Here's the article - sounds good so far...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/20/BUJI10PJMV.DTLHome sales see first monthly gain in 6 months
James Temple, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
(05-20) 10:10 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The Bay Area housing market displayed its first positive sign in months as the volume of April sales rose by its highest percentage in at least 20 years. Real estate experts, however, warned that the trough of the real estate downturn still could lie ahead.
A looser mortgage market and shoppers snagging bargains in areas hammered by foreclosures helped propel sales of existing homes more than 30 percent from March, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
It was the first monthly sales gain in six months and the largest increase for that time period since at least 1988, when the La Jolla (San Diego County) research firm began tracking statistics.
"This could be the first sign that (the market has) bottomed out," DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said. "One month doesn't make a trend, but there's some momentum."
Avram Goldman, chief executive officer of Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate, said there's a growing sense that consumer sentiment is shifting in the marketplace. While open houses have been well attended for months, suggesting a strong backlog of demand, people are increasingly submitting real offers.And then this at the end of the article:
Changes in Bay Area home sales, prices
+33.3%
Increase in existing single-family home sales from March to April 2008
-14.2%
Decrease in existing single-family home sales from April 2007 to April 2008
-26.4%
Decline in median sales price of existing single-family homes from April 2007 to April 2008
Statistics provided by DataQuickDataquick, eh? Let's go to the source and see what THEY have to say...
http://www.dqnews.com/News/California/Bay-Area/RRBay080520.aspxBay Area home sales edge up in April
May 20, 2008
La Jolla, CA.----Bay Area home sales edged up from a seven-month run of record lows last month, indicating that mortgage availability is improving and that an increasing number of fence sitters have decided they like today's lower prices, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 6,310 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine- county Bay Area in April. That was up 28.8 percent from 4,898 in March, and down 15.3 percent from 7,447 for April 2007, DataQuick Information Systems reported.
The month-to-month jump was the strongest for any March/April in DataQuick's statistics, which go back to 1988. Starting last September and through March, each calendar month was the slowest on record. Last month was the slowest April since 1995 when 5,636 homes were sold.
....
Foreclosure property resales accounted for 25.7 percent of last month's Bay Area market. The percentage is higher in outlying areas that absorbed spillover activity during the frenzy. While foreclosure properties were 5.9 percent of San Francisco's resale market and 8.9 percent of Marin's resale market last month, they were 44.7 percent in Contra Costa and 54.2 percent in Solano.
So a
FULL QUARTER of ALL Bay Area home sales are bank-owned foreclosures being sold at auction? Well, then clearly we are at the bottom now... :sarcasm: :eyes:
Thanks for the great "journalism", Chron. I guess you needed to throw a bone to the RE hacks that fill up a whole section of the Sunday paper with ads...
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