Tom is an experienced agent (18 years) who works in the following East Bay communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. Cities covered are Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville, Tracy, Mountain House, Manteca, and Lathrop.
The question that I hear most often these days from clients, friends, and potential clients is "Are we at the bottom?" Or ..."Are real estate prices going to continue to do down?" Buyers don't want to pay too much ...sellers, who can't really sell their houses right now, are waiting for some kind of recovery so they can sell their house, and investors, well, they want to buy at the absolute bottom of the market.
So ..."ARE WE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE REAL ESTATE MARKET YET?"
The answer to that is yes and no....
Yes, we are at the bottom in most cities in the lower price ranges .... For Livermore that price range is in the high $200's to low $300's. For Tracy, Mountain House, Manteca, and Lathrop the lower range is $120's to the low $200's. Lower range in Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville is the mid $300's to low $400's.
We are at the bottom here .... homes in these price ranges, in these cities, are selling fast. Most are bank owned REO's which are priced below current market value (CMV) and they are selling very quickly with multiple offers on the ones that are the best bang for the buck. Because of the high demand and lower supply the average months supply in these price ranges, in these cities, is approx. 2-3 months. With a 2-3 months supply of houses you normally don't see any price erosion. (Months supply equals total available house inventory divided by sales over the last 30 days)
HOW ABOUT THE MID PRICE RANGES AND HIGHER?
Mid and upper price ranges are a different story. Mid range prices in our area can be anywhere from $300K (In the Central Valley) to $700K (Pleasanton) There seems to be more downside to these yet as the months supply of available homes hovers around the 6 month mark. A 6 months supply of houses means that further price erosion is likely. In the upper price ranges, where supply is hovering around the 12-15 months mark, well, the house prices on these kinds of homes still has a way to fall.
SO WHAT"S IT ALL ABOUT ALFIE?
To summarize, it is absolutely the best time for investors, and first time home buyers, to jump in and purchase a lower priced home before all these marvelous bargains disappear. And disappear they will. For those of you with higher priced homes looking to sell .... we think that you should stay the course and not try to sell right now. If you did decide to sell .... you'd probably get a lot lower price than you'd be looking for.
For more info check out our new foreclosure website at http://www.tomlyonsforeclosures.com
Thanks for reading
"You don't know when the market has reached the bottom until you missed it" (prices already on their way up). Thats what I tell anyone who asks me that question.