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By , April 23, 2010 8:46 pm

The Ashland real estate market, a subset of the larger Oregon real estate market, is facing a slow and challenging road towards recovery. According to an April 9, 2010 article in the Oregonian, “The housing markets around the Portland area and Central Oregon will not rise back to their peak-era pricing levels until after 2015, according to research firm Fiserv.” The piece, composed by Ryan Frank, continued to state that “The Northwest forecasts are far better than the Sand States – California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada – where a return to boomtime prices isn’t expected until after 2025. The forecast is based on data from Fiserv, the Case-Shiller Index, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Moody’s Economy.com. (via HousingWire) David Stiff, Fiserv’s chief economist, said in a statement that the index points to another 7 percent decline in home prices through 2010, with a prolonged recovery starting in 2011.”

The situation confronting Ashland real estate and the rest of the state of Oregon has become severe enough that the state has received almost one hundred million dollars to help relieve the foreclosure crisis. According to a March 29, 2010 article in The Oregionian, “The good news and bad news are one and the same: Oregon is one of five states that will share in a $600 million federal program aimed at helping regions hardest hit by unemployment, home foreclosures and upside-down mortgages.” The piece, composed by Eric Mortenson, continued to state that “The agency will distribute the $88 million awarded to Oregon under an aid program expansion announced Monday by the Obama administration to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.”

The volume of Ashville and Oregon homes for sale, however, has most likely increased, according to an April 7, 2010 article in the Oregon Business Report. According to this article, “The University of Oregon Lane County Business Index (LCBI) rose 2.5 percent to 88.2 (1999=100) in the fourth quarter of 2009, the first increase since the first quarter of 2007. The increase is consistent with evidence that the national and state economies exited recession in the second half of 2009.” The article, composed by Tim Duy, continued to say that “Housing markets improved during the quarter, with home sales rising to a monthly rate of nearly 300 units, a 46 percent increase from the second quarter low. Moreover, the average days on market declined as homes sold more quickly.”

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By , April 22, 2010 8:39 pm

The Savannah real estate market remains in a dismal state, with home sales and foreclosures both suggesting continued troubles for the state of Georgia and the city of Savannah. According to an April 8, 2010 article in the Times-Herald, “Foreclosure advertisements in the Times-Herald are up 18.6 percent over the same month last year, with 216 scheduled for listing in this Thursday’s legal advertisement section.” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman confronted the financial crisis facing Georgia in an April 11, 2010 article, stating that “To appreciate Georgia’ specialness, you need to realize that the housing bubble was a geographically uneven affair. Basically, prices rose sharply only where zoning restrictions and other factors limited the construction of new houses.”

One central problem confronting Savannah real estate, foreclosures, was reported in an April 7, 2010 article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. This piece found that “Foreclosure rates and mortgage delinquency rates continued to grow in February in metro Atlanta and Georgia, according to data Wednesday from FirstAmerican CoreLogic. The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta region had a foreclosure rate of 2.79 percent in February, compared with 1.61 percent in February 2009. The 90-plus day delinquency rate for the area was 11.12 percent, compared with 6.79 percent in February 2009.” The piece continued to note that “Georgia’s foreclosure rate in February was 2.45 percent, compared with 1.41 percent in February 2009. The state’s 90-plus day delinquency rate was 9.73 percent, versus 5.99 percent in February 2009.”

Savannah homes for sale have also been facing extremely low rates of new home sales, according to a March 24, 2010 article in WSAV News. This piece found that “As the housing market struggles to recover from the recession, the government released a report Wednesday showing sales of new homes fell to record low levels last month.” The article, written by Tuquyen Mach, continued to state that “The report on February home sales was not what most folks wanted to hear but what many expected. Sales of new homes last month fell to the lowest level since record-keeping started about 50 years ago.”

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By , April 7, 2010 8:05 pm

A notable suburb of the Phoenix area, Chandler, Arizona, lies in Maricopa County and is home to a population nearly a quarter of a million. The fast-growing city experienced start rises in real estate prices in recent years, but many of those gains were brought to an abrupt halt at the onset of the U.S. credit crisis, when housing markets across the country collapsed.

According to local realtors John Hall Associates, most recent months have shown some slight signs for optimism in the Chandler real estate market, as sales activity rises. In March, there were 408 homes sold in Chandler, a sizable increase from February’s 275 sales and January’s 234. The figure was the highest monthly figure since October 2009. It is an improvement on figures from one year ago, when there were just 296 sales.

The number of listings has steadily risen as well, tracing an upward-leaning path since September 2009, when it reached a trough. In April, there were 1,671 active listings of Chandler homes for sale, up from 1,613 in March and 1,519 in February. The figure is a drop from one year ago, however, when there were 1,752 listings.

Prices per square foot of homes sold in Chandler are beginning to form a steady line, remaining basically constant over the past year. In March, the figure was $105, the exact same figure as it was one year ago. March also showed a troubling sign however: a spike in foreclosures. There were 391 foreclosure notices in March and 249 trustee sales, both sizable increase from the previous month. Foreclosure notices have fallen since last year though, when there were 438 in March. Trustee sales, however, have risen; there were just 106 last March.

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By , April 7, 2010 7:59 pm

Burlingame, a city in San Mateo County in Northern California, has a resilient real estate market. Despite falls and drops in prices brought about because of the U.S. financial and credit crisis, the Burlingame real estate market has fought on. Though prices still remain below where they were during the pre-recession highs, they are still high compared with other regions in the country.

According to statistics compiled by local realtor Vicki Moore, at the end of 2009, December saw 43 active listings of Burlingame homes for sale, with nine new listings. This was an improvement on November’s market, when there were 70 active listings and 20 new listings. There 26 homes sold in Burlingame in December, an improvement upon November’s 17 sales.

The prices of homes in Burlingame in December were on the rise as well. The median sales price in the month was $1.25 million, up from $1.05 million in November and the highest median since September. This figure is just slightly less than the median sales price during the boom years: In 2007, the median sales price in the city was $1.35 million.  December’s average price was $1.4 million, also up from November’s $1.05 million and nearly meeting September’s average.

Burlingame sellers are getting a good proportion of the asking prices on their homes for sale. In December, the sale price-to-list price ratio was 96.9%. In November, it was 96.7% and in October it was 98%. The average number of days homes in Burlingame spent on the market in December rose from November, when it was just 47, to 60, back to constant with levels in October, when the average was 61 days.