More on July Sales: The Band Says

I wanted to dive more into the July sales for Alameda and look to see how sales fell into pricing bands.

The sweet spot for home sales in Alameda is in the half million dollar range. Of the 35 sales, in the intial sales data, showed that 15 fell between $500,000 and $599,000. This accounted for 43 percent of the sales.

The next largest band was the $600,000 range that represented 20 percent of the sales. Once you climbed into this band and above all the home sales were single family residences.

It appears that the inventory of homes under $400,000 is falling off and so are the sales. The Island saw just three sales below the 400K level. Alameda currently has 25 listings in the lower end of the bands.

So what does all this mean. If you are a home seller, with a property above $700,000 you have very few shoppers looking in that range right now. If you are a buyer looking below $400,000 there are properties but the inventory is shrinking.

. Total Number of Sales . $1-$299,999 1 . $300,000-$399,999 2 . $400,000-$499,999 3 . $500,000-$599,999 15 . $600,000-$699,999 7 . $700,000-$799,999 5 . $800,000-$899,999 1 . $900,000-$999,999 1 . . SFR . $300,000-$399,999 1 . $400,000-$499,999 1 . $500,000-$599,999 10 . $600,000-$699,999 6 . $700,000-$799,999 5 . $800,000-$899,999 1 . $900,000-$999,999 1 . . Condo . $1-$299,999 1 . $300,000-$399,999 1 . $400,000-$499,999 2 . $500,000-$599,999 3 .

Alameda Median Sale Price Down 26% in January

The news just does not get better for housing, the National Association of Realtors reported that the national sales of existing homes unexpectedly plunged in January to the lowest level in nearly 12 years. Sales of existing homes fell 5.3 percent to an annual rate of 4.49 million last month, from 4.74 million in December.

The January number for Alameda are not any better with the median home sale price dropping to $457,000 this year. This is a drop of 26% from the prior 12-months when the median was $621,450. The national median sales price in January dropped to $170,300, down 14.8 percent from $199,800 a year earlier and from $175,000 in December.

Alameda sales between January of 2008 and 2009 remained unchanged, it was 21 sales in both years, but the total sales for the calendar year fell 20% from '07 to '08.

2008 -- 444

2007 -- 553

It has been 12-years,July 1997, since the US housing market seen sales this low. A few "Experts" don't see sales hitting bottom until later this year as prices continue to sink.

The good news for us in the West it was the only part of the country to show an increased in sales regionally.

The number of unsold homes on the market fell almost 3 percent last month to 3.6 million, the lowest inventory level in two years. But due to the slumping sales pace, it would still take 9.6 months to rid the market of all of those properties, up from 9.4 months in December.

The number of properties continue to languishing on the market and Alameda has seen very stagnate inventory levels. More home would likely be on the market would if sellers weren't so reluctant to list their properties to avoid sinking prices. NAR estimates that about 45 percent of sales nationwide are foreclosures or other distressed properties.

Two Videos -- The first on the National Housing Meltdown and the Second on NAR's release of the sales numbers

January Sales Data

The January sales numbers (the early numbers slow reporting can change slightly change the numbers) remained flat from December 2008. Twenty one sales were recorded in the MLS for both last two months. The most interesting thing from last month sales was the Alameda medium sales price has seen a big decline.

Year-over-year the median home sale price dropped 26% from the first month in 2008. The median price in January 2008 was $621,450 compared to the first 31 days of 2009 that saw median drop to $457,000. This is a very significant move and a number that I will watch closely over the next several months.

The difference between the median list price and median sale price was 91%. Three properties sold over the asking price. The property that saw the largest difference between the list and sale price was the condo at 301 Broadway, #108. The new owners had a successful offer at 75% of the list price.

Sellers have had a tough time pricing their homes in this volatile market. A closer look at the what the average buyers was paying shows that offers were 88%.  It took homes about two and half months to sell based on the median of 86 days days on market. The average shows homes sat for 116 days. Basically if you are thinking of selling you should expect three to four months if the property is priced correctly and you are willing to negotiate on price.

The sale price of a home has seen a definite retreat. The lowest price paid for a property was $215,000 and the highest paid was $930,000. Two properties sold were originally listed for over a million dollars, but the sellers eventually settled on a price in the low nine hundreds. Of the 21 sales prices were spread evenly through three pricing bands: $200K to $400k recorded eight sales; $401K to $600K saw six sales; $601 to $999K brought out seven buyers.

Overall the month of January gave no indication of where the Alameda market is heading. The month shows indication that people are still holding off on buying. If February's numbers are similar then the trend is headed to stagnate market. Only those who need to buy or sell will enter into the purchasing process.

A little easier to read chart: Chart Link