The Watsonville housing market

The Watsonville housing market, a part of the larger Santa Cruz County real estate market, showed signs of recovery along with the larger economy of the area. According to a May 27, 2010 article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, “Santa Cruz County lost 5 percent of its jobs over the past two years, but it would have been worse without the steadying effect of agriculture. That’s the assessment of Jeffrey Michael, who heads the business forecasting center at the University of the Pacific and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio.” The piece, written by Jondi Gumz, went on to state that “Santa Cruz is closely tied with Silicon Valley, which is seeing the strongest early recovery. The ag sector, which added jobs, has been a buffer; without it, the county’s job loss would have been 7 percent.”

The average price of a Watsonville real estate rallied strongly in the month of April along with the rest of Santa Cruz County. According to a May 24, 2010 article in the Mercury News, “Santa Cruz County saw fewer single-family homes sold in April compared to a year ago, but the median price rebounded from $420,000 to $553,000, the highest in 20 months, as distress sales dipped. Two years ago, the midpoint of what sold was $661,000.” The piece, also composed by Jondi Gomz, went on to say that “There were 121 sales in April, with 43 percent selling for under $500,000, compared to a year ago, when 132 homes sold with 57 percent under $500,000, according to Gary Gangnes of Real Options Realty, who tracks the numbers. Last month saw 33 bank-owned sales and 17 ‘short sales,’ where the home is sold for less than the debt, compared to 56 bank-owned sales and 11 short sales a year ago.”

An increase in the median price was also observed above the larger Bay Area, which includes the Watsonville real estate market. According to a June 14, 2010 report from the Sacramento Bee, “Redfin today released new data on the San Francisco Bay Area market showing that the median price of a Bay Area single-family home increased 9.9% from April to May, and 32.8% year over year.”

The Sunnyvale housing market

The Sunnyvale housing market, a part of the larger San Jose and Santa Clara County real estate markets, showed strong signs of improvement in the most recent tracking periods. According to a May 31, 2010 article in the Mercury News, “The local housing market continues to show improvement in sales and value of homes, though overall home sales in the nine-county Bay Area and the state as a whole, showed mixed results during the month of April, according to [the] latest real estate sales and price reports.” The piece, written by Rose Meily, went on to note that “MDA DataQuick reports sales for all new and resale homes and condos in Santa Clara County rose 3.1 percent in April compared with the same period last year. A total of 1,656 homes sold in April, up from 1,606 homes sold in April 2009. The median home price for all homes jumped 20.7 percent from $405,000 in April of 2009 to $489,000 this year.”

The performance of Sunnyvale homes for sale was a substantial improvement over the rest of the Bay Area, which actually saw a decline in home sales in the month of 2010. According to a May 20, 2010 article in the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, “Bay Area home sales fell slightly below the year-ago level and remained well below average in April, according to a report Thursday by MDA DataQuick. In April a total of 7,003 homes closed escrows in the nine-county Bay Area, up 0.2 percent from 6,992 in March but down 1.9 percent from 7,139 in April 2009.” The piece continued to explain that “Some of April’s sales activity might have been delayed until at least May as buyers decided to take advantage of new state tax credits that became effective May 1.”

The Sunnyvale real estate market was actually cited as one of the most improved in the United States. According to Businessweek, “Of the 50 largest metros, San Jose saw the largest increase in home prices, 8.3 percent year-on-year during the first quarter, according to CoreLogic data. This was driven by a decrease in inventory – supply of single-family homes in Santa Clara County dropped 19 percent year-on-year in May…”

East Bay real estate market

The East Bay real estate market has been facing mixed signals in recent months, with some signs indicating the possibility of a renewed recovery and other pointing towards continued weakness. According to a March 11, 2010 article in ABC KGO News, “For the first time in a long time, some of the Bay Area’s hardest hit counties are seeing their foreclosure numbers drop compared with last year. In San Joaquin County, foreclosure filings have dropped 42 percent since February 2009; in Alameda, foreclosure filings are down 16 percent and in Contra Costa County, filings are down 3 percent.” The article, written by Laura Anthony, continued to say that “At least temporarily, fewer bank-owned properties are coming on the market. In some areas of Contra Costa County, there is intense competition for them among buyers.”

East Bay homes for sale are also showing contradictory signs, with home prices and home sales trending in opposite directions. According to a March 19, 2010 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, “The volume of Bay Area home sales dipped in February compared with a year ago, while the median price continued to rise, according to a real estate report released on Thursday. ‘The increase in the median reflects just how odd things were a year ago,’ said Andrew LePage, an analyst with MDA DataQuick, a San Diego research firm.” Mr. LePage continued to state that “Over half of the resales (then) were foreclosures, and the less expensive inland counties had an unusually high portion of the sales. With the more expensive counties now contributing more sales, it’s easy to post a double-digit increase in the median price. It does not reflect a 20 percent appreciation in the typical home.”

The same basic trend for East Bay real estate for sale was noted in a March 19, 2010 article in Housing Wire, which said that “In the San Francisco Bay Area, home sales improved from January to February, but remained below last year’s level. However, the median price paid continued a five-month-long run of year-over-year increases, according to MDA DataQuick. There were a total of 4,987 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area in February.”