashion, if enough buyers are attracted it works. Higher prices are achieved and in certain areas you can see where the price per square foot has inched up over the past few months.

In an effort to control the length of this post I only ran reports on a couple of neighborhoods (below). If you’d like a full report on these or other areas (a full report includes additional metrics not posted, average DOM, PPSF etc.) please contact me with your specific needs.

We are so fortunate to live in this region of the country... As I prepare this blog post, Saturday October 24th most of the country is into or moving rapidly toward cold weather. Here in Southern California the skies are clear, the temperate is predicted to be 80 degrees and so at 2:00 this afternoon I'll be in shorts and a t-shirt at my son's soccer game.

Although I'm a third generation Californian, I've had an opportunity to live in all four corners of the US. Although they all have charm and appeal of one sort or another, I always came back (and consequently wonder why I left). Married now, with two small children my traveling days are over and I now live a stones throw from my parents, who’ve lived in the same house for over 33 years and in the South Bay since JFK was in office.

Although this blog site is new, I’ve been posting elsewhere since early this year and the relative success of that site prompted me to pursue a more mainstream venue. As it does not seem possible to export that content click various posts and links to articles to view past postings. I may eventually re-post some of that content here…

Thanks for reading my blog. MLS Information used to generate charts is deemed to be reliable but not guaranteed.