The following is a recap from Avram Goldman of Pacific Union. Avram takes a look each month at the entire Bay Area. What you will note is the higher priced counteis are fairing better than other counties. This is because the recent tighting of mortgage money has not hit the higher end Buyer like it has the more moderately priced homes. You will find this trend even in Marin, where Novato's sales and prices are off while the prices in other parts of Marin have risen.
"Here is how each county fared for the month of October. The numbers are based on sales of single family homes and condos. As I stated above sales prices for the majority of counties did well. I will give both the median and average sales price percentages. The first number will be median and the second average. San Mateo county lead with +14%/+18.7%, Marin +8.4%/+15%,
Santa Clara +7%/+11% and San Francisco +5.4%/+11%. All these counties have the highest prices in the Bay Area. This shows the strength of the upper end markets. There is a great deal of wealth in the Bay Area due to the tech industry, venture capital and export/import businesses. Alameda county (+8%/+4%) although down on median was up on average again reflecting part of
the influence from the expense markets in No. Alameda county. Three counties were down Napa slightly at -2%/-.5%, Sonoma -8.6%/-10.6%, Contra Costa -10.6%/-2% and the hardest hit county Solano at -18.5%/-23%.
Number of closed sales was off significantly year over year for October; however seven of the nine counties were up month over month. The first number given is year over year for October and the second number is month over month Sept. to October. The leader in being least off from last year is San Francisco -11%/+21.5% followed by San Mateo -33%/-1%, Marin -34%/+21%, San Mateo -38%/+9%, Sonoma -40%/+2%, Napa -44%/+31%, Alameda -46%/+8%, Contra
Costa -48%/-3% and Solano -56%/-13.5%.
Months supply of inventory (MSI) gives us a picture of the type of market each of our counties are in---seller's, balanced or buyer's market. Three months and under is a seller's market, 4-6 months a balanced market, 6-10 months a buyer's market and over 10 months a strong buyer's market. MSI is higher in every county this year compared to last year. I will note that San Francisco and Marin counties were only slightly higher than last year's supplies. All counties were down in MSI Sept. compared to October which is a positive sign. The only county still considered in a seller's market is San Francisco at with a 3 MSI. Only San Mateo county at 5.2 MSI is in a balanced market. Santa Clara 7.5 and Alameda 8.7 MSI are in a buyer's market. Sonoma 10.2, Napa 13.4 and Solano 15.1 MSI find themselves in a strong buyer's market. As a reminder these are county-wide figures. Within each of these markets there can be diversity. Meaning that in a seller's market county you may have specific markets that have higher inventories and conversely within a buyer's market you may find specific markets that have smaller inventories. "
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