As I count the things for which I am grateful this Thanksgiving, I have several things on my real estate list:
–I am grateful for terrific clients! Right now I have two wonderful sets of buyers in contract, am looking for a wonderful family, and am working with lovely sellers getting properties ready to bring to market, one very soon, and a couple early in 2012. A special pleasure is to be working with two of my favorite agents on one of the buyer’s transactions.
–I am grateful that lobbying efforts by NAR and state associations succeeded in maintaining jumbo loan limits at $729,750 within California. Lowering those limits would have significantly dampened the high end market in our area.
–I am grateful that a relatively small percentage of properties in this market area are distressed properties: either short sales or bank-owned properties. As I talked with colleagues from all over the country at the recent National Assoc. of REALTORS convention a couple weeks ago, I met numerous agents whose market is dominated by foreclosures. Some cities count their distressed inventory as high as 95%. As you can see, our market is impacted, but to a much lesser degree.
What is striking to me in the numbers below is 1) our inventory is very low and 2) it is taking much longer than normal to sell. We are used to average days on market in Berkeley, CA area hovering around a month. Currently it is taking almost three months for the current inventory to sell.
| Â | Summary of Active Single Family Listings | Â | Â | |||
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â |
| Â | #Â Active | Avg. list price | Â Â Â Â Med. List | Avg. DOM | Â Â # DP* | Â Â % DP |
| Berkeley | 78 | $700,231 | $544,500 | 83 | 24 | 30.77% |
| Albany | 13 | $541,626 | $479,000 | 53 | 4 | 30.77% |
| Kensington | 8 | $772,375 | $654,500 | 97 | 0 | 0.00% |
| El Cerrito | 45 | $475,152 | $454,900 | 73 | 17 | 37.78% |
| Oakland | 694 | $366,784 | $242,500 | 73 | 332 | 47.84% |
| Rockridge | 23 | $1,000,795 | $799,000 | 93 | 3 | 13.04% |
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â |
| Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â |
| *DP=Distressed Properties, either Short Sales or Bank Owned Properties | Â | |||||
And for those of you reading this, thank you! And a very Happy Thanksgiving to you!
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