Weekly Market Report

Coldwell Banker Weekly Market Watch
Week of September 30, 2007

A home in a coveted neighborhood of Castro Valley sold within a week for $1,020,000 without even having a sign in the yard. Two Danville listings went pending in less than a week – one priced in the $680,000 range and the other at $1,179,000. Oakland-Piedmont sold a $2.5 million home preemptively, and then there were two they didn’t get in multiple offer situations. Two Pleasanton properties sold in fewer than ten days at full price. Southern Marin/Belvedere saw a $3,450,000 listing go pending in one week. Palo Alto and Menlo Park saw preemptive sales and multiple offers on approximately on half of their week’s transactions. San Francisco continues to see its high-end properties in short supply and high demand, and pretty much a well-balanced market in most other price points. Several $2M+ properties in San Francisco had as many as a half dozen disappointed buyers who lost in multiple situations this week. Cole Valley was one, another $1.8M in Corona Heights didn’t make it to the market as someone just had to have it for several hundred thousand more before the seller put it on.

It’s the triptych of real estate truth that we must continue to preach. Everyone – repeat after me, “price, condition, location.” Homes are selling – but buyers must perceive the value. Buyers perceive value when that triad is balanced in proportion to the needs of those buyers. While sellers cannot do anything about the location of their home, they can certainly invest in making the changes and upgrades to the property that are necessary to create value in its condition. In addition, when they are realistic about their price expectations, they can expect to sell in a reasonable amount of time.

We are also seeing decreases in market inventory in many areas – indicative of the fact that sellers in these areas are starting to take their homes back off of the market. The other side of the Buyers’ Perceived Value coin is – as we mentioned last week – that now is not the time to sit on the fence if one wants to buy a home. It’s the best possible time to make that purchase before the seller decides they aren’t going to make any price reductions and pulls that home off of the market. Believe me – when that property goes back on the market next year, it won’t be at its current price.

The vast majority of our offices indicate that listing inventory is steady or decreasing while sales activity is reported as being steady in the majority of our offices. True values are out there and ripe for the picking.

Have a great week.
Rick

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