DEL MAR February 27 2012 – Gooooddd Monday morning San Diego! It’s great to back from my south east Asia trip. I was able to see some pretty interesting, exotic real estate along the beaches of Boracay Island in the Philippines and also in Bangkok, Thailand. Select pockets of prime locations abroad have actually gone up substantially in other parts of the world, and so have sales. Despite an improving economy in America, the same paradigm hasn’t held true here in California.
According to the California Association of Realtors® (C.A.R.), January home sales in The Golden State have declined from the month of December, and also from the preceding year. Based on data collected by C.A.R. from almost 100 different REALTOR® associations and MLSs throughout the state, total closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted rate of 517,740 in January 2012. This is down 0.6 percent from the preceding month, December 2011, and down 5.7 percent (548, 760 sales) from last January 2011.C.A.R. also detailed that the statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home was $268,280 in January, a 6.7 percent drop from the preceding month ($285,920). As for the preceding year? A 3.9% drop-off, from $279,220 in January 2011.
These numbers are not altogether cause for anything more than the usual concern. No news here, right? Well, jobs data has been strong and getting stronger for several consecutive quarters, and that is supposed to have a direct positive impact on Housing after all. Yet factors aside from improved jobs data nationally are in play. C.A.R. Vice President Leslie Appleton-Young cites “seasonal factors in the non-distressed market played a role in the softening of the median home price, as prices typically decline in the non-peak home buying season.” Appleton-Young cited “an increase in the share of distressed homes” as the primary explanation for the data. She went on to predict that “if the overall economy continues its recent upward trend, we should see an improvement in the housing market throughout the year.”With record low interest rates, and the recent improvements to the HARP program (knock on hardwood if you can afford it), perhaps we can allow ourselves a little bit of optimism for a stronger housing market in 2012. Of course, the growing volunteer army of strategic mortgage defaulters may have something to say about all of that before all is said and done, but that’s for another blog...
Until next time, feel free to give me a holler at jasonb@tricastle.com, and check me out each and every Monday on www.therealtyinsiders.com for more, and be sure to tune in to see myself, and our various local investors and rehabbers flip SD on “The Realty Insiders” real estate show, THE ONLY real estate show in town!
Jay’s Outlook: Partly Sunny
Jason Bernabei, TriCastle Realty
