California foreclosure activity in 3rd Quarter

Although California home mortgage defaults have fallen 26% from in the third quarter compared to 2009, they climbed 19 percent from the previous three months according to MDA DataQuick.


Homeowners received 83,261 default notices, up from 70,051 in the second quarter. California’s unemployment rate was 12.4 percent in September. Unemployment is the primary reason for the increasing rate of default and foreclosures.

The foreclosure moratorium announced by Bank of America and other major banks due to shoddy paperwork will continue to add to the slowdown of bank owned properties making their way to the housing supply which prevents an additional downward pressure on home prices. Additionally, according to Rich Sharga, an executive at Realty Trac there are approximately 600,000 bank owned properties nationwide which are not being marketed currently but will be released gradually as the market stabilizes.

Please contact Anju Bhatia for further information or comments: Anju@RubyHillLiving.com

Pleasanton home sales in September

In Pleasanton September home sales went down as compared to the same month last year by almost 30%, however home prices went up by 7.47%.  The decline in sales can be largely attributed to the expiry of the federal tax credit for home purchase. The easing of credit for jumbo loans has positively impacted median home prices. At current selling rates there is a 4 month supply of homes in Pleasanton, which is healthy.

Ruby Hill homes for October 2010

Interestingly, the large homes have done quite well with 11 of the homes which sold/or are pending this year being 8,000 s.f. or more. The largest of these is over $12,000 s.f. on over an acre of land! As fewer homeowners choose to sell their home in this market, the inventory is low whilst sales are continuing at a steady pace with 63 homes having sold or gone pending since the beginning of this year.


October 30, 2010     Total        Bank owned share       Short Sale Share

Active                       18                        1                               0

Pending                     11                       0                               4

Sold to date 2010*   52                       3                                8

*COE 01/01/10 or later

1773 Via di Salerno remains the only bank owned property among the 18 active properties in Ruby Hill. A total of 15 homes sold/pending since the start of this year are either bank owned/potential short sales out of a total of 63. The average price per square foot of sold properties this year is $335 and the days on market are approximately 50.

Last year a total of 43 homes sold/went pending. Clearly this year there has seen a significant increase in Ruby Hill sales activity.

Median Home Prices up in 3rd Quarter in Alameda County

Although 3rd quarter sales are down by 25% this year compared to last year in the Alameda county, median prices are up by 14% and the average days on market are down by 8 to 38 days. With the easing of jumbo loans as compared to last year, the demand for higher priced homes began to show greater strenth. Click here to read the full story.

Pleasanton home sales

Median detached home prices in Pleasanton declined compared to July to $752,500. However inventories continued to hover around a 3 month supply at the current absorption rate. The average days on market (DOM) is 58 for the Pleasanton area.
Compared to last year homes priced over $600k have been selling in higher numbers, which is very encouraging despite what is happening nationally. One significant contributing factor for higher home sales improving is that jumbo loans have been easing over the recent months.




































Compared to last year homes priced over $600k have been selling in higher numbers, which is very encouraging despite what is happening nationally. One significant contributing factor for higher home sales improving is that jumbo loans have been easing over the recent months.

Pleasanton Foreclosures in August

In August, of the 216 active properties in Pleasanton, just over 3% were bank owned and 10.65% were potential short sales.

For the 186 detached homes, the average list price for non bank owned/potential short sales was $1.238 million as compared to $640,850 for bank owned and $906,397 for potential short sale properties.

Nationally, homes sold at foreclosure accounted for 24% of all residential sales in the second quarter of 2010, according to RealtyTrac. The average price of properties sold while in some stage of foreclosure was more than 26% below the average for properties not in the foreclosure process. Default, scheduled for auction or bank-owned properties sold to third parties were up almost 5% from the first quarter, but down 20% from second-quarter 2009.

Unemployment rate stays at 9.6%

Despite an increase in private sector hiring, the September jobless rate remained at 9.6% with a net loss of 95,000. Most layoffs were among local government workers and teachers. The jobless rate has been over 9.5% for 14 straight months and many economists predict this could rise to 10%
The private sector added 64,000 jobs in September, weaker than expectations. Despite this the stock market closed over 11,000 for the first time since May, this year.