Foreclosures on the rise

For the second year in a row, foreclosures are up across the country, and the trend has a lot of folks remembering the Great Recession. But we’re still nowhere near the levels we saw when that bubble burst. About 25 of every 100,000 homes in America had a distressed property or foreclosure filing in June, which is about 15 times lower than during the recession.

And the pain isn’t spread equally. The highest rates of foreclosure can be found in small to mid-sized metro areas like Modesto, which checks in at number ten on this list from Realtor.com.

Peaks & Valleys

Although average mortgage interest rates have seen a slight decline over the past few weeks, they’re still twice as high as just one year ago. Meanwhile, median housing prices in the Bay Area are on the rise despite a 14% drop year over year. With this level of volatility, a fixed-rate mortgage makes more sense every day. But again, personal circumstances may do the deciding for you.

Bay Area Luxury Listings

You can learn a lot about a housing market by looking at the high end. In that respect, the Bay Area could be on the rise, as indicated by the top listing prices from Sebastopol to Santa Cruz.

Demand & Supply

As higher mortgage rates become the new normal, more buyers are entering the market. But the same high rates are causing many potential sellers to stay in their homes with lower long-term fixed payments. When will supply catch up with demand?

CHIC (Pearl)

I get the feeling we’re almost there now. New listings, offers, and sales prices may be down year over year, but they’re all on the uptick so far in 2023. Open houses and broker tours are packed, and homes are selling quickly with multiple offers. Everything seems to be moving in a positive direction.

GEEK (Kevin)

Feelings are fine, but I need more data before I’m willing to say the market is on its way back. We could also be in the middle of a long-term malaise that will only be resolved when things explode or fall apart completely. Neither would be surprising at this point. But here’s hoping for an explosion.

March 2023 Market Report

The numbers are in from March, and sales of single family homes remained slow in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, down as much as 40% year over year, with median prices 13% below what they were a year ago. But properties are spending more time on the market as buyers are still wary of high mortgage interest rates.