Market activity signs in San Ramon

I was positively ecstatic to hear the news yesterday when finally the propaganda about the deterioration of the housing market was not the news !! The media finally came out and said that the activity increased by 29% in the bay area.So, I decided to do some of my own investigation for San Ramon.

Here is what I found:( these do not include new home sales, as these figures are not available to us)

January 2007- Total 52 sales                        January 2008- total 36 sales
February 2007- Total 74 sales                      February 2008- total 42 sales
March 2007- Total 122 sales                          March 2008-total 52 sales
April 2007 -Total 94 sales                              April 2008- total 66 sales
May 2007- YTD 55 sales                                 May 2008- YTD 38 sales

Although everyone said that 2007 was a terrible year for sales, 2008 has been rougher on sales in San Ramon .But, our board does not have the functionality to allow us to pull data of number of pendings in the last few months or years to compare the live data we have now. As of today,127 properties are pending with only 330 resale properties listed for sale in San Ramon area. That is about 3-4 months of housing supply.Like I said in my earlier post, we are experiencing flattened market in San Ramon and if the inventory goes down in the summer months, things will start looking better for sellers.

In Windemere, there are a total of 400 homes left to build with the new home builders.Centex is almost done and during the course of informal chats with sales reps, it seems the pace of sales have increased and the estimated time for builders to leave the area maybe preponed to end 2009 rather than 2010.There is definitely an end in sight for sellers in the resale market who have been hurting !!

Lenders are becoming more willing to lend money as long as the buyers meet their strict guidelines.FHA has come out with new programs which are making money available in the market.It is a buyers market and now is the time to buy.Some might say that I am trying to influence them but I can already see the change shifting slowly.By the time the media's machinery starts to move on the positive angle, the market would have started heating up.No, I do not see ridiculous price gains atleast for 2 years but if the available inventory starts to deplete, then the market could take a turn earlier here in San Ramon.