These are actual news headlines culled from various sources over the past two weeks: “Does the Drop in Housing Prices Mean It’s Time to Buy?”, “Buying a House Now isn’t a Bad Choice for Everyone,” “Housing Economists Expect Market Turnaround to Begin in 2008,” “Investors Find Silver Lining in Real Estate Market,” and my personal favorite from the San Jose Mercury News Real Estate Blog, “For Avid House Hunters, the Season Starts Today.”Getting our Reality Check message communicated to the populace of Northern California seems to be having an impact and even the media is beginning to find those silver linings in our housing micro-markets. Motivated buyers are buying and motivated sellers are selling. And all before the Feds made their rate cut on Halloween!  

Attractive Berkeley and Oakland Hills properties are still getting multiple offers. A $900,000+ listing on the Alamo/Walnut Creek border sold in one day. A San Ramon listing priced at $1,425,000 sold in less than one week. Greenbrae is reporting solid activity, some multiple offer situations and steady movement of higher end properties. Pending sales are on the increase in Pleasanton and well-priced Santa Rosa homes are seeing multiple offer situations.

Burlingame, Half Moon Bay and Menlo Park are reporting exceptional open house activity. Burlingame noted that homes in solid middle price points were experiencing anywhere from 20 to 75 groups of visitors. Palo Alto is noting an “all time low of – 29 listings on MLS in Palo Alto.”  

San Francisco reports that supply and demand are “quite balanced.” It’s important for our hesitant buyers to be reminded that the upper end of the market remains strong. This week alone, our City offices reported a home closed at over $15M, and two new sales at $5M, while the Woodside office reported a new sale at $7+M. 

More than 565 homes were held open last week, and sales activity was reportedly increasing or steady by a vast majority of the offices.   It’s getting busy out there! Our patchwork quilt of a real estate market continues to be sewn together from dozens of micro-markets, but many of them are seeing marked improvement in what is a traditionally slower time of year. Even the headlines are beginning to agree that buyers are well-advised to lock in a lower home price now while the variety remains, grab a low mortgage interest rate from a reputable lender.