I'm sick and tired of living in SF (and the Bay Area)

[Ultrarunner]

My Brother is selling just a many properties this year as in previous years and he has 25 years in the business. Prices are down and some cases... way down... so his commission is less. He is still doing very well

Location is still the key followed by price. There are neighborhoods where you almost can't give a home away and others that are extremely desirable with price being the only barrier.

Pleasant Hill is still doing quite well... especially the part that is in the Lafayette school district. You will find areas with great schools will always be in demand.

A very good friend with a beautiful home in Kensington was getting frustrated after have been in several bidding wars and loosing... they finally closed on their million dollar fixer home in Piedmont and only had to override by 117k

Another friend, the retired builder I've posted about, is picking up homes in Pittsburgh for 60 to 80k and his son is buying Concord Homes in the 170-185k range.... they buy for cash and as-is...

Affordability in the Bay Area has increased dramatically... the inventory has gone from being measured in weeks to year(s)

[ImRandy]

Loans seem pretty easy to get based on our experience. I know of a few people who were also looking, they didn't mention having a problem finding a loan though that's probably not something they would just casually mention so I don't know what the overall experience is.

We had been looking for over a year. We just moved in at the end of December. We tried a few short sales. The most typical response was nothing. Didn't hear a peep from the bank. Most short sales aren't worth dealing with because the sales aren't preapproved by the bank. The homeowner knows they're in trouble and puts their house on the market. When they get a bid they take that to the bank. That makes for a very long process. Even when they are preapproved though it isn't much quicker and they can always back out or renegotiate. This doesn't make people want to bid in the first place. It also seems sometimes like the bank thinks it can make more off the foreclosure. We had some short sale bids rejected by the bank only to have the house go into foreclosure and be put back on the market at a much lower price. Doesn't make sense to me.

Why is there so much inventory? I think it's because people can be choosy. The really crappy houses are sitting on the market. Decent ones that are priced appropriately are moving with multiple bids the first day they hit the market. Overpriced houses, no matter how nice they are, are sitting there.

[ImRandy]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

My Brother is selling just a many properties this year as in previous years and he has 25 years in the business. Prices are down and some cases... way down... so his commission is less. He is still doing very well

I think our agent is actually selling more than before.

[bayarea-girl]

Have you seen the homes in Lafayette, Alamo, & Danville? From the original asking price to now is dramatically reduced it is just unbelievable to me. Right now homes in Concord are even cheaper than what they were listed for in December. I am not that familar with Pittsburgh but home prices are sooooooo low. In Hercules & Castro Valley homes prices are just so ridiculously low.

Imrandy you make really good points. When we were trying to sell our home 2 offers that we accepted we had to reject as they had lost the ability to get a loan right in the middle (although they had been orignally approved).

In terms of inventory I think it is a combination of being choosy and not being able to qualify for a loan. When I was trying to sell my realtor(s) couldn't determine the right asking price because prices were dropping like crazy. I'm not sure that things are moving the first day it hits the market but I haven't put an offer on anything yet so I'll just take your word for it.

But I wouldn't want to be a seller right now. All of my friends who have really nice homes in really nice areas can't sell their homes to save their lives (and they are priced well too). Most of them had their homes on the market for at least a year and one of them had one offer which was too low. So they decided to stay put until the market improves and some have just foreclosed.

[ImRandy]

It depends on what end of the market you're looking at. The low end (non-fixer) hasn't really gotten any cheaper. I think the disconnect between actual market price and the perceived home value is shrinking and that's why you see movement in the price of the more expensive homes.