Glen’s East Bay Housing Numbers (through April 2010)

April is done, the Federal Home Buying Tax Credit has finally expired and the latest edition of Glen’s East Bay Housing Numbers are in.

While there are no drastic changes to report, housing inventories in the East Bay have continued to climb and are up 54% since the beginning of the year.  Even with that rise, we’re sitting at 2.6 months supply of homes for sale in the Contra Costa & Alameda counties. This is still well below normal inventory levels in the area and translates into fewer opportunities for buyers.

A flurry of activity prior to the expiring tax credit caused Pending sales to rise even faster, outpacing new listings coming onto the market by almost 2 to 1 over the last 30 days (592 vs 318).  It will be interesting to see the effects of the expiring federal tax credit next month in the May report.

The Pending/Active ratio ticked upwards slightly from 1.28 last month, to 1.31 this month, which essentially means that we’re still in a moderate sellers market in the East Bay.

As for distressed sales, the percentage of REOs continue to drop, comprising only 15% of the active listings , down from 17% at the beginning of the year & 35% of the sales over the last 4 months, down from 37% at the beginning of the year.

The percentage of active & pending Short sale transactions also continues to drop. They currently comprise 28% of the active listings, down from 31% at the beginning of the year & 53% of the pendings, down from 59% at the beginning of the year. Closed Short sale transactions as a percentage of the total has increased from 17% at the beginning of the year to the current 20%

If you’re interested in talking more in depth about the East Bay housing market, feel free to call me directly 510-333-4460.

-Glen

Click here to download a copy of my East Bay housing numbers through April 2010