"In the Bay Area, we're in a unique bubble … we're not really seeing prices go down"
San Jose Mercury News – Buy a home now or wait?
It’s virtually impossible to find a reputable expert who believes a basic home purchased in the Bay Area today will be worth less 10 years from now. History, and continued restrictions on new residential construction, indicate prices will rise over the long term. But the value certainly can drop or stagnate during any 10-year span.
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“There are a few people I’ve talked to who are listening to the nationwide hype, who think the market is declining,” Morgan said. “In the Bay Area, we’re in a unique bubble … we’re not really seeing prices go down per se.”
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Mark Martel and his wife, Anita, are renters in Mountain View who began looking to buy a townhouse in the middle of last year. They say the conditions for buyers were kinder last summer than they have been early this year, because there are fewer homes on the market now, and more competition. They made their first purchase offer, on a Mountain View townhouse, last month and lost out in a field of seven. They offered 6 percent more than list price, Martel said, but the winning bid was 12 percent over.
Silicon Valley Real Estate is back with a vengeance! I’m calling it now: 2br condos in Mountain View will start at $750k by the end of the year.
Nothing can stop us now!
March 10th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Yeah I saw this article. There is so much noise in the media sometimes I don’t know what to believe. This blog, and thehousingbubbleblog.com help to keep it real, but it sometimes is hard to know what is REALLY going on…
What do people think? will a nice home ever be able to be had in the Bay Area for 400k? Is everyone going to have to foreclose because of creative loans?
I go back and forth.. buy soon or wait longer. Not sure…
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:58 pm
$400K in Santa Clara? probably not. $400K won’t buy too much in Sacramento since the bubble.
For prices to decrease to these levels in Bay Area, they need to be $200K less in Sacramento. So, we are talking about needing Sacto prices to drop to $200K median.
I would say a decrease of 10-15% off current price levels is possible in the Bay Area over the next 1-2 years – particularly, if the housing market this summer is a dog – as it is setup to be right now with still exorbitant prices, subprime exploded, foreclosure inventory, and tighter lending standards.
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Brendan. Buyers have the power. We control what price levels are, based upon our actions.
I recommend waiting it out for another spring. My thinking is that price appreciation from now to Spring 2008 will be anemic at best due to the prior unprecedented runup and recent mortgage/foreclosure activity.
Save like a dog for this year. Then, you will have another $30-50K to use as down-payment next year on roughly the same priced home. Or, best case, a slightly cheaper priced home.
October 12th, 2011 at 11:58 am
[...] reader Brendan posed this question in a post earlier today. “In the Bay Area, we’re in a unique bubble … we’re not really seeing prices go down” ̵… What do people think? will a nice home ever be able to be had in the Bay Area for [...]