It’s hard to have a conversation about real estate today and not mention the foreclosure situation, especially here in California and the Contra Costa County. But, what I’m finding is that a lot of people don’t fully understand the entire foreclosure process and how it is impacting different cities within the East Bay. Notice of Defaults, short sales, auctions, REOs - these are all terms that we hear used in the media, but what do they really mean? Well, I came across a great article on CNN Money this past week that helps explain the different stages to the foreclosure process and how you can purchase properties during each stage. If you have a couple minutes, I’d recommend that you read through it - How to buy a foreclosed home.

In addition, take a look at the following chart - it highlights the impact of foreclosures on some of the major cities in Contra Costa County.  As you will quickly see, not everybody is effected to the same degree!

When I help home buyers and investors evaluate property, I always talk about the interest rate that they are able to secure on their loan. I do this because, in some cases, the interest rate will be the deciding factor between making an offer and walking away. Les Christie, a writer for CNN Money, just recently posted an article titled Time to lock in your mortgage rate. It talks about the ability to lock in today’s rate for the next 30 to 60 days - which is a very compelling idea considering the current upward trend of interest rates. If you have a few minutes, I’d recommend you take a look at the article.

It seems like every other person I talk to lately asks questions about how close we are to the bottom of the real estate market … everybody wants to know whether they can expect another 6 months of price reductions or not. Well, depending on the person, I often prefer to show them how to better understand the factors that go into the answer so they can start to make their own conclusions. As a first step, you might want to read the Some Real Talk on Housing article on the Seeking Alpha website. They do a very nice job of highlighting the importance of housing vacancies on our market.
For those of you who are patient, stay tuned for future posts about how I try to evaluate the market.  For everybody else, please feel free to give me a call (925.817.8428) or send me an email (brian@sparrproperties.com).

On a daily basis, I’m asked the question of whether or not now is a good time to buy. With all the talk around foreclosures, falling prices, problems in the mortgage industry and the overall state of our economy, it’s no wonder there is a lot of confusion. Unfortunately, though, there is no single answer that will apply to everyone thinking about buying (or selling, for that matter) a house. Each person needs to evaluate their current situation, their future plans for the property and the terms around the contract they will enter into for that property. At the end of this process, the answer for some people will be “yes, it is a good time to buy” and for others it will be “no, buying a house now is the last thing I should do.” In either case, that’s ok … you need to do what makes the most sense for you and your situation. If you have time though, I would recommend that you read a very good article written by Tom Vanderwell called The Top 7 Things Every Home Buyer Should Know…..

An article today in the Yahoo! Finance section stated that SF Bay area home prices plunge 27 percent in June. Well, that’s pretty bad! However, as you read the brief article you’ll notice that they are talking about aggregate numbers from nine Bay area counties and for the combination of single family homes and condo/townhouses. So, as a person looking to buy or sell a property in one of Contra Costa County’s cities, what does this mean to you? Should you automatically assume that this 27% plunge is the exact impact your market has felt?

I hope you immediately answered the above question with a “no.” The numbers below for six different Contra Costa cities will help show the variance in both year-over-year and month-over-month trends from one city to the next. Real Estate is ALWAYS local. This applies to foreclosures as well as prices … you always need to take national and regional news with a grain of salt because it may or may not be reflective of your local market.

If you have questions about any of these numbers, or would like to see them for a different Contra Costa city, please let me know.