East Bay Blog

First I must apologize profusely for my lack of updating this blog in the last couple of months. If you stop by regularly, you know that I try to update our blog on a regular basis, but with all of the changes that have been occurring in the mortgage and real estate markets it has been quite hectic.

So, I think a good way to kick off a new blog update, and my first one for 2008 is to let you know where we are today. At this point, unless you have been living under a rock, you are aware that we are in a challenging real estate market. For months now we have been getting the barrage of news every night telling us how bad the real estate market is, how there is a glut of inventory, and foreclosure rates are soaring. In reality, the market is challenging, if you are a seller, it is going to take a while for your home to sell and you MUST price appropriately. With that said, I would say that it is no where near as bad as what we see on the news. Watching TV you are liable to think that owning property is a mistake, but most people know that in the long run real estate is a great investment. The current state of the market is a correction from the soaring increases we had in the last 3 to 5 years. At this point I think we are starting to swing a bit too much in the direction of correcting to the down side... In my opinion 2008 will be a good year to get back into the market. I think we should probably be seeing the bottom sometime in the middle of this year, with a flattening out after that for a year or two.

In regards to some statistics, the below price averages are from a Data Quick article dated January 17, 2008. These stat’s show that as expected we have seen price declines everywhere on average over the last year. This is in addition to the declines we saw in 2006. To read the entire article, go to http://www.dqnews.com/RRBay0108.shtm

Although everywhere is showing an average price decrease, you must drill down further into individual cities, not counties to see how we are doing. Some cities like Oakland, Antioch, and Hayward are dropping quite a bit more than average in Alameda County, while other cities in the same county such as Pleasanton and Castro Valley are holding up better than average. It really depends on your neighborhood, but a good rule of thumb is the more sub-prime loans that were issued in your neighborhood, the further your price has dropped.

I hope you found some of this information useful. You will be getting more regular updates in the future from me, and again I apologize for the delay in posting this. Remember, if you need any assistance in regards to real estate, do not hesitate to contact us, until next time…