Bay Area home buyers bidding up ‘bargain’ properties
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Bolstered by sales of discounted foreclosures, Bay Area sales were up 29.1% last month from March 2008, MDA DataQuick reported, while the median home and condo price was down 45.9% to $290,000. The area price peak was $665,000 in June and July of 2007.
The March statistic overstates the price decline as sales in higher-end communities have been slower, according to DataQuick analysis. For example, Santa Clara County, home to the majority of Silicon Valley communities, saw only a 16.6% increase in sales for the same period and a median price drop of 37.1%.
L.A. Land checked in with real estate agent Cherie Colon of Windermere SVP, San Jose, for a take on the homes sales action.
‘Banks have been returning foreclosed homes to the marketplace and pricing them 5% to 10% under the competition,’ she said, in some cases creating a bidding frenzy ‘way over the listing price. We’re back to multiple offers.’
Area agents are expecting another wave of foreclosures to hit the market soon, Colon added.
What they haven’t seen are ‘banks willing to work with short sales,’ she said. Still, the ‘lower end of the market is extremely active’ with prices that haven’t been seen in 10 to 12 years in some areas.
-- Lauren Beale
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