Housing Trends in the Bay Area

As mentioned in many of our earlier blogs, the San Francisco Bay Area has been one of the most badly hit housing markets in the nation. But over the past few years, home sales have been on the rise according to DataQuick, a San Diego-based company that monitors nationwide real estate activity. According to DataQuick, January 2013 has shown some promise in a market that has been inching up over the past ten years. Listed here are the most popular housing trends seen in the Bay Area:

• 5,501 (new and old) houses were sold in the Bay Area.
• January 2013’s sales have been strongest since 2007.
• The market imbalances are slowly moving toward normalcy.
• The median price paid for a home was $415,000 in January 2012, up 27.3% from $326,000 in January 2012.
• The number of homes sold for less than $500,000 fell 17.9%, while the number sold for more than $500,000 increased 45.4%.
• Short sales transaction were approximately 23.3% in January, up from an estimated 23.2% in December and down from 28.1% in 2012.
• Jumbo loans (taken for amounts above $417,000) accounted for 38.0% of January, down from a 40.3% in December.
• Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), which are an indicator of mortgage availability, accounted for 11.4% Bay Area’s home loans.
• FHA loans accounted for 15.5% of all Bay Area mortgages in January, down from 18.9% in December and down from 23.6 in January 2012.
• The most active lenders to Bay Area home buyers were Wells Fargo with 13.4%, Stearns Lending with 3.9 percent, and RPM Mortgage with 3.6 percent.
• The typical monthly mortgage payment that home owners agreed to was $1,474 in January 2013, down from $1,561 in December 2012 and up from $1,233 a year ago.

Most of these trends seem positive and we truly hope that the housing market that has been suffering for such a long time, starts flourishing soon.