The front page headine on the Sunday June 3 San Francisco Chronicle reads "Limited supply of houses lifts prices." This is surely good news for homeowners in the SF Bay Area. It goes on to say that the phenomenon of multiple offers is back. This has been my experience working with buyers in Marin and Sonoma Counties as well. It was necessary for my buyers to offer $30,000 over the asking price to get into contract on a $260,000 condo in Marin. And in Sonoma, a short sale property that had been in escrow since February fell apart when the buyers declined to increase their offer when the appraisal came in highter than their contract price. No problem for the seller, though. When it went back on the market in late May, it had 10 offers after just a few days on the market!
The laws of supply and demand are at work here. In Marin, the number of listings in April 2012 was down 27% from a year ago, and in Sonoma, down 35%. With limited supply and strong demand, prices can be expected to go up. As reported in the Chronicle, Ken Rosen, chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley has said "It's a boom. It completely turned around in the past six weeks and the bottom is in hindsight now."
For the complete article, see (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/03/MNJ11OMMVC.DTL).
Peter Nielsen, Peter@MarinRealtyExperts.com
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