Wine Country and Technology Team up to Drive Sonoma County Economic Growth in 2013
[caption width="480" align="alignleft"] The Sonoma County Harvest Fair Wine Competition, courtesy of Williamson Wines in Healdsburg[/caption] This morning I received the newly released Sonoma County Economic Development Board study of the Sonoma County economy, prepared by Moody's Analytics, a national economic research firm. Technology, led by the many medical device manufacturers in Sonoma County, wine and tourism (the wine country part) are strengthening and are expected to lead Sonoma County to grow faster than the state and national averages in the second part of 2013. These are all encouraging signs for a real estate market that continues to strengthen, and where values are at long last rising. Now all we need are more homes listed for sale! Now is not too soon to begin planning to sell or buy in 2013. Please email or call me with your questions, after New Year's Day. We are taking a short break now and look forward to working with you in 2013. Happy New Year! And take a peak at the report below, it has some interesting graphs and analytics. It likes back to my document collection at Scribd.com, where I have also posted the latest home sales statistics for the Sonoma County market through November 2012. Sonoma County Economic Development Report ...
Homes in Sonoma County Are Selling Twice as Fast This Year–We Need More Listings!
Sonoma County Home Sales Report through August 2012 The latest Sonoma County home sales figures through August 2012 show more of the same--increased rate of sales, a higher median price due to the addition of more expensive sales and more non-distressed (equity sales) in to the mix as well as significantly fewer listings than a year ago. The result? Homes that sold in over a hundred days a year ago are now selling in 54 days! Given that more homes also went in to contract in August than any month in the preceding THREE YEARS (!), it seems likely that the decline in inventory and increase in sales are trends that will continue for at least the next several months. The upcoming presidential election does not seem to be factoring in to most of my clients' thinking here in Northern California. Here is the full set of reports. Please email or call if you have any questions about this data or real estate in Sonoma County. The link will take you to a PDF of the full document at my Scribd page. There you can see all the of the reports I have done in recent years. ...
Pending Sales for July up to Highest Rate of 2012 while Homes Inventory Declines 39%
The rate of home sales in Sonoma County continues to rise, and inventory is dropping even faster. Here is a detailed set of market statistics for Sonoma County from July 2011 through July 2012....
All Signs Point to Rising Home Values in Sonoma County and the Bay Area
The number of homes for sale in Sonoma County is the fewest in many decades, according to a panel of real estate appraisers who recently presented their thoughts at the North Bay Association of Realtors' weekly breakfast meeting in Santa Rosa. At the end of May of the 1900 homes technically available on our MLS, over 1,000 were already in contract, leaving only 900 homes available. This was roughly a forty percent drop from last May. Inventory is declining due to a steady increase in new and pending sales, documented here. Interest rates are ridiculously low and buyers at all price ranges conitnue to leap off the sidelines. Appraisals are often a challenge now as the market is moving too fast and overbids in pending sales are not yet reflected as SOLD data, creating large challenges for the 70% of buyers who are applying for home mortgages today. All signs point to gradually increasing home vales. Decreasing supply and increasing demand. Part of this may be attributed to the "Facebook" effect, much touted for months even before Facebook's beleaguered IPO earlier this spring. The IPO and generally strong tech economy are lifting the Silicon Valley and San Francisco housing markets to red hot levels. I was in San Francisco this morning for a seminar on real estate legal topics and heard some interesting stories that are coming out of this frenzied market. Many properties, even in the six to twelve MILLION dollar range are receiving multiple cash offers. What happens when some buyers lose out--they get creative. It is increasingly common for losing Buyers to offer cash incentives to the buyers in first position (the winning buyer) so that they will assign their rights to buy the home to the frustrated loser. How can this happen? Most standard real estate contracts are assignable, unless specifically amended. In one case winning buyer accepted $100,000 from a losing buyer to assign their right to purchase a home to the second buyer. Can you imagine how the seller feels seeing that $100,000 go to some one else? Needless to say this creates some interesting challenges for sellers and their agents to be aware of--that is why the good brokerages such as Wine Country Group, my firm, offer continuing legal education to their agents. ...
Higher Asking Prices for Homes in Many San Francisco Bay Area Communities
[caption id="attachment_1770" align="alignleft" width="636" caption="A map showing higher per square foot asking prices in certain Bay Area communities"][/caption]Over the last few weeks I have posted a lot about home sales market statistics for Sonoma County. The reason is not to be gratuitously geeky, but to provide some data, and some context for what appears to be a solidifying shift in the real estate market in Sonoma County and throughout the SF Bay Area. There is a lot I am planning to share on this subject but for now, I would just like to publish the graphic by John Blanchard and the San Francisco Chronicle from Sunday, June 3, 2012. It is based upon data from Zillow, the real estate portal, and shows a color-coded heat map of asking prices by square foot throughout the Bay Area, including Sonoma County. In certain key markets asking prices per square foot are anywhere from ten to even twenty or thirty percent above last year's figures. Why? Because there is almost NO inventory available for all the home-buyers out there. You can see on this map that Sonoma County communities such as Healdsburg and the Valley of the Moon corridor are at the higher end of these ranges. Newly pending sales are at a many year high now, and inventory in Sonoma County may be reaching an all time low. More about this in future posts. ...
Homes for Sale Inventory Drops 37% while Sonoma Home Sales Rise 21% as of May 31, 2012
[caption id="attachment_1762" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Drastically Reduced Inventory and and Increase in Home Sales Contnues as of May 31, 2012"][/caption] In May I posted a lot about Sonoma County homes sales statistics. Now it is June 1 and I was curious to see what the May sales figures had to say. Last year at this time there were 3,043 homes for sale in Sonoma County. As of May 31, 2012 there are only 1,902 (!) homes for sale here, a 37% drop in inventory. Last year 434 homes sales were completed in the month of May. This year, 524 home sales were completed, an increase of 21%. This supply and demand chart is one of the most telling for market statistics. As the supply curve drops it begins to converge with the demand curve, which has been steadily rising. When the curve converges that means prices may rise. I recently attended a gathering of about 200 realtors for a business planning conference in San Diego. The consensus there was that prices are coming up. Most analysts predict a modest increase of 3-5% nationwide. Prices seem to be rising in some of the hardest hit markets such as Las Vegas and Florida. Many Bay Area markets are sizzling hot and overbids are rampant. The Sonoma County home sales numbers seem to confirm this trend. What do you think? Last year...
Detailed Luxury Home and Ranch Report for Sonoma County Home Sales
Sonoma County Million Dollar Plus Home and Ranch Sales Report through April 2012 Here is the detailed set of tables and charts looking at the sales statistics for million dollar plus homes and ranches in Sonoma County. It would be difficult to break this data down and look at trends in the rate of sales in different communities such as Healdsburg or Sonoma since the sample size is so small. That is why we so often look at the county as a whole. Typically the most desirable locations will see the quickest rebound and highest activity. Good sales activity doesn't mean sellers can overprice their properties and hope to be successful, but they can be more positive about bringing well-presented and well-priced properties to market, because the buyers are out there. Trends of note--the number of expired listings has declined steadily over the last year. During the depths of the market downturn many properties were pulled off the market when they didn't sell. A lower rate of expired listings is obviously coupled with a higher rate of newly open contracts and closed sales. While we may have had some price declines in this segment as recently as 2011, all the signs point to stabilizing prices and possible modest price appreciation in the years ahead. All data is pulled from the BAREIS Multiple Listing Association. That is, it is provided by the various brokerages in the county from their actual listing sales data....
Sales of $1Million Dollar Price Homes in Sonoma County up and Inventory is Down
The sales of luxury homes, ranch and estate properties in Sonoma County are up significantly as of May 2012. At the same time, inventory is down and days on market are declining. All of these are encouraging signs for the overall market for higher end homes throughout Sonoma County....
Detailed Country Property Sales Report for Sonoma County
Yesterday I published a post about the dramatic increase in country property newly pending sales compared to the depths of the recession in 2009. Here is a link to the complete report. Enjoy! PLease feel free to comment or send questions. I'd love to hear from you. Sonoma County Country Property Sales Report...
Sonoma County Country Property Pending Sales up 238% Over the Market Bottom in 2009
Following (or leading?) the general pickup in the real estate market both locally here in Sonoma County, and nationwide, country properties are strong. Newly pending sales of properties on 2 acres or more in Sonoma County are at more than the three year high, up 238% !! over the same time in 2009. In fact, February 2009 was the bottom for the median sales price in the county, and the chart belo0w conveniently looks at the sales of country property throughout Sonoma County during that time. All sales that are opened don't necessarily close--there could be property "issues" or financing "issues." Still the number is a good leading indicator of market activity. The jump in sales of country properties is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the jump in sales of all single-family residences. [caption id="attachment_1629" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Country Property Sales up 238% from Market Bottom in 2009"][/caption] Contrast this with the overall rate of newly signed contracts for all single-family residences in Sonoma County. Compared to SFD's, country property sales really took a dive when the market did the same, while sales in 2009 were focused on inexpensive single family homes and condos. The change in rate of sales for all single family homes (including country properties) has increased, but risen only 21% from the trough year in 2009. So what does this mean? In short, if you have a nice country property to sell in Sonoma County and have been on the sidelines, this spring and summer might be the right time for you to sell. Inventory is becoming more balanced between buyers and sellers, and there is strong demand. I believe that will only continue to grow, as Sonoma County's lifestyle and close proximity to San Francisco make it such a desirable place to live. Please give me a call or drop me an email if you would like to learn more! ...