Each month we send out our Realty Times newsletter, which contains my current market analysis based on what has happened in the housing market. Now normally, I try to summarize the housing stats for the month, so I don’t cause excessive eye glazing. But if you are the type of person, who while not a Realtor, likes to drop important sounding housing gossip at social gatherings, then I have a great web site for you. Check out the Bay East Association of Realtors web site with area housing statistics, www.bayeast.org/stats/. By checking out the housing report, you can drop such fascinating facts like the average days on market (DOM) for a single-family detached home in Alameda county was 58 days in October, an increase from 31 days in 2006. Or that there have been 645 total sales through October versus 815 during the same period last year. I am sure you can phrase it much more conversationally than the I just did, but you get the idea. There is also a link to Contra Costa MLS statistics for their cities, which include November figures as well, but not in such detail as Bay East has.
I think it’s great that Bay East is offering this service to everyone. Knowledge is power, but there is no explanation of what the numbers mean or how you can use them. As an example, Pleasanton’s median sale prices are are down from $856,000 in 2006 to $835,000 year to date, while they are up for Livermore year to date . What does this mean? It’s not showing a pricing trend, it’s showing that more expensive homes were on the market and sold in Livermore this year than last but the reverse was true in Pleasanton. The monthly numbers show wild swings in prices as well. Also without the November numbers, it might be hard to tell if a correction is taking place. It can take two or three of months before an obvious market correction has taken place. Currently, through the middle of December, homes in contract (pending) in our area are pretty slow and we probably wont see December sales exceed November sales. I think the good news for the Tri-Valley housing market is the strength of the commercial sector. Check out this report about office building sales. More jobs in the area will help the housing market sooner than later.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about how to read these numbers.
Filed under: California Real Estate, Livermore Real Estate, Pleasanton Real Estate, Real Estate Economics, Tri-Valley Real Estate | Tagged: , Bayeast.org, DOM, Livermore, Office Buildings, Realty Times, Statistics
