The real estate market is up. The real estate market is down.

It is both simultaneously. It’s a market that has never been seen before. It’s historic, it’s a hassle, it’s a conundrum, it’s a pain in the ass for many.

New home sales last week were down 68% from last year. Almost a dozen new home builders are banding together to auction off 150 homes in California projects.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the California Association of Realtors is reporting that existing home sales were up 97% in September, though prices were down 40%.

How’s the upper-end market in Danville, CA? Well, we can’t use this one example to build a trend, but one developer is auctioning off a 4000 square foot home that had been on the market for $2.4 million – it is now priced at $1.5 million.

Developers slashing prices and dumping homes is mixed news for existing home owners. Home prices are hammered down, but moving the inventory paves the way for the local market to settle and start coming back.

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Danville California is one of those real estate markets that is weathering the storm of change better than most.

Danville real estate is situated more toward the upper end of the market for the East Bay and the 680 Corridor. It is the upper end of the market that is helping to maintain the median home price in the East Bay.

Single family homes priced below $800K are facing considerable downward pricing pressures as a result of the housing market slowdown and the subprime lending correction. Danville, with it’s average list price exceeding $1.3 million is one of the most stable markets in the Bay Area.

But, Danville is not escaping unblemished. Recent data from Yahoo Foreclosures shows zip code 94526 with 50 foreclosures and zip code 94506 with 38 (top images). The majority of these Danville properties have, at this time only received a Notice of Default. It is worth noting that even in the best of times, a fair number of NODs are filed.

The following data was gathered from RealtyTrac 

Checking the Market Details Report (Free & updated weekly), we see a couple of interesting things in Danville. The image below reflects how the median list price in zip code 94526 is flat while the median list price in zip code 94506 (Blackhawk) is trending up. 

Here we see the data broken down into quartiles based upon the price point. Notice that in 94526 as the price increases the Average Days on Market also increases, but in 94506 it is almost the opposite.

The biggest pressure on pricing in Danville, California appears to be coming from seller motivation in this slow market. Sellers that are relocating or needing to “get on with it” for whatever reason are doing what motivated sellers always do – determine fair market price and then price your home 5% to 10% below it to attract the most buyers. The neighbors may not like it because it adds to the downward price pressure, but hey – C’est la Vie!