The Morgan Hill real estate market, a subsidiary of the larger Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz housing markets, saw a slight decline in some sectors in April, despite the nationwide trend towards recovery. According to a May 20, 2010 article from the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, “Bay Area home sales fell slightly below the year-ago level and remained well below average in April, according to a report Thursday by MDA DataQuick. In April a total of 7,003 homes closed escrows in the nine-county Bay Area, up 0.2 percent from 6,992 in March but down 1.9 percent from 7,139 in April 2009.” The piece went on to state that “The median price in Santa Clara County in April was $489,000, up 20.70 percent from April 2009’s median of $405,000. There were 1,656 sales, up from the year-ago period’s 1,606 sales.”

The relative strength of home prices in Morgan Hills and other portions of Santa Clara County can be at least partially attributed to lower interest rates. According to a June 3, 2010 press released from the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, “Record-low interest rates continue to fuel the Santa Clara County housing market, boosting home prices and spurring brisk sales. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.78 percent with 0.7 point for the week ending May 27, down from the previous week when it averaged 4.84 percent, according to Freddie Mac.” The piece, composed by SCCAOR President Karl Lee, went on to say that “Rock-bottom interest rates and lower housing prices make homes more affordable than they have been in years. In Santa Clara County, multiple offers are common and many properties are snapped up within a few days.”

The Morgan Hills real estate market, along with the larger Bay Area, saw a shift towards foreclosures on more expensive properties in the most recent tracking period. According to a June 1, 2010 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, “Foreclosures are going upscale across the Bay Area. Nearly 1,000 homes valued above $730,000 were repossessed by banks in the nine-county region in each of the past two years, according to a Chronicle review of public records compiled by MDA DataQuick, a San Diego research firm.”

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…”