Since August there's been a tangible sense that the market was getting stronger, and not just in the immediate Berkeley area. Buyers who had the financial means to buy decided, finally, to get off the fence. Properties that had been sitting for some time went into contract as a result. We also began to see significantly more all-cash sales, and in higher price ranges. Two of the properties for which I had buyers recently had competition from all-cash buyers at the $1.0 - 1.4M range.
So far this year only one of my buyers has been fortunate enough to get their desired property without competition. For most buyers we're still writing three or four offers before getting into contract, and those are also the number of offers we usually face as competition. Whereas before three offers could take a property more than $100K over list, within the past month we saw cash offers being accepted at or just over list, trumping offers at substantially higher prices, but with greater risk.
Other key features of our East Bay market: inventory has been low all year, about half of "normal." This year in Berkeley, the number of properties sold per month went from a low of 15 in January, to a high of 53 in April. Each sale represents an opportunity for two agents to be involved in a transaction. Through October, there have been a total of 345 sales this year, representing 690 sides, providing roughly one transaction per member of the Berkeley Association of REALTORS®!
We've seen few distressed properties so far, but expect to see more by the middle of next year. Properties stay on the market about a month on average, significantly less time than in other markets.
Here are the numbers for BERKELEY for the month of October, 2009:
Median Sales Price: $695K
Median List Price : $715K
#homes for sale: 157 #homes sold: 36 Avg.Days on market: 24
That's my snapshot of our current diverse market behavior in Berkeley, CA. I'm going to ask Santa for some more houses to list!
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