Home Sales Figures for Alameda and Contra Costa August 2008

Brentwood, Antioch & Pittsburg continue to see buyers and investors gobbling foreclosures. Concord, California is seeing a lot of downward pressure on condos as the price of single family homes has dropped to the level of what condos used to cost.

Danville, Lafayette and Walnut Creek are showing the slowest declines in median home prices for the month of August.

In the fourteen communities that make up the CCAR Statistical Report our local market hasn’t changed dramatically compared to last September despite the credit crunch that seems to be improving to some degree every day.

Months of Inventory:

• Detached: 10.2 months vs. 10.0 months last September
• Attached:  10.1 months vs. 12.8 months last September

Dataquick Figures: Resale, New, & Condos/TH

Median Sales Price compared to last September:

•      Contra Costa County     +0.2% to $551,250
•      Alameda County            -5.3% to $556,000
•      Nine Bay Area Counties  +0.8% to $625,000

Number Transactions compared to last September
     Contra Costa County         -48.7%
     Alameda County               -43.9%
     Nine Bay Area Counties      -40%

Jumbo loan financing (over $417,000) has become more available the last few weeks, but lenders have higher qualifying standards.  The standards are back to where they were three years ago, after the excesses over the past few years.  Mortgage rates are historically very attractive and more funds are becoming available.  There is a good possibility that the market will improve with each passing month.

Buyers need to understand that “the sky is not falling” in real estate despite what the media hype.  Now is a great time to buy.  With the slow down in transactions there has to be a growing pent-up demand that will surface in the not too distant future.  The overall Bay Area economy is strong, jobs are growing in numbers, and unemployment is very low.  The Bay Area is such a desirable place to live that demand for housing will always be here. 

It took more than 26 days of tense negotiations but the garbage lockout in Alameda County has finally come to an end. With first shifts for returning workers beginning at 8:00 Sunday night, neighborhood trash pickups will generally resume the following morning.

Members of Teamsters Local 70 voted 363-3 to ratify a new five-year contract that touched  on health care benefits and picket lines. Workers will receive 5% pay increases, meaning that the new average salary for a driver would range between $70,000 to $74,000 annually.

Though many county residents breathed a sigh of relief at this problem’s resolution, it didn’t stop retired librarian Cindy Simons from filing suit against the Waste Management of Alameda County last Thursday. She is demanding compensation for all the days missed by Waste Management during the lockout.

Over 200,000 households and 9000 businesses have been affected, although no other city has had more complaints over the duration of the garbage lockout than in Oakland (over 3,400 complaints as compared to only 126 at the same time last year).

- Joseph Natividad 

I was the guest speaker on Tuesday at the Women’s Council of Realtors for southern Alameda County here in California.

It was another great lesson in how what seems simple to one person can often overwhelm others. Given the size of the group, about 60, I decided the workshop format would not probably not work for an hour talk.

I tried to focus the talk more of the why than the how of blogging, but that did not address all of the curiosity in the room.

After teaching blogging workshops to over 100 people in the Bay Area, I am of the opinion that the average business person would do much better hiring an Internet/Tech/Blogging coach for six months than to try and go it alone. Most real estate agents and affiliates that I have met rely on canned or templated “turnkey” solutions for their websites and technology needs. These solutions rarely perform to ‘sales pitch’ levels.

The Alameda chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors is very involved in our local communities and is a networking hub for those associated with the real estate industry. As such, I also tried to orient some of the talk around blogging as a basis for establishing an online netwroking presence.

My thanks to the WCR for the opportunity to address them. Thanks to Holly at the BalloonMan for one of my props.

Lastly, I hope you will be hearing more from this young man in the future. He is Joseph Natividad and we hope to have him as a regular contributor to our blog.

Joseph is a contributor to LIP – Life in Perspective, an East Bay blog founded by the Contra Costa Times for local high school students. I have been reading LIP for the last five months and have really enjoyed reading what these young adults have to say.

Here's the perfect client for this deal:

• Lives in the East Bay of California
• Looking for vacation home
• Likes to water ski, snow ski, fish and relax with the family.

211 Athena Copperopolis, CA 95228

Just a few hours from the East Bay, this home has four large bedrooms, two and a half baths with approximately 2818 square feet of living space. Popular Barbados floor-plan, with lake views from upper family room, kitchen, master bedroom, and Lanai. Sale includes all furnishings and amenities, which were purchased two years ago.

We blogged it here, but the seller says - Let the Realtors of the World Know - the agent that brings me a buyer can have my boat and trailer as a bonus!

The boat is a 1991 Cobalt Condurre 206. It was purchased brand new from the San Ramon Boat Center in 1992, and it has approximately 150 hours on the engine. The trailer is manufactured by Ziemann and it is a double axle trailer.

It is a ski boat and pleasure craft. It has an open bow seating plan and it can accommodate 9-10 people. It has a V-8 engine. The boat has always been stored indoors and it is in great condition.

Come and GET IT!