Sunday, February 4, 2007

Another “Horror” year in Real Estate?

It is amazing how much power the mass media has in creating public opinion. Sometimes I feel like it orchestrates everything we talk about, the way we think and the way we feel. That is getting really dangerous time to time, especially when it comes to real estate. How many horror stories have I heard and read in the past several years about the diving market, the danger of investing in real estate, etc, yet real estate remains one of the most stable investments. Might be not as fast on the return as stocks, some would say, but more secure, that is for sure.

Today I decided, instead of talking about some forecasts or looking back at what real estate markets in 2006 looked like, to bring some facts to your attention and sort of let you decide whether 2006 was a horrible year for real estate here, in California, and whether year 2007 will be a bad or a good one.

California Association of Realtors just announced some of the key numbers in real estate in 2006. According to CAR, we have a bad news and a good news.

The bad news: the number of home sales decreased 15.3 percent in December compared with the same period a year ago.

The good news: the median price of an existing home increased 3.7 percent. Per CAR, the median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during December 2006 was $567,690, a 3.7 percent increase over the revised $547,400 median for December 2005.

The loss for the sellers is a huge gain for the buyers: Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes in December 2006 was 6.8 months, compared with 3.5 months for the same period a year ago. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.

The good news: according to Freddie Mac thirty-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 6.14% during December 2006, down from 6.27 % in December 2005. At the same time the bad news is: adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 5.45% in December 2006, up from 5.17% in December 2005.

The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 73 days in December 2006, compared with 43 days for the same period a year ago.

Now, the most interesting statistics: statewide, the 10 cities and communities with the highest median home prices in California during December 2006 were: Los Altos, $1,459,000; Burlingame, $1,325,000; Manhattan Beach, $1,275,000; San Juan Capistrano, $1,170,000; Santa Barbara, $1,006,000; Danville, $995,000; Los Gatos, $970,000; Rancho Palos Verdes, $947,500; San Clemente, $916,000; Santa Monica, $833,000. Statewide, the 10 cities and communities with the greatest median home price increases in December 2006 compared with the same period a year ago were: San Juan Capistrano; Laguna Niguel; Taft; Cypress; Yucca Valley; Burlingame; Pasadena; Highland; Truckee; Big Bear Lake; Costa Mesa.

And a personal comment: overall year 2006 reminded us, licensees, that in reality our work takes a lot of time, efforts, investments, professional skills and patience. It also reminded some of the sellers that there is a limit besides sky. AS well as it showed the buyers that they do not have to fight over a property they like against 10-15 other buyers, and it is not that stressful to buy real estate in California. I also was really glad to see some of my clients move into their first, brand new homes, fulfilling their “American Dream”! Yes, 2006 was a different, I would say difficult year, yet the sanity came back to the real estate markets in California.

If you would like to get detailed statistics on your city or community, please e-mail me at olesya@realestatebee.com You can also go to my brand new blog: http://homesfromolesya.blogspot.com

Have a great 2007!