Weekly Market Watch

Coldwell Banker Weekly Market Watch
Week of April 22, 2007

You have heard the expression, “It’s not personal. It’s just business.” Well, in real estate, our business is always personal, and the Bay Area market bears witness to that. With the pressures of tax season and spring break over, people have started getting back to the business of investing in the home of their dreams. Most areas saw a sharp increase in serious buyers – not just tire kickers - as well as a welcome influx of fresh inventory from sellers.

Of the more than 615 homes held open during the week, most were well attended by serious buyers. A home in Pleasanton saw 53 groups of people go through, while 300 people packed into a $1.8 million dollar listing in Redwood City. Petaluma reports that open house activity was “phenomenal.” Menlo Park had an open house in the Willows district with over 100 visitors. Berkeley, Oakland/Piedmont, Pleasanton, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Walnut Creek, San Francisco and Orinda all reported exceptional turnout as well.

The higher-end homes continue to do well in many areas. Menlo Park notes brisk sales activity in the $1-3M dollar range. A $4.9M property in San Francisco received an offer immediately upon coming on the market and was ratified. Mind you, this was after excellent leadership from the Coldwell Banker co-listing agents on preparing, staging, pricing, and timing which began several months ago. Southern Marin also notes that the high end remains active.

Multiple offers are still the rule of thumb in many areas – especially in desirable niche markets where sellers are heeding the advice of their real estate professionals and allowing for the proper staging and pricing that helps homes sell more quickly. More than 60 properties were in multiple offer situations. Menlo Park office reports a Palo Alto property listed at $2.5M received seven offers and ratified for quite a bit over list price. In San Francisco, one property in the Sunset received 24 offers while another receive 28! Redwood City, Orinda, Palo Alto and San Mateo also saw many multiple offer situations. The Lombard office in the City reminds us that most of the South of Market condo sales are going solo.

Overall, we are seeing strengthening inventory and good movement in sales in most areas. Listing inventory was reported as increasing by eight offices, decreasing by only three offices, and steady by 17. Sales activity increased for nine offices, decreased for five offices and remained steady for 13, and more than 250 offers were ratified. I have heard reports of some excellent floor calls at the up-desk this past week. Perhaps we’re getting our typical spring season just a little bit later this year. We’ll gladly accept the new listing inventory, as we are selling them a very acceptable pace.

Keep up the great work of making our business personal for buyers and sellers alike!

Rick
Rick Turley
President, San Francisco/Peninsula
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage