Weekly News Round-Up

Citigroup Chairman Win Bischoff is our prognosticator of the week. After seeing the price of Citicorp’s shares drop more than $30, he is of the opinion that housing prices will not level off for another two years. I’ve always thought that around these parts we would reach 2004 levels, which seems to be happening in Bay Area cities, but I am not as familiar with outlying areas with new housing developments which could skew that thought, and I certainly don’t know about the rest of the country, particularly Nevada and Florida, which have their own set of problems.

Sue McAllister over at the Square Feet blog reports that “New loan defaults decline a bit in June, both in California and in Santa Clara County.” According to Sean O’Toole of Foreclosure Radar, this is the fourth consecutive month that defaults have remained relatively flat. The other good news: “Santa Clara County ranked 40th among the state’s counties in terms of June foreclosures per total population (the county had 3,122 people per foreclosure in June). San Mateo fared better at 44th place.” Good news, Sue.

DataQuick released June information late last week, revealing that the median price has now dipped below the $500,000 mark and sales are not reaching typical levels. Not since March of 2004 have we seen a median home price this low. The median price of $485,000 is 27% less than one year ago, and reflects 7 straight months of decline. Home sales were up over the last few months, but still lagging over the previous years. The sad fact in DQ’s report is that over 25% of the sales last month were foreclosure sales, ranging from 3% in San Francisco County to 57.7% in Solano County. For the full report, you can go here.

San Francisco Schtuff got caught a bit off guard by the powerful real estate establishment. Their well-received posts on Sold Properties contained too much information, according to the powers that be, and they are having to modify what is presented in future. While they have the sales data, you cannot have the sales data from them unless you jump through hoops. I suggest you show your support and do some jumping…..

You might notice that I did not give you a Fire Update this week. Blessings on our state right now, as all the large active fires are between 90 and 100% contained. While 33 fires are still active, none seem to be the large conflagrations that threatened homes, lives, and mass acreage of wilderness. Keep your fingers crossed that this continues.

Recent Sweet Digs Posts:
Berkeley and Oakland Price Reductions: A Permanent Fixture
Hudson Street is Hopping!
P-p-p-price Drops in P-P-P-Pinole