The seasonally adjusted annual rate of new-home sales was down 0.6% from April and fell 32.8% from May 2008, amid a glut in housing. New-home sales in the West, however, were up 1.3% over April's adjusted annual rate.

From April to May, new-home sales increased in all regions of the U.S. except the South, where they fell 8.5%, the Census Bureau reported. But because the volume of sales was much greater there than in other parts of the country, that region's sales decline dragged the national total into negative territory.

Compared with a year earlier, however, May new-home sales were down by double-digit percentages in every region of the U.S.

The median sale price for a new home in May was $221,600, down 3.4% from a year earlier.

Thanks to the LA Times

The slowing pace of decline suggests that the US housing market is moving toward stabilization.

For the first time in two years, a closely watched index of US home prices shows San Francisco posting a month-over-month gain.

The 0.6 percent gain in Bay Area prices is modest, but along with other indicators, it’s a sign that US real estate markets are beginning to move from crisis toward normalcy.

California, after all, has been one of the hardest-hit housing markets in America.

Now the state is showing some signs of improvement, and across the United States, home prices are no longer falling in such a uniform or steep fashion.

Overall, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of 20 large US cities showed home prices down 0.6 percent in April – less than the 2.2 percent one-month drop it posted in March. In other words, the market may be starting to bottom out.

Some metro areas are still in much tougher shape than others, with declines in Miami and Las Vegas offsetting the positive news in San Francisco. But the slowing pace of decline suggests that the housing market is taking important steps toward stabilization.

">click here for the complete story from Mark Trumbull

The California Association of Realtors just released May figures for median home prices... It's ugly!

San Francisco
$630,000/May 2009
$797,000/May 2008
down 21%

Marin
$630,000/May 2009
$915,500/May 2008
down 31.3%

If you're wondering how the rest of the state fared, click here.

“With affordability for first-time buyers at a record high, sales of existing, single-family homes continued to remain above the 500,000 level for the ninth consecutive month,” said C.A.R. President James Liptak . “Buyers are beginning to realize that the combination of favorable home prices, historically low mortgage rates, and first-time home buyer tax credits, may not align again for many years.

“The sales gains over last year have diminished in recent months,” he added. “This trend is expected to continue through the end of the year, as limited inventory at the moderate and low end of the market constrains sales activity,” he said.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 556,590 in May at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local Realtor associations statewide. Statewide home resale activity increased 35.2 percent from the revised 411,770 sales pace recorded in May 2008. Sales in May 2009 increased 2.9 percent compared with the previous month.

The statewide sales figure represents what the total number of homes sold during 2009 would be if sales maintained the May pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during May 2009 was $267,570, a 30.4 percent decrease from the revised $384,540 median for May 2008, C.A.R. reported. The May 2009 median price rose 4.2 percent compared with April’s $256,700 median price.

I would be hard pressed to find a home owner in San Francisco right now who couldn’t tell me the current value of their home... I would be equally hard pressed to find a home owner who could tell you the value of their home ten years from now. (If I'm wrong you can find me at the Coffee Bean on Market)

But now there’s a website that estimates what your home will be worth ten years from now...

www.smartzip.com

The site currently only give estimates California and Florida... The site rates homes on a scale of one to 100. The higher the number, the greater the home’s potential to go up in value.... The formula is mildly complicated, and if you’re interested in the details, the site spells it out for you.

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.77 million units in May from a downwardly revised level of 4.66 million units in April, but remained 3.6 percent below the 4.95 million-unit pace in May 2008.

No question it’s been a slow few weeks in the Bay Area real estate world. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some outstanding writing these past few days that any good agent wouldn't find helpful.

Here are three worth reading.

From the Wall Street Journal

Tips for Selling Your Home to a First-Time Buyer

A federal tax credit of up to $8,000 is nudging many Americans into buying a home for the first time -- good news for those trying to sell one.

Still, selling a home isn't easy in most markets today. To get the typical first-time buyer to bite and submit an offer, a house has to stand apart from the competition -- and there's a lot of it, including foreclosure homes that are selling at hefty discounts.

One big thing working in favor of the traditional seller: A lived-in, maintained home is easier for buyers to imagine themselves living in than a vacant foreclosure. That has great appeal for someone buying a home for the first time, for practical and financial reasons.

Click here for the complete story

From the LA Times

Homeowners should be careful about how they hold title to properties

Reporting from Washington -- The manner in which homeowners hold title to their properties has significant legal ramifications. Consequently, it's not wise to leave this important decision to chance.

Escrow agents will ask how you would prefer the title to read. But often the question isn't posed until you near the close of the sale, and by then it may be too late to give any real thought to your options.

With that in mind, here's an overview of some of the more common forms of ownership.

Click here for the complete story

The Unfortunate Location

A WEEK after he moved into the circa-1800 farmhouse he had always dreamed of owning, David Evans spotted something glinting in his backyard. Within two hours, he had unearthed 19 spark plugs.

The discovery was no surprise. He knew his home had been a junkyard for the preceding 40 years — that’s one reason he bought it.

Without the spark plugs, windshield wipers and rotting transoms that dot his garden — as well as the not-so-appealing fact of having a trailer park and an abandoned gas station as neighbors — Mr. Evans and his partner, Jorge Ruiz, antiques dealers in the small Lowcountry town of Walterboro, S.C., say they could never have afforded the area’s oldest farmhouse.

When the challenging location and troubled economy drove down the seller’s asking price from $296,000 to $170,000, the home was finally within reach, and a few months ago, the couple bought it. A similar house would cost 35 percent more in a different location, according to Charles H. Bridges of United Country Joe Williams & Associates, the broker who sold them the house, which is about 45 minutes west of Charleston.

Houses like theirs are “the petunia in the onion patch,” says Gary Gestson, a broker with Long & Foster Real Estate in Gaithersburg, Md. They are charming and often historic, but bargains because their neighborhoods have long since vanished or become blighted.

Real estate agents warn against buying a good house in an undesirable area, saying location trumps all. But because the price is often so appealing, it is a way for buyers to get some of what they want without spending a fortune.

Click here for the complete story

While I can’t recommend three books, I can recommend two very different books on the same subject, the mortgage mess.

‘Busted’, by NY Times writer Edmund L. Andrews, and ‘Our Lot’ by Alyssa Katz.

Both stories cover the housing mess, but come up with different villains and causes. Busted is slightly more interesting in that it’s the author tells his own story as part of the narrative explaining how he got caught up in the mess...

If you have other good reads, put them in the comments section, and if you have a review of either book, put that in the comments section as well....

Bay Area home prices rose from April to May, the second straight monthly gain and a surefire sign that the cold-cocked real estate market is finally coming around.

Unless, of course, it's not. The data could just as easily reflect growing distress in the high-end market that is forcing more well-to-do owners to unload their homes, distorting the statistics with discounted but still relatively expensive properties and foreshadowing greater pain to come.

"If you ignore the greater reality and look only at statistics, then you could conclude that we're at least nearing market stability," said Andrew LePage, an analyst with San Diego research firm MDA DataQuick, which compiles the figures. "But given all the forces out there, the mixed signals from the data and the unknowns, it will be at least fall before there's any clarity."

Across the nine-county region, the median price for existing single-family homes stood at $337,000 in May, up 9.6 percent from April but down 37.1 percent from a year ago, according to DataQuick. The market reached its low point for the cycle, $295,000, in March. Before April, prices hadn't climbed from the previous month since October 2007. The March-to-April increase was 14.2 percent.

The median price means that half of the homes sold for more and half for less. A total of 5,655 resale properties traded hands in May, up 27.6 percent from a year ago.

Many real estate professionals attribute the price improvement and increasing sales to growing eagerness among buyers and investors to take advantage of bargain home prices, still relatively low interest rates and government and industry incentives.

"They're confident again and think, 'Boy, when is this opportunity going to come again and also, when is it going to be taken away?' " said Pat Huffman, president of the Bay East Association of Realtors.

LePage and others, however, warn that the rise in prices largely reflects an increase in the portion of homes financed with loans for more than $417,000. Homes that traded at that traditional jumbo mortgage threshold accounted for 25.5 percent of all sales in May, up from 22 percent in April.

click here for the complete story

Hill & Co. Real Estate announced today that one of San Francisco’s most preeminent Realtors, Joseph Gartland Moore, has joined the company. Mr. Moore will continue to represent buyers and sellers of fine homes and investment properties.

Mr. Moore brings with him over 20 years of experience representing buyers and sellers in the finest neighborhoods of San Francisco. His production consistently ranks him among the top 2 percent of agents in the City. Even as his business has grown, he has always been able to provide the personal service, client care, and in-depth market knowledge his clients expect.

Top Five Reasons Your House Didn’t Appraise
By Jack McLaughlin

By JMcLaughlin@FHAllen.com

You found just the right house at last. Or you are trying to lock in a low refi rate. You know what the house is worth, but the appraisal comes in well below value: what’s up with that? You are not alone. In today’s tight lending climate, if your house doesn’t appraise, here are the most common reasons.

1. Under the new rules, your lender can no longer select, or even communicate with, the appraiser. They must use an independent – but often bank-owned – appraisal management company (AMC).
2. The appraiser couldn’t find your house. The AMC maximizes profits by selecting the cheapest appraiser, regardless of their location. The appraiser may come from Pleasanton to value your Mill Valley house. And local knowledge, especially in eclectic communities like Marin County, is critical to determining market value.
3. Your lender no longer can perform “value checks,” where appraisers informally pull comps to see if the numbers are likely to work for a client, before the actual appraisal is ordered and paid for.
4. The appraiser was incompetent. AMC requires professional appraisers to cut their fees as much as 50%. Since the best won’t work for less, they hire the new and less skilled appraisers, who may perform less thorough valuations.
5. There aren’t any good comps. With fewer sales, appraisers may need to look in dissimilar areas or go back in time to find similar properties that sold.

Call me if you have a problem. I can likely help you get the numbers up. Jack 415.302.7787

From the Wall Street Journal

Home construction climbed in May far above expectations, with single-family starts rising a third month in a row and giving more evidence of stability in the housing sector.

Separately, U.S. producer prices posted their largest annual decline in 60 years last month, suggesting that the prolonged recession continues to take pressure off inflation.

Housing starts increased 17.2% to a seasonally adjusted 532,000 annual rate compared to the prior month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Building permits rose; apartment construction surged.

The 17.2% increase was much bigger than expected. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires forecast a 7.0% increase to an annual rate of 490,000.

click here for the complete story