Okay…it was bound to happen. After all that bad news about falling prices in the real estate sector, along comes some real estate professionals in San Francisco to say–hey, not here, buddy!–We’re Okay.

According to North Gate News Online (UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism)-some of the experts in SF insist the dismal housing prices “do not apply to the city.”

The site quotes Jay Costello, who is part of a family owned business dealing with high-end properties in SF as saying :” Real estate is very location specific, neighborhood specific, marketplace specific.”  He went on to say, according to the piece, that in San Francisco, there are “way more buyers than sellers.”  Costello says SF is “still a sellers’ market.”

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Tags: estate, Francisco, homes, housing, prices, real, San

Interesting news the other day out of the Commerce Department and reported in the New York Times about new-home prices: The median price (the statistical point where half the houses are priced less but half are priced more) of a new house nosedived 9.7 percent last month when compared with the same month one year earlier. That price, by the way, is $217,100. The decrease represents the “biggest such drop since December 1970,” reports the Times. Now on the positive side, of course, this means new homes are available to buyers at cheaper prices than before. But, the larger picture, some experts say, is one of an economy that may be in for some turbulence ahead.

As the paper points out in an article by Jeremy Peters, the folks who build new houses are just trying to keep ahead of a market that seems to be weakening with each passing day. It was only two months ago when the new home prices were still on the rise.

Tags: commerce, department, drop, housing, median, New, price, prices, Times, York

The headling of the Financial Times article sums it all up: “How U.S. housing boom may be coming to tricky end.”

The piece says the “sudden slowdown” in the housing market in this country is sending analysts all over the world to look for clues about what might happen next. The article raises the following questions: “Will America’s spectacular residential property boom end in a ’soft landing’—for house prices and its economy as a whole, or are shocks of a more brutal severity in store which could resonate far beyond its shores?”

Interesting questions to be sure. I’m afraid you have to be a subscriber to FT.com to read the full article….but, whether you read it or not, the questions posed are important to reflect upon.

Tags: boom, Economy, globe, housing, landing, prices, soft, world

A drop of 2 percent…that is what is expected to happen to housing prices in California during 2007, according to the state Association of Realtors as reported by Eve Mitchell in the Mercury News. Some good news,though. The market, says the Mercury News article, should fair slightly better up in the Bay Area, in large measure because there is a much tighter housing supply there.

So, where in California are housing prices expected to take the biggest beating? According the article, the Central Valley,the wine country,the San Diego area and the Riverside/San Bernardino regions.

Tags: california, declining, drop, housing, prices

The National Association of Realtors today reported that the median home price in the US fell in August to $225,000 down 1.7% from August of 2005. This is the first time a year over year decline in median home prices has occured since April 1995.

According to The New York Times: “David Lereah, chief economist of the association, said he expects prices to continue to fall. “We do expect an adjustment in home prices to last several months, as we work through a buildup in the inventory of homes on the market,” he said in a written statement. “This is the price correction we’ve been expecting — with sales stabilizing, we should go back to positive price growth early next year.”

At the end of August, there were enough unsold, previously owned homes on the market that it would take 7½ months to sell them all at the current sales pace. The association said that was a bigger backlog than at any time since April 1993.”

Hear that? That quiet hissing sound you’re hearing seems like the beginning of a deflating bubble . . .

Tags: association, bubble, home, median, national, prices, Realtors

Starting today, Zillow is allowing its users to get their say in what homes are worth by allowing them to enter their own price estimates alongside the site’s proprietary Zestimates. Apparently the move was in response to feedback from the users of the site.

I’ve heard much debate about the accuracy of the Zestimates, both online and off, and I believe that this is a good move for the company. The addition of a new set of “Owner Tools” allows property owners to confirm ownership, edit their home facts, and lastly, create a price estimate and make it public. As public records aren’t always accurate or up-to-date, allowing owners to share information about remodeling work or simply correcting inaccuracies will help to improve the usefulness of the site — something we were hoping for back in April - see post: Top 7 Coolest Real Estate Web 2.0 Sites.

As many of you know already, we partnered with Zillow a few months back to provide their Zestimates right here on BiggerPockets!

Tags: comparables, comps, home, homevalue, house, prices, property, Real Estate Websites, value, zestimate