San Francisco Again Named Nation’s Hottest — and Quickest-Paced — Housing Market in October

U.S. homes sold slightly quicker this year in October than they did one year ago, particularly in San Francisco, which once again ranks as the country’s hottest real estate market.

Realtor.com’s latest analysis of the 20 most in-demand places for home shoppers pegs San Francisco as the hottest U.S. market in October, based on the fastest pace of sales as well as the most listing views on its website. The City by the Bay ranked as the nation’s hottest market in September and for most of the past year and a half, although the Vallejo-Fairfield metropolitan area claimed the top spot for four consecutive months earlier this summer.

Homes in the San Francisco metropolitan area — which includes Oakland, Hayward, and surrounding communities — found a buyer in an average of 34 days in October, the fewest days on market of the 20 cities included in the report. Realtor.com did not include this statistic for individual submarkets for the past few months, but its October 2015 analysis of the same kind found that homes in San Francisco sold in an average of 33 days. With a median list price of $830,000 last month, San Francisco properties are hitting the market 7.8 percent higher than they did one year earlier.

Vallejo fell one spot from September to the No. 3 position. Homes in the Solano County suburbs are selling in an average of 45 days at nearly half the price as in San Francisco, listing for an average of $420,000.

California real estate markets have dominated Realtor.com’s hot list since its inception, and October brought more of the same, with 11 of the state’s cities finding the top 20. San Diego ranked No. 6, followed by San Jose (No. 7), Stockton (No. 9), Modesto (No. 11), Santa Rosa (No. 13), Sacramento (No. 14), Eureka (No. 15), Fresno (No. 17), and Santa Cruz (No. 20). San Jose and Santa Cruz were the hot-list’s two most expensive markets, with respective median list prices of $907,000 and $863,500.

Continued intense competition for California homes mirrors national trends, as the U.S. median list price rose 8 percent on an annual basis to $250,000, a new peak for October. In a statement accompanying the report, Realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke says that demand for real estate is stronger than usual this fall, causing inventory to drop by 11 percent since October 2015 and homes to sell 2 percent faster.

(Photo: Flickr/Chris Chabot)

Article and images sourced from http://blog.pacificunion.com/san-francisco-again-named-nations-hottest-and-quickest-paced-housing-market-in-october/

Closed Home Loan Activity Is Among Nation’s Lowest for Bay Area Millennials

Sky-high real estate prices are keeping the vast majority of young buyers on the sidelines of the Bay Area housing market in 2016, with the San Francisco metro area posting one of the smallest percentages of closed home loans for that demographic.

Mortgage-processing company Ellie Mae’s Millennial Tracker tool, which compiles data on closed home loans for buyers born between 1980 and 1999, says that 17 percent of applicants for mortgages in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area were millennials between January and August of 2016. The numbers dovetail with recent data from San Francisco-based lender Earnest, which found that less than 10 percent of under-35 residents in the Bay Area’s two largest metro areas own homes.

The analysis again illustrates the importance of having an above-average credit score for Bay Area homebuyers, regardless of their age. It also shows how dual incomes affect young buyers in the region, with roughly two-thirds of successful applicants classified as married across all local regions.

The following is Ellie Mae’s breakdown of closed loans so far this year in Bay Area metropolitan statistical areas (the company lacks data for Napa County):

San Francisco-Oakland Hayward: Millennials accounted for 17 percent of closed loan applications in the San Francisco metro area so far this year, the second lowest rate among the country’s 25 most populous cities and only slightly higher than Los Angeles. The average young buyer borrowed $464,392 to purchase a home appraised at $672,438. The average FICO score stands at 751, and 59 percent are married.

San Jose-Santa-Clara-Sunnyvale: Silicon Valley’s income growth has given millennials slightly more buying power, with a 19 percent closed-loan rate so far this year. San Jose millennials require the best credit score in the Bay Area in order to finalize a loan — 754 — and 63 percent are married. The average successful lender borrowed $527,704 to buy the average home appraised at $814,469.

Santa-Cruz-Watsonville: There have been even fewer millennial borrowers in Santa Cruz than in the Bay Area proper this year, with that demographic accounting for just 12 percent of activity. Those who were successful have FICO scores of 754, identical to their Silicon Valley neighbors. Sixty-six percent are married, and the average loaner borrowed $460,393 to buy a $626,053 home.

Santa Rosa: Through August, millennial buyers have represented 15 percent of closed home loans in Sonoma County in 2016, with 57 percent classified as married. The average FICO score is 740, with lenders typically issuing a $374,089 loan to purchase a home appraised at $494,200.

Vallejo-Fairfield: Millennials have accounted for 22 percent of all successful 2016 loan applicants in the Solano County suburbs, more than anywhere else in the Bay Area, and also seal the deal with lower average FICO scores of 727. The Vallejo-Fairfield area has the region’s least expensive homes — appraised at an average of $375,913 — which translates to an average loan of $300,482. Fifty-seven percent of young buyers in Solano County are married.

(Photo: Flickr/Lucas)

Article and images sourced from http://blog.pacificunion.com/closed-home-loan-rates-among-nations-lowest-for-bay-area-millennials/

U.S. Home Sales Gains Near Decade High, Led by Bay Area Markets

Homeowners who sold their properties in March realized the largest gains since before the Great Recession, with Bay Area sellers netting three to four times the national average.

According to RealtyTrac’s March and Q1 2016 U.S. Home Sales report, homes sold for an average of $30,500 more than their purchase price last month, a 17 percent profit and the highest since December 2007. In a statement accompanying the report, company Vice President Daren Blomquist said that the healthy price gains would hopefully motivate more sellers to list their homes this spring and alleviate inventory shortages that have plagued much of the country and especially the Bay Area.

A shortage of homes for sale has helped propel Bay Area price appreciation since the housing recovery took hold. In fact, home sellers in the San Francisco metro area pulled down the highest price increases in the country — 72 percent since purchasing their properties 10 years ago for an average gain of $282,000. San Jose ranked No. 2 in the country for price gains at 60 percent, for an average profit of $312,500.

Home sellers in other parts of the Bay Area also enjoyed price gains that were larger than the national average. In the Santa Rosa metro area, March sellers made an average of $145,500, a 40.5 percent gain. Home sellers in the Vallejo-Fairfield region profited by $107,250 since buying their properties nine years ago, an increase of 47 percent.

However, affordability constraints could mean that home prices in some parts of the Bay Area may have topped out. RealtyTrac says that San Francisco was among the 17 percent of U.S. markets where the median sales price dropped on an annual basis in March. After almost four solid years of monthly gains, San Francisco prices dipped by 2 percent year over year. Nationwide, the median home price continues to climb and was up 11 percent from March 2015.

Rising prices are perhaps deterring some all-cash buyers, the number of which dropped for the 12th consecutive quarter. All-cash sales accounted for 31.8 percent of U.S. single-family home and condominium sales in the first quarter and 21.4 percent of California transactions.

Additional data from RealtyTrac shows that all-cash buyer activity was also down on both a quarterly and annual basis throughout much of the Bay Area. All-cash buyers accounted for 22.7 percent of transactions in the San Francisco metro area, 21.9 percent in Santa Rosa, and 19.2 percent in Vallejo. Locally, San Jose was the exception, with all-cash buyer activity up slightly both quarterly and yearly to account for 23.8 percent of home sales.

(Image: Flickr/401(K) 2012)

Article and images sourced from http://blog.pacificunion.com/u-s-home-sales-gains-near-decade-high-led-by-bay-area-markets/