Bay Area Real Estate Watchers Buoyed by Market Report

When it comes to Berkeley's residential real estate outlook, some truisms say it all: “Strike while the iron is hot!” “The early bird gets the worm!” “Time and tide waits for no man…” Sometimes those hoary old clichés have survived because their wisdom doesn’t ever change — and right now, some hard facts and figures may make these more relevant than usual.

Real estate watchers, buoyed by last Tuesday’s stock market jump (a reaction to the bullish real estate statistics), were also digesting The National Association of Realtors^®’ latest report: it carried more cheerful news about the expanding market for existing-home sales. Final numbers for April showed sales moving at the highest pace since November of 2009, which was a single month that spiked due to the homebuyer tax credit. It also marked the 22^nd consecutive month of year-over-year monthly price rises.

What is the “even better” news for potential Oakland and Berkeley real estate sellers? It’s about the relationship between available inventory and the pace of sales. The listed inventory across the nation is actually 13% lower than a year ago — which translates into a median time on market of just 46 days. A year ago, that figure was 62 days. In other words, across the nation, sales of existing homes are moving a full 45% faster! Berkeley's average days on market since January for a 3 bedroom home is approximately 19 days and for Oakland it is approximately 24 days. Time and time again our area has always bounced back quickly compared to the rest of the country.

NAR President Gary Thomas had some words for real estate buyers that potential sellers will be pleased to hear. “With homes selling in half the time it took to sell a year ago, buyers must be both decisive and prudent.” East Bay home sellers should love that word ‘decisive.’ It hints at the underlying condition of a market that has become competitive for buyers — buyers additionally empowered by April’s fall in conventional mortgage rates. For both real estate buyers and sellers, now looks like time to “strike while the [market]’s hot”!

In case you have been one of those trend watcher, I’m standing by. Why not give me a call to discuss how you can take advantage of today’s outlook?  written by Gina Odom, Realtor