November Housing Market

The months of inventory for twenty-six communities has dropped by over two months, -15% compared to thirty days ago.

On November 2nd the average was 12.34 months compared to 14.40 months on October 1st. The communities with the lowest months of inventory that are experiencing a fairly balanced market, listed from the lowest up are: Moraga, Orinda, Pleasanton, Lafayette, Rossmoor, Fremont, Danville and Walnut Creek.

The communities with the highest months of inventory that are continuing to experience a strong buyer’s market, listed from the highest down are: Pittsburgh, Brentwood, Oakley, Hayward, San Lorenzo, San Leandro, Concord, & Diablo.

The communities with the highest and lowest months of inventory are fairly consistent month after month, mainly because the economic factors affecting these communities both good and bad still remain.

The East Bay market is comprised of many micro-markets that varies from area to area with significant differences that we haven’t seen in past years. When someone wants to know how the real estate market is doing they have to be specific to which community they are interested in. It is the lower priced communities with most having competition from new home construction and with the vast majority of foreclosures have the highest inventories compared to pending sales in the last thirty days.

It is encouraging that the overall months of inventory has dropped. This could be an indication that the market has bottomed out and is starting to slowly pick up. Some of the reasons for this may be that interest rates have dropped about a quarter of a percentage point and there is a growing liquidity in the financial markets to fund loans. Also, buyers may finally be getting the message that the bottom isn’t going to fall out of the market, at least not in most of our market areas as prices have remained fairly stable with some decreases in values.

The September 2007 statistical report from CCAR covering fourteen communities shows prices for the month of September in homes was actually up 2%, but down 8% in townhouse/condos. Year to date closed transactions are down only 10% for both homes and townhouses/condos. This is much lower than for the totals for Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

For more timely information on local communities get a Market Details Report

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