Northern California’s Bay Area real estate, as with real estate in other parts of the nation, has seen some dramatic changes over the past three years.
But the big question for Bay Area real estate is “Where is it headed?”
There have been bright spots such as Walnut Creek CA homes for sale and Lafayette CA real estate, but it is hard to tell whether these Bay Area real estate sub-markets are going through fits and starts as the real estate market emerges or are simply flashes of brilliance only to burn out without igniting any meaningful recovery.
To get a handle on where the activity and values for Bay Area houses is heading, we took a look at Bay Area real estate activity for the past three years (broken down by quarters) and displayed it at the bottom of the page. These are Bay Area homes that have gone under contract during that quarter. This is the cutting edge of real estate purchasing activity.
It reveals a lot about the current health of Bay Area real estate.
First, notice how many Bay Area houses under contract were bank-owned in the recent quarters. Now take a look at how small a portion of the Bay Area real estate market these foreclosed homes comprised in the first quarter of 2008!
Clearly, a lot has changed in the Bay Area real estate market from then to now with respect to foreclosure activity and the ability of banks to reintroduce these homes to the marketplace.
We also see the percentage of bank-owned homes waning a bit from the last quarter of 2009 until the last quarter of 2010. The fact that the percentage of bank-owned homes increased in the first quarter of 2011 would worry me – until I factored in the overall increase in sales.
It is not unusual for the first quarter of any year to show gains over the preceding quarter of the year before. But the fact that the number of Bay Area houses under contract shows the strongest first quarter of any of the past three years is a good sign.
One good quarter does not a real estate market make.
But if the next two quarters show similar signs of activity, we may find that this is the return to health that Bay Area real estate has been looking for.
Bay Area Real Estate - Homes Under Contract from 2008 to 2011
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Apreciate your comment. Your right on about needing 2 quarters before stating a come back. Good luck and may your
Q2 be as good.