Sonoma Napa Homes Undressed

Good News For California Home Buyers

Here’s some good news for California home buyers and sellers from the California Department of Real Estate- California may be the first real estate market to hit bottom and start back to recovery.  Recent economic developments indicate that California may be the first state to find the bottom, based on the increase in sales volume in the previous three months. In June, home sales rose for the third consecutive month, following a 30-month decline. Although approximately 40 percent of the transactions were foreclosure sales, the increase is allowing the market to stabilize by depleting some of the excess inventory. Some experts believe that once a neighborhood’s median home price declines to 50 percent from the peak value that the homes in that neighborhood will no longer depreciate.

What does this mean to the real estate consumer, it may just mean a quicker rebound here than elsewhere, happy news to most of the people I’m working with, both on buying sides and seller sides. The concern for most buyers is, will the property they buy today, be worth what they paid for it next month, and I think the answer is looking much more positivly like YES! 

Although California leads the nation in foreclosures, the state’s foreclosure process is more efficient than other states. Foreclosed properties are receiving multiple bids and financial institutions are selling these homes quicker than the market would typically allow. Which means for sellers there will be less compition from this other inventory. The Unsold Inventory Index in June decreased to 7.7 months from 10.2 months a year earlier, demonstrating that the market is improving.

I’m asked almost everyday,”Is it a good time to buy?” and that answer in my opinion has been yes for a very long time. But now I think it’s starting to look like it may also be  becoming a good time to sell.