Alameda Landmark Now A Short Sale

Sorry about the lack of posts last week, but have been under the weather and did not feel much like writing.

Here is today's home inventory for Alameda and the data shows a nice upswing in inventory this week. In total the Island is up 11 more units than last week, but there is a concerning underlying element in the numbers that is cause for concern.

Five of the 11 units for sale are distressed properties; our of the properties are short sales. If this trend holds it is a sign that people are continuing to struggle with their mortgages and can not hold on at the current rate.

Three of the four short sale listings add this week were townhome/condos. The only exception is The Webster House at 1238 Versailles Avenue. Built in 1854 this is a City landmark and now a victim of the housing downturn. According to the listing comment it is a: Historical gem currently used as a bed & breakfast & tea house (business being sold separately). Fully remodeled w/ commercial kitchen & charming touches throughout. Large grounds, set far back from the street w/ great curb appeal.

Distressed properties are 35 percent of Alameda's inventory. Inventory growth is a good thing given the City has less than three months of it, but at the cost of others losing their property this can have other social impact.

Alameda Inventory -- February 1, 2010

. . 2/1/2010 . Total 104 . 94501 82 . 94502 22 . SFR 54 . Condo 29 . Multi-Family 19 . Short Sale 19 . Foreclosure 10 . Price Reductions 28 . High List $1,999,000 . Low List $188,000 .

Need A New Home . . . There is an App for That

So, I purchased and an iPhone about two months ago, and love this phone. I do not know how I lived without my camera, video camera, music player, email, IM and oh yea phone in one devise. But it is the apps that make the phone a must have, they have games, tools, news and business apps. They have an app for almost anything you can think of, but since this is a real estate column I am going to review the newest entry into field and then give you other of my favorite apps.

Today, ZipRealty Introduces Free iPhone application enabling mobile house-hunting in more than 4,800 Locations and Alameda is definitely included since this is a Bay Area company. Buyers can now search listed homes, view photos, and get home prices and appraised values while on the go and allowing them to search for and view full information from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

Here is some cool feature from the app:

There’s no start screen search function there is a prompt to share location your current location, and the user is taken right to a display of properties. Clients can begin with new geo-targeted searches for homes that meet their unique home-buying criteria like price range, number of bedrooms or bathrooms, and property type. This means if you are walking or driving along the geo target will start the search where you are currently located. Searchers get to see both listed properties and recently sold properties. There is a filter that allows searching by one or the other if you prefer. The search area can be modified from this point either by panning across the map or manually entering a location.
The application displays search results on Google Maps allowing the client to see homes currently on the market as well as a comprehensive list of recently sold homes with sale prices. By syncing the application directly with Google Maps, users can easily access GPS-enabled turn-by-turn driving or walking directions while exploring new neighborhoods.

This is also one of the fastest real estate apps in terms of downloading information. I tried in three Alameda neighborhoods (Fernside, Gold Coast and Bay Farm) and got good data across town.

The photo display on the property detail page is a filmstrip of all the property photos, Double tap on the photos and you get a good sized photo to review the property. There is no need to collect property flyers any longer.

If you like a home or want to refer back to a property in the future you can create a saved list. Each client’s ZipRealty.com account will sync with the iPhone application after initial login. Homes bookmarked on the web version are easily accessed on the go, and clients can bookmark new homes seen during mobile searches.

In addition to home listings and photos, the application provides access to third-party home value estimates from Zillow, Cyberhomes and Eppraisal. So you do not have to go to multiple sites for valuation.
The application is free and easily available by searching for ZipRealty in the iTunes store under the App section. For additional information and screenshots from the application, please visit www.ziprealty.com.

Two other apps that I really like are Walkscore and Fido Factor.

Walkscore is a great too if you want to figure out how walkable a neighborhood is for pedestrians. My home rates a 93, walkers paradise. The people at Walkscore use things like restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores to create their score. I use this app a lot when I travel to select a hotel. Many times I do not have a car and I want to have resources close by. If I was buying a home this is a great resource to compare two properties.

The final app I wanted to let you know about is Fido Factor. As a person that has a dog in our home, we like to go to dog friendly businesses. Fido factor helps you locate these types of businesses and rate them. I can tell you without Fido Factor our dog loves two businesses in Alameda: Dog Bone Alley and Books Inc, he get treats at both.

Round Table Discusses Housing Market

Forbes magazine holds a monthly round table discussion with some of the real estate leaders each month to discuss trends. This month discussion was titled "Housing Talk: Could The Rally Die?" the moderator Stephane Fitch, explores the ever volatile Golden State as Experts continue to fret over California's autumn numbers. Since Alameda is impacted with California and high unemployment, I thought it worth passing along.

The Panel includes Donald Trump Jr., Trump Organization; Pat Lashinsky, CEO of ZipRealty; Michael Feder, Radar Logic and Spencer Rascoff, Zillow.

It is an interesting read. They cover inventory, employment and what is needed to get things moving in the housing sector.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/03/real-estate-advisor-personal-finance-october-housing-panel.html

A Look at Home Sales Bands

Sometimes I wonder, if other people are as into breaking down data as much as I am, but when it comes to home sales it is all about the numbers. Looking and fining something new in the numbers is like prospecting and it makes it interesting to me.

For the past few weeks, I have wanted to look at the price bands for the Alameda Real Estate market. Price bands are good way to get a sense of how the market has been performing over the past six months.

The breakdown shows that most home sales are finding buyers in the $500,000 range. This is where 43 of the 197 sales were recorded. The $600,000 range accounted for another 42 sales. Combined the two bands accounted for 42 percent of the sales.

As most people would think the high and low ends of the market had the fewest number of sales. The Million Dollar market has almost vanished. With only three sales to date the Island has not seen a seven figure sales since April 7.

Since I was breaking down the data I also looked at sales by property type. Single family homes are still the driver in the market accounting for 68 percent of the sales. Condominiums represented 23 percent of the sales this year.

The most interesting breakout was of home sales by square footage. This was spread almost evenly among a variety of home sizes. I shows to me that it not so much the home size, but the location of that home.

Hope that you find the numbers interesting.

. Price Band Sales . $199,000 and lower 5 . $200,000 to $299,999 9 . $300,000 to $399,999 24 . $400,000 to $499,999 38 . $500,000 to $599,999 43 . $600,000 to $699,999 42 . $700,000 to $799,999 23 . $800,000 to $899,999 8 . $900,000 to $999,999 2 . $1,000,000 or more 3 . . Property Type Sales . Condominium 46 . Multi Family 17 . Single Family Residence 134 . . Square Footage Sales . Under 1,000 21 . 1,001 to 1,299 37 . 1,300 to 1,599 36 . 1,600 to 1,899 38 . 1,900 to 2,199 16 . 2,200 or more 27 .

Link to Larger Chart

Real Estate Three Dot Round Up . . .

There are a few National Real Estate stories I wanted to lump together, none were worth a post by themselves, but overall the information is worth a quick read.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 84 percent of buyers now use the Internet to search for properties. The shift in technology is has loosened Realtors' long-standing control of vital information and cutting into their sales commissions. For more than 100 years, Realtors have guarded the details of homes for sale via their multiple listing services, looking at homes on the Internet has been about 10-years with the first few had big restrictions. Over 900 regional MLS systems exist nationwide. . .

NAR has called on Congress and the Obama administration to expand the first-time home buyer tax credit to all home buyers, regardless of income. In addition, it is imperative to maintain mortgage interest rates below 5 percent. The Association is pushing for a $15,000 tax credit that could be used by anyone. Congress last year approved a 10% tax credit up to $7,500 for first-time homebuyers, and in February boosted the credit to $8,000 and extended it until Dec. 1. The current credit phases out for buyers with incomes exceeding $170,000 for married couples and $95,000 for individuals . . .

The Wall Street Journal reported the supply of homes available for sale in 28 major metropolitan areas at the end of May was down 3.9% from a month earlier, according to figures compiled by ZipRealty. The ZipRealty data cover all single-family homes, condominiums and town houses listed on local multiple-listing services in metro areas where the firm operates. The inventory listed is now three consecutive months. . .

The foreclosure crisis continues to spread like the flu as it migrates from subprime to prime mortgages. The pace of prime borrowers going into foreclosure is accelerating, especially in states with mounting unemployment or property values that saw a big run-up during the housing boom. Through the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported almost half of the overall increase in the start of foreclosures was due to the increase in prime, fixed-rate loans. . .

More on foreclosures, LA Times reporter Peter Hong is reporting that Southern California may not have seen the light at the end of the tunnel. "In April, 7.16% of Los Angeles County mortgages were in default, up from 4.67% in April 2008, according to First American, which reports on foreclosures as a percentage of active mortgages, rather than as a share of total households as some other firms do." Which means? "That means a whole lot of distressed inventory is on its way to being resold on the open market, putting more downward pressure on home prices . . .

These national stories have local impact and I thought it was worth a read.

Alameda Inventory, Sale and Listing

Lots of numbers for you today. I am trying out a new format, along with the Inventory numbers for the week, I am also including sales and listing data. I hope that it is not overload, but I would like to get all of the numbers out of the way one day a week.

Inventory declined this week but remained with in the range of 160. The 94501 had a decline of 12 units from the prior week; the 94502 posted an increase of six units. The biggest decline in the numbers, I track, was the homes with price reductions which saw 11 fewer units on the market.

Last week's low listing of $169,900 went off the market, I was unable to see if it Sold, it may not have posted as of yet. The new low is a $199,000 one bedroom, one bathroom, Condo at "The Shores." It is the only property under $200K currently listed, the next lowest property is $270,000.

The high listing continues to be a 16-unit apartment building on Santa Clara that is asking a cool $2.3 Million. The highest priced single family house for sale is 7 Castlebar Place. This four bedroom, five bathroom three level home is listed at $1,899,000. This three level promontory home has over 1000 square feet of den and master suite. It also has a deck with panoramic views of Bay Bridge and San Francisco. By the way you also get an elevator.

The Island saw 17 new listings for the week. Eleven of the listings are single family home, and five are condos.

The first three sales of the month were squarely in the sweet spot for sales. All three were close to both May's average and median home sale prices of $560,000 and $579,900.

Link to Charts

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rHT_qAKPiodUiqr2YOnh45Q&output=html

. Inventory . 6/7/2009 . Total 162 . 94501 123 . 94502 39 . SFR 95 . Condo 40 . Multi-Family 25 . Short Sale 14 . Foreclosure 12 . Price Reductions 55 . High List $2345000 . Low List $199000 . . Sales June 1-7 . Sales Date Address Type Beds Baths Sq Feet List Price Sale Price . 6/2/2009 14 REDONDO CT CONDO 2 3 1631 $540000 $510000 . 6/3/2009 1025 ISLAND DRIVE SFR 4 2 1720 $533610 $585000 . 6/5/2009 248 CHESWICK COURT SFR 3 2 1891 $624900 $625000 . . New Listings . List Date List Price Address zip Beds Baths Sq Feet Type . 6/1/2009 $575000 2110 EAGLE AVE 94501 5 1 1880 SFR . 6/1/2009 $675000 2937 LINCOLN AVE 94501 2 1 1218 SFR . 6/1/2009 $448000 757 EAGLE AVE 94501 2 1 815 SFR . 6/1/2009 $419000 933 SHORELINE DR #305 94501 2 2 1360 CONDO . 6/1/2009 $899000 117 HUDSON BAY 94502 4 3 2476 SFR . 6/1/2009 $995000 108 ANDERSON RD 94502 4 3 2659 SFR . 6/2/2009 $599000 2032 CLINTON AVE 94501 0 0 MFR . 6/2/2009 $318000 1713 THIRD STREET 94501 3 1 970 CONDO . 6/3/2009 $749000 2523 OTIS DR 94501 3 2 2299 SFR . 6/4/2009 $979000 617 DUBLIN WAY 94502 5 3 2569 SFR . 6/4/2009 $449000 1115 VIA ALAMOSA 94502 3 2 1584 CONDO . 6/4/2009 $425000 3414 REDHOOK LN 94502 3 2 1664 CONDO . 6/5/2009 $640000 899 BROADWAY 94501 3 2 1556 SFR . 6/5/2009 $525000 2908 MADISON ST 94501 3 1 1210 SFR . 6/5/2009 $639000 3513 MCSHERRY WAY 94502 3 2 1646 SFR . 6/6/2009 $400000 1819 UNION ST 94501 2 1 997 SFR . 6/6/2009 $739900 2770 SEA VIEW PKWY 94502 4 2 2182 CONDO .

94501's Bottom and Top 5

When home sell, the first question almost everyone asks is “What did it sell for?”

As someone who watches the Alameda market very closely I like to add on to that question, “and how much of List Price did they get?”

I took a look at Single Family Residence from January 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009, to see how the home pricing is holding up over 15-month period. I think that tracking this list-to-sold percentage is a good way to see if Real Estate salespeople are pricing homes correctly in what has been a very volatile market. Not easy to do.

At the bottom of the list is 1810 Hibbard; the property sold for 75% of the list price for this two bedroom, one bathroom Central Alameda home. Missing the sale price by 25%  is a big margin could mean many things, but most all it says it was way over priced. On the opposite end of the scale, something almost reminiscent of the year 2000, 2253 Clinton sold for 145% of the list price. All the properties that sold in the top five were under $400,000.


View Larger Map

Of the 360 homes sold in this period, 233 sold for under the list price, another 59 sold for the list price and 68 sold over list.

So if you are like me here are Alameda bottom and top five home sales based on sale price to list price

Recycled Home

With all the talk lately about "Green Technology" and recycling here in Alameda and in California as whole for real estate, I thought I would share an interesting news piece from environmentally friendly Cole Oklahoma. Or as in the story they call it Hippieville.

If you are looking to Green your Alameda home, Alameda Municipal Power (AMP) is offering rebates on Solar Photovoltaics (PV) systems. These systems have traditionally been expensive but now with the rebates these systems have become more affordable.

Solar convert the energy of the sun into pollution-free, renewable, reliable and safe electricity. AMP is offering $4.2 million in rebates over 10 years to customers who install Solar system and in 2009, the $2,000 cap has been removed making the federal tax credit 30% of the cost of a Solar system after AMP rebates. Earth Day is April 22, so if you need to start small put in some compact florescent bulbs in the house. Locally, Alameda will celebrate the day on April 25 at Washington Park.

Solar Rebate

http://www.alamedamp.com/electricity/solar/

Alameda Earth Day

http://www.alamedamp.com/events/earthday.html

California's Million rooftop intiative.

http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/3588/

Taxing Times

I came across a press release from the National Association of Realtors® that I thought was a good reminder as the tax deadline rapidly approaches. Congress and the state of California have made a lot of changes through the stimulus package and the state budget that impact home owners. It is crucial tax information that may affect the bottom lines of all homeowners, buyers and sellers.

“Congress has passed new tax laws that will help many people who may be struggling in these challenging times,” said National Association of Realtors® President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth. “As the leading advocate for housing issues, NAR wants to make sure that homeowners, buyers and sellers can make full use of the tax advantages available to them.”

Some of the issues you need to explore:

• How declining home values are affecting you property taxes, and what it all means for federal returns, and if you think that your property needs reassessment here is a link to the Alameda County Assessors Office Reassessment form. This will require you to do a little homework and submit comparative market data.  
• What energy efficient home improvements can reduce homeowners’ tax bills, both the federal government and California SB1 are providing breaks. Energy Star has a list of federal tax credits. If you need more information on SB1 go to the state page.
• first-time home buyer can now take advantage of the temporary $8,000 tax credit and how it will affect buyers’ tax returns. The National Association of Homebuilders has created a website to give you the facts: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/
• How proposed changes to the mortgage interest deduction may affect homeowners, buyers and sellers at all income levels. The SF Gate wrote an editorial on the proposal.

Don’t procrastinate, and get those returns in early. April 15 will come fast. 

The Island is Flat

On Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that home values have plummeted to an eight year low to a median home price of $350,000 down 47.8%. It is obvious to say that that is a huge decline, but here in Alameda it appears that the market has held up well over the last year.

I took a look at the Average Listing Price on Island in 2007 verses 2008, and it shows that prices that sellers are asking are slightly down, but overall fairly flat. The main Island saw a 5% decline in the asking price. The average of the actual sales price almost mirrored the listing price where buyers were paying between 97-99% of the list price.

The numbers show that Alameda has been holding up over most of the region. Alameda has taken its hit with 20% of the current listings in foreclosure or short-sale, but it does not compare to what is happening in Oakland (744 foreclosed homes, 35% of listings), Richmond (416 foreclosed homes, 46% of listings), and in far east Contra Costa County in Brentwood, Oakley, Antioch and Pittsburg (1,027 foreclosed homes, 47% of listings) that have staggering numbers of foreclosures. The distressed property, foreclosures and short sales, have pushed the median price down and this pushes the entire real estate market down.

The most distressing number is the number of listings sold from 2007 to 2008. It is very bad news, if you are a Realtor or the Alameda City Council looking forward to an increase in revenue the Property Transfer Tax will bring in for next years budget. As of December 15 the numbers of transactions are down 56%.

Alameda three largest brokerages, according to their websites, have 146 real estate sales people, add in an estimated 60 more agents at the other brokerages and that is a lot of people scrambling for deals. The dirty math is 884 sides year to date which means a little over four transactions per agent if every deal stayed with a local person. These are very tough numbers for those toiling in only Alameda Real Estate.

I will not do the math for the City, but I am sure that the impact is very similar.

Here is the breakdown of 2007 to 2008. Scroll further down for the weekly inventory numbers and remember the 94501 Real Estate Survey.Click Here to take survey

 

2007
Zip	No. of Listings	Ave. Listing Price	Ave. Sale Price	%
94501	725	$      660,557.95	$   651,533.09	99%
94502	273	$      701,463.25	$   690,676.66	98%
2008	As of 12/15
Zip	No. of Listings	Ave. Listing Price	Ave. Sale Price	%
94501	327	$      624,797.29	$   610,460.10	98%
94502	115	$      704,016.45	$   686,154.43	97%
Year-Over-Year Changes
Zip	No. of Listings	Ave. Listing Price	Ave. Sale Price
94501	-55%	-5%	-6%
94502	-58%	0%	-1%

 

Alameda Inventory Data

Data Pulled December 21, 2008 at 10:00 AM

Total Units                                 164

94501                                       129

94502                                       35

Single Family Residences          90

Condominiums                           43

Multi-Family                              31

Foreclosure                               11

Short Sale                                 22

Price Reductions                       59

Highest Price Listing                  $1,995,000

Lowest Listing                           $179,900

Additional Pressure on Mortgage Industry

Saw a 60 Minutes story, Sunday Night, on a looming second mortgage crisis that is being forecast by Whitney Tilson. Tilson believes that we are only half way through this meltdown and even a bigger fall is ready to hit because of  two other kinds of exotic mortgages that became popular during the boom, called "Alt-A" and "option ARM. Not sure how many Alameda Homes were bought with these types of loans but I thought is was a valuable to learn more and share the story. For me it was good learning moment since I was not aware of these additional types of loans. (my favorite quote is the "Ninja Loan")