The Mesa real estate market, found in the midst of one of the hardest-hit parts of the country, showed some promising trends in the month of May. According to a June 9, 2010 article from the Phoenix Business Journal, “New research from Arizona State University shows foreclosures as a share of overall Valley homes sales are declining. The latest ASU Realty Studies report from the W.P. Carey School of Business says the number of foreclosures dropped from 40 percent of the market’s recorded activity in March to 33 percent in May.” The piece went on to caution that “Despite the decline, there is no guarantee the trend will continue. ‘Defaults and late payments are still at record levels and could be a precursor of additional foreclosures.’ said Jay Butler, associate professor of real estate and author of the report. ‘The main issues center on whether income will increase enough for people to hold on to their current homes, and whether they can maintain payments on their homes.’”

The prevalence of foreclosures amongst Mesa homes for sale declined, as more home sales in the Phoenix area were of the traditional variety. According to a June 10, 2010 article from KGUN 9 News, “A new report shows foreclosed homes made up a smaller share of existing home sales in the Phoenix area last month. The Arizona State University Realty studies report shows foreclosed homes dropped from 40% of all sales in March to 33% in May.” The piece, also released by the Associated Press, continued to state that “Butler says some homeowners may choose to walk away because their home’s value has sunk and because they owe too much on their mortgages. Foreclosures and sales of previously foreclosed-on properties still made up 60% of sales in May.”

Despite a low level of sales overall, some recent tracking indicators had positive news for Mesa real estate, according to a May 22, 2010 article from the Arizona Republic. The piece, composed by Catherine Reagor, noted that “April figures for existing-home sales in metro Phoenix reveal several promising shifts for those searching for signs of a housing-market recovery.”

The Palo Alto real estate market is very closely related to the greater Bay Area real estate market, and seems to be showing some signs of improvement. According to a March 11, 2010 article from ABC 7 News, “For the first time in a long time, some of the Bay Area’s hardest hit counties are seeing their foreclosure numbers drop compared with last year. In San Joaquin County, foreclosure filings have dropped 42 percent since February 2009; in Alameda, foreclosure filings are down 16 percent and in Contra Costa County, filings are down 3 percent.” In the words of Elaine Brooks-Cox, a foreclosure contractor with Pacific Community Services, “Just recently we’ve seen a small slowdown. Our inventory for foreclosure inventory and short-sale inventory and a short-sale inventory in the local 680 corridor is down; we’re seeing probably a decrease by as much as 60 percent over what it was last year.”

Home prices are another bright spot for Palo Alto homes for sale, according to a  March 18, 2010 online article from the Los Angeles Times. The article stated that “The median price paid for a Bay Area home jumped 20% in February as fewer foreclosures were on the market, the San Diego research firm MDA DataQuick said Thrusday. Sales fell for the second month in a row. Potential buyers had trouble securing financing, were concerned about job security or had a difficult time competing for a home as inventory tightened, DataQuick said.” According to John Walsh, the President of DataQuick, “The market remains fundamentally off kilter. There’s still relatively little lending going on in the upper price ranges, and little adjustable-rate financing, which have been vital to the Bay Area.”

One possible negative influence on Palo Alto real estate for sale was negative news regarding home sales. According to a March 19, 2010 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, “The volume of Bay Area home sales dipped in February compared with a year ago, while the median price continued to rise, according to a real estate report released on Thursday…A total of 3,582 existing single-family homes changed hands in the nine-county region in February…”

Palm Desert real estate, representative of the larger Coachella Valley area, seems to be stabilizing during the first quarter of the fiscal year, according to a March 29, 2010 article in the Desert Sun. This piece found that “The Coachella Valley’s real estate market remained in a ‘stabilizing’ pattern in February with a 14.8 percent jump in prices, while sales rose just .06 percent over February 2009, the California Desert Association of Realtors reported today.” According to Greg Berkemer, the executive directors of the California Desert Association of Realtors, “The desert appears to remain in a stability phase which should remain in place until there is either a change in the market dynamic either some outside force or event and/or buyers’ and sellers’ confidence in the future becomes more evident. Although prices remained flat in February compared to January, sales did move up some by 5.6 percent.”

Palm Desert homes for sale, along with the rest of California’s real estate market, managed to boost a nation-wide measure of real estate health. According to a March 31, 2010 article in the Desert Sun, “A national index of home prices rose unexpectedly in January, with California cities posting strong gains, but some experts warned that the nation’s struggling housing market could be headed for another dip. The closely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 0.3 percent from December on a seasonally adjusted basis.” The article continued to note that “That marked eight consecutive months of home values improving or at least holding steady. That rise is good news for people who plan to sell their homes this spring.”

Home sales were one especially positive piece of news for Palm Desert real estate for sale, according to a March 18, 2010 article by John Hussar in the Desert Sun. This article observed that “The Coachella Valley’s ‘season’ of postcard-perfect weather and tourism helped propel a jump in existing home sales 10.5 percent in January while prices rose 17.4 percent over January 2009, the California Desert Association of Realtors reported today…The median price of an existing home in the Coachella Valley was $179,760 in January, up 4.3 percent from December and 17.4 percent from January 2009.”

The Beverly Hills real estate market, traditionally among the most expensive and prestigious in the country, has been recovering strongly from the aftermath of the economic recession. According to an April 13, 2010 article in the Associated Press, “The median home price in Southern California rose 14 percent last month from March 2009, as more high-end homes trickled into the region’s sales mix, a tracking firm said Tuesday. San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported that last month’s median of $285,000 was up from $250,000 in March 2009 and up almost 4 percent from February’s $275,000.” The article, written by Jacob Adelman, continued to state that “DataQuick President John Walsh said the increases showed that the market was continuing on a slow, upward trajectory, but that sales still remain well below their March average of around 25,000.”

Foreclosures, which have recently been a problem for Beverly Hills homes for sale, have sharply declined in recent months. According to an April 20, 2010 article in the Press Telegram, “The number of Los Angeles County homes slipping toward foreclosure dropped by 43.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period in 2009, a real estate information service reported today. Lenders sent default notices to 15,797 homeowners in Los Angeles County in the first quarter, down from the previous year’s first-quarter total of 27,981, according to La Jolla-based MDA DataQuick.” The piece continued to note that “Statewide, default notices were sent to 81,054 homeowners in the first quarter of the year, DataQuick reported. That was a 4.2 percent decrease from the previous quarter’s 84,568 notices and down 40.2 percent from the same quarter in 2009, when 135,431 default notices were sent.”

This same general trend of positive news for Beverly Hills real estate was echoed by an April 16, 2010 article in the Los Angeles Times. This piece, noted by Alejandro Lazo, found that “The median price paid for a California home in March jumped 14.3% compared with the same month last year, reflecting a reduction in the number of foreclosure properties on the market and the comeback of higher-priced coastal areas.”