San Jose Real Estate * REALTOR ® * Richard Gonzalez

2009 sales chart

Those of you looking to time the market should take a look at this article from the Mercury News. Affordable homes in Santa Clara County have once again become a reality. Combined with all time low interest rates and first time home buyer programs we have the makings of a combination buyers should not overlook.

Read Mercury New Article

San Jose Mercury News recently reported on the level of homeowners who are underwater in the third quarter of this year. What I do like about this Zillow.com map is that it accurately reflects not only the the bad news, but as you can see the good news for buyers interested in purchasing in Santa Clara County. Buyers should review this map as a guide for areas where they can find a great deal and areas that have sustained their value in this market.

Read San Jose Mercury article here

San Jose Mercury News Article shows the type of losses some homeowners have sustained in our area.

I read this article from the Mercury news today and thought you should take a look at it for yourself. It makes many interesting observations regarding the loss of value in our area. Take a look for yourself. Read Artcle

The 2008 Silicon Valley market historically resembles 2001 data.  The next major indicator for our area will be how the market reacts to the current credit turmoil of October 2008, Historically speaking  some spikes in our market place have taken 60 days to correct themselves.

October 2001 was a tipping point and ultimately when the market then began to heat up.  Obviously there are major differences from outside influences affecting the market but if we are trying to get a historical perspective then 2001 is the best year to compare to a 2008 Santa Clara County real estate market.

1/3 of  all Santa Clara County properties has sold over asking price, September coming in at 31.3% of the closed transactions.

We have returned  to the median price point set in Santa Clara County back in May 2000, from 2000 to the 2006 we saw an increase in the median sale price from the low $400,000 to $650,000 and now have see those prices drop back to $470,000.

Transactions that are likely to close are the ones that have been on the market for less than 60 days and properties that have been on the market for over 90 days are likely to TFT (transaction fell through) at an average rate of 12%.

Median days on the market for pending sales was 61, meaning that it took an average of 61 days or less for most people to get into contract.

Pending category is skewed based on our MLS regulations that state “short sales must be reported as pending once an offer is accepted”. As a result we are in contract at record levels, at the highest level in an 8 year average.

Inventory for January 2008 was over 300 Days on the market and is now at 121 of inventory. May 2008 saw an upward trend in the market. Setting aside normal declining levels of inventory during the holidays, it appears as though leading indicators are suggesting a rebound somewhere between February 2009 and April 2009 towards a balanced market environment.

At the San Jose Foreclosure Prevention Fair people showed up with the look of hope in their eyes. Hope that for them would eventually lead to a modification of their overwhelming mortgage problems. I had a first hand look at this event from a lead volunteer and it was nothing short of a miracle for some people who taken time out of their busy lives to take a leap of faith in coming to this event.

An event put on by the City of San Jose, Department of Real Estate, Santa Clara County Association of REALTORS, and Don’t Borrow Trouble. I was asked as the President of NAHREP SCC to assist in this event and gladly took on the task, Although most of the planning had been done by the organizations mentioned there were HUD Certified counselors, attorneys, and the San Jose tax assessor on hand.

3:15
I arrived shortly after 3pm and with 45 minutes before the event officially began. I quickly realized that magnitude of this undertaking, you could see it in the faces of the volunteers, they were ready to assist in any way they could and they did. Unfortunately we quickly realized that as much as we wanted to help the true help would not come from us but from the lenders who has committed to sending a team of representative to this event. The bank representatives apparently had the authority to make a loan modification on the spot(whoa!). On the spot modification? Unheard of to all the people attending this event. Just ask any of the attendees who had spent hundreds of hours calling and visiting their bank asking for help only to have the door slammed on their request for help.

4:15
A few lender representatives had arrived and began setting up classrooms into makeshift modification centers. A few key lenders who had confirmed participation were still not on the school grounds. People were getting nervous while they waited in front of the assigned lenders class rooms. Slowly lender representatives began to arrive and in the case of my assigned class room chaos had ensued, not because the lenders had arrived late but because the amount of people had grown to over 40 people in the first hour alone. Elsewhere other classroom and the lenders located in them had very light attendance while in my classroom it was apparent that Washington Mutual had the biggest attendees.

4:45
After a mix up in our volunteer procedures and with the ever mounting crowd of attendees we finally began bringing people into the classroom. One by one they entered and one by one they exited with hope. An unbelievable and refreshing response to their request. The response for the most part was “YES!”.  Lender representatives were actually listening and acting on the request for a modification to these peoples needs. I was fortunate enough to act as interpreter for some of these folks who spoke Spanish. I quickly saw their despair turn into relief. I had to ask questions while I was their and found that these representatives had been given more flexibility in the last 30 days alone to help these people.

6:30
A steady flow of people entering the event had dwindled down to a few stragglers. I had hoped that more people would have attended  but for a first of its kind event it was a success in the minds of the volunteers.

11:pm
After sitting outside the Washington Mutual classroom for seven hours and feet hurting, I along with my buddy Karl lee helped WAMU clean up, turn off the lights and walk them to their car. On my way home I realized that we did something good today and knew that the volunteers who participated in this event must have felt as equally satisfied. I don’t know what the changing motivation of the lenders had been over the last 30 days but I will tell you that most of the lender representatives at this event had been on the job less  than 6 months,  only in the last 30 days has their ability to truly help the consumer been given to them. My only hope is that its not too late.