More US housing markets are showing positive price growth, like San Francisco and Portland. San Francisco is one of the most improved markets, with a remarkable increase of 28.6% in median sale price over the past six months. For more on this, see this article by HousingWire.
The median sale price of a single-family home in San Francisco rose 3.3% from May to June, marking the third consecutive month of median price gains and bringing the six-month appreciation from January to June to 28.6%.
Despite the gain in prices, the area remains depressed in terms of overall sales, according to a report conducted by the San Francisco Association of Realtors and the Rosen Consulting Group. The report found that stringent lending requirements and increasing unemployment have dampened sales activity.
But the report notes that as sellers adjusted asking prices, the number of active single-family homes on the market fell from a high of 847 in October to 710 in June as buyers slowly worked through the inventory. Pending sales in the area have more than doubled to 255 single-family homes under contract in June, from 104 in December 2008.
“We expect home prices to continue to improve through the remainder of the year as affordability levels rise and distressed properties are eliminated from the market,” said Ilse Cordoni, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors.
Portland real estate growth
Median sales prices inched up from May in the Portland area despite home sales lingering at a 15-year low in June.
The median sales price for all house types rose 2.1% from May to $247,960, nearly 13% below the year-ago median price in the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA metro area, according to a survey by MDA DataQuick.
The real estate information service, which tracks trends nationally, saw 3,088 new and resale houses and condos close escrow during June, up 25.3% from May but still 5.8% below the year-ago level.
It marked the 40th consecutive month of year-on-year decline in total sales, although single-family house re-sales inched up 0.5% from last year, marking the first year-on-year gain in that category since February 2006.
New home sales came in 32% below the year-ago level, at 424 units sold in June.
DataQuick noted that foreclosure resales represented lower share of resales in the month — 16.4% of all Portland area re-sales in June, down from 17.2% in May — which also relieved some of the downward pressure on prices. Sales in the mid-to-high price ranges picked up a bit as more traditional buyers became active in the market.
“The latter is a seasonal norm reflecting buyers, including move-up buyers, purchasing because of a job change or to find a bigger house or one situated in a more desirable area,” DataQuick said in the survey.
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