Davis Market Rocks: 79 Pendings in April
April 29th, 2008 Categories: Davis CA Real Estate, Davis RE Trends, RE Week in Review, Real Estate News
Wow! Slow to start and then it came all at once…during April there have been 79 sales and pendings in Davis! There are 145 listed single family homes…meaning that we have just slightly less than a 2 month supply of homes in Davis.
77% of the listings sold were Coldwell Banker listings. What does this mean to you? If you are selling you will get greater exposure before your home even goes on the market. If you are buying, you will hear about your home before it hits the market if you are working with Coldwell Banker in Davis.
Overall in year to date sales, Davis is down 46% from this time 2007. Interestingly, the very down nearby markets are up from 2007 - Woodland +27%, Natomas +37%, Elk Grove +36% and West Sacramento is +18%. Investors are coming in hoards to the land of short sales and foreclosures.
Back to Davis, here is a snapshot of price per square foot for two ranges of homes:
1200 - 1600 sq ft homes 2000 - 2500 sq ft homes
2005 $372/sf $325/ sf
2006 $353/sf $313/sf
2007 $337 /sf $310/sf
2008 $323/sf $290/sf
Overall prices are down an average of 11% from the height of the market in 2005.
-Jamie Madison
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Davis Liked It : Roe Building Sold Out!
April 13th, 2008 Categories: Davis CA Real Estate, Davis RE Trends, RE Week in Review, Real Estate News, Roe Building
All of the citizens of Davis and interested parties from afar were intensely curious and interested in the Roe Building during its conception, construction and recent completion. We heard all kinds of comments - mostly favorable, in fact enthusiastic - and gave over 120 private tours of the building (thanks to you who braved the scaffolding in the rain). And now it is sold. Kim Merrell Lamb and I anticipate that it will be an interesting community - people of all ages, some dogs, a shared courtyard, an active homeowners association. Many asked if they could be on the list to rent if investors were buying, but in fact, every unit is going to be owner occuppied. We learned that my demographic (children raised, 1.7 people living in 4 bedroom 2800 sq ft homes and tired of caring for them) has a very real need for a new kind of housing, and little to satisfy it. More about that coming up when I write about Sage Creek…
Kim and I wish to thank all of you who showed interest, offered comments and supported our efforts (yes, that includes a boyfriend and a husband, respectively.) We want to express heartfelt thanks to the enduring efforts of Mark Rutheiser and Chuck Roe, to the puzzle-solving of mortgage broker Greg Fulkerson, to the staging talents of Mary Leachman and to all who played a role in this creative and successful project.
-Jamie Madison, 530.574.0596
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Bubbletown Not Immune:Davis Home Sales Q1 2007 vs 2008
April 9th, 2008 Categories: Davis CA Real Estate, Davis RE Trends, RE Week in Review, Real Estate News
It’s spring! Davis is gorgeous - trees have leafed, wisteria is blooming, birds are wildly busy feeding babies …and homes are selling - sort of. Inventory is up and open house signs once again grace the corners of Davis all weekend. But, a bubble we may be, we are not immune to the forces of the economy. Figures for single family home sales are out for the first quarter of 2008:
2007 2008
Number sold 101 48 -53%
Median price $520k $512k
Average price $558k $559k
Days/market 85 84
Total Revenue $112.8m $53.7m -53%
Takeaway? It is a good time to be a buyer! There are some great homes on the market and the prices are the best we have seen in years. - Jamie Madison
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Davis Home Sales Feb/Mar 2007 vs 2008
April 2nd, 2008 Categories: Davis RE Trends, RE Week in Review, Real Estate News
Buyers questions are dominated by the quest to understand where we are in the market….have Davis prices dropped? will they drop more? if I buy now am I going to regret what I spent in 6 months? should I rent? should I wait? we are pregant, can we upgrade to a larger home in this market? will it appraise?
The chart above compares February and March of 2007 and 2008. There are 36% fewer homes sold in 2008. For the higher end homes, we are seeing much shorter sales times on the market, and a whopping 100.35% sales price to list price ratio. But for lower priced homes we are seeing a $25/sq ft drop and a 37 day increase of cummulative days on the market.
My guess is that sellers who have traded up to larger, more expensive homes in the good years are content to stay put in this market. Where are they going to go?
Sellers, brace yourself for a longer wait to sell. Buyers, ask yourself, how long do you plan to live in this house? If this is going to be your peaceful respit for at least 5 years to come, settle in. You may very well be laughing at the price AND the interest rate you got a few years from now.
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New Rules: No More Funny Money, Credit is King
March 28th, 2008 Categories: Mortgage Loans, RE Week in Review, Real Estate News
We’ve been waiting for it - here it is! The new economic stimulus package has reached the mortgage product market - and we have the new “conforming jumbos”.
New loan limits are 125% of the median house price - $580,000 for a Davis jumbo.
The days of the computer generated approval are over! You will need to provide full documentation - income verification, asset statements, credit scores - to qualify for a loan approval. Maximum seller contribution is 3% for a single family home. Non-traditional credit is no longer allowed, and the maximum debt-to-income ratio has been lowered to 45%.
Credit is king - you will be rewarded for your good credit, but if your FICO is less than 640, well, how do you feel about renting? For an 85% loan, plan on having a credit score of 700. To get cash out, look for a 720 FICO. For second homes, loans are based on a 60/40 loan to value ratio, and dependent on a 660 FICO.
Loans will be risk based. For the same loan (with one point), someone with a FICO of 720 or higher may get a 5.75%, while the person with a 659 FICO will pay 6.375% for the same loan.
Additionally, the FHA reform bill is pending to make FHA changes permanent. In Yolo County, the loan limit is $580,000, with a minimum FICO score of 660 and a minimum of 3% cash. For example:
Sales price: $575,000
Cash required: $ 27,359
Loan @ 6.75%: $566,991
Payment: $3677 Principal and Interest
Insurance: $100
Tax: $599
MMI: $233
Total Payment: $4609/ month
Is this all a good thing? Yes, it is. The loan practices of the past decade have defrauded us all, and most of all, they have not been good for the people who have signed up for interest only 5 year ARMs. Well-intentioned people were finally able to buy a house. Inexperienced and often poorly informed, they instead entered in to a loan obligation that they could not sustain. Perhaps if the traditional loan practices had been in place they never would have been buying a home in the first place.
And for those who do have good credit and the ability to sustain a loan, the new jumbo limits are now aligned with the very real price of homes here in Davis.
Find out more details about how the new loans will work in Davis by calling Vicki, Greg or Cara Mengali at Mortgage Resource Network.
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Davis Home Prices : 20 Year View
March 22nd, 2008 Categories: Davis RE Trends, RE Week in Review, Real Estate News
With the abundant news of the mortgage disaster swirling around us, it seems like a good time to take the long view and consider the history of prices in Davis over the past 20 years - the center figure is the median price:
1987 $118,000
1988 $154,300 +21%
1989 $192,000 +25%
1990 $234,700 +22%
1991 $246,600 +5%
1992 $243,200 (2%)
1993 $205,200 (16%)
1994 $187,900 (8%)
1995 $191,600 +2%
1996 $195,400 +2%
1997 $203,500 +5%
1998 $213,300 +4%
1999 $231,500 +9%
2000 $266,600 +15%
2001 $318,700 +19.5%
2002 $393,300 +24%
2003 $438,660 +11.5%
2004 $514,700 +17.3%
2005 $605,900 +17.7%
2006 $601,100 (1%)
2007 $571,100 (5%)
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