Are real estate prices plummetting in the Bay Area? (San Jose: for sale, real estate market)

[novaman]

I'm curious as to what is real and what is hype. I do know that my brother inlaw paid 1.2 million for a home in San Ramon a few yrs ago, and a house on his street that someone paid a million for just a few years ago recently sold for 700 k- Is that a fluke or are things that bad??

[cardinal2007]

Depends where you go, generally prices are falling faster the further east you go, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Places like Brentwood, and Oakley have some REOs selling for 50% less than at the peak. Houses that sold over 700k there are sometimes for sale at 350k or so. While prices may be rising in some places like Pacific Heights, but only by 0-5% or so.

That is not to say that prices in San Francisco haven't fallen, prices in Hunter's Point and Bayview for example have fallen. But it really depends on both location, and type of dwelling, with condos in the suburbs not doing that well either for the most part.

Generally it is the properties that are less desirable for some reason or another, like long commutes, or bad schools, that have fallen the most in price.

[EllenOlenska]

The real estate nightmare is still far from over, so there will be more cheaper houses in the coming years. It's just that buying is also harder now.

[Luke9686]

Homes prices are down almost everywhere. With some exceptions of course. My friends house in the bay is worth about half of what he paid for it a few years ago.

[N CA]

San Ramon has been hit harder than other communities. San Ramon is similar to East County in that they have several new home communities. Add those developers trying to off their homes to the already existing inventory, and you have a higher depreciation in the home you purchased.

If you wanted to purchase a home, you can likely get a good deal in San Ramon.

[DMenscha]

There are probably at least 150 real estate markets in the 9 bay area counties. Some have experienced dramatic declines and others have held reasonably steady. There's 5 markets just in my county and I don't know much about the 4 that I don't deal in.

If you want to know what is real and what is hype, ask someone who is in the business in the area you want to know about.

[hsw]

Dramatic drops in many undesirable parts of SF region, such as EastBay suburbs and slums of SF....bigger supply of houses; irrelevant location to many SV jobs; and many poss buyers w/credit issues in today's tighter credit environment....

Most highly desirable areas (SF's PacHts/PresidioHts and Woodside/Atherton) are generally down ?5-10% in asking prices, and many unremarkable houses in these areas require more time to sell than last yr....

Truly desirable pieces of land (i.e., PacHts houses w/desirable views which one can tear-down to build a new house and desirable Woodside land) are in scant supply and typically transact in a private sale (w/o hitting mkt)....the plugged-in realtors have a list of waiting SV buyers for these ?10-20 unique situations....

[cawoman]

"Dramatic drops in many undesirable parts of SF region, such as EastBay suburbs..."

It depends which East Bay suburbs. I live in Fremont, and the prices in our neighborhood have indeed dropped: 1970s homes that went for around 900K to just over a million last year are listing for around 800k (but I hear they get multiple offers, and I haven't looked up any final sale prices). That's a significant decline, yes, but 800K or more for a 1970s 3-bed home under 2,000 sq. ft. is still hardly a bargain, in my opinion. We don't have the top schools in this neighborhood either, though from what I hear they are decent.

Also, in the Mission San Jose neighborhood of Fremont, prices have dropped only slightly or not at all, even on older properties, because MSJ High is rated among the best public high schools in California, if not in the nation. (I know some people consider Fremont "South Bay," BTW, but I was raised here, and we've always considered it "East Bay.") Asian immigrants in particular will pay through the nose to get their kids into the schools there. So, it all depends on which East Bay 'burb is in question.

[DogLady321]

I've been tracking Sonoma county, hoping to move their in the fall, and prices there have come down quite a bit. There certainly does seem to be a crisis in CA and I don't believe it is all hype. I'm just glad the area I'm selling in (the northeast) hasn't been hit like other areas.

You just have to do a search online in CA and you can find hundreds of homes for sale or in foreclosure, it's very sad and scarey, cause all of this will affect everyone else.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by DogLady321

I've been tracking Sonoma county, hoping to move their in the fall, and prices there have come down quite a bit. There certainly does seem to be a crisis in CA and I don't believe it is all hype. I'm just glad the area I'm selling in (the northeast) hasn't been hit like other areas.

You just have to do a search online in CA and you can find hundreds of homes for sale or in foreclosure, it's very sad and scarey, cause all of this will affect everyone else.

Oh yeah, no hype -- our value has gone from the heights of 485K to 177K now, and if you do a search in our zip almost all the houses for sale are foreclosures.

Glad I'm not selling in the near future....