Have Silicon Valley Home Selling Prices Bottomed Out?

By Alicia Lanier, REALTOR

Everyone in the “dynamic” (read: recently plunging downward on the housing roller coaster) world of Silicon Valley real estate could not have asked for better news to start our New Year than the recent Clear Capital forecast: Home selling prices are expected to rise in 2012 in the San Jose-Santa Clara-Sunnyvale area. Plus, it’s a respectable year-over-year anticipated price rise: 1.6% overall.

Whooopppeee! (That’s for our Sellers!)

Oooopppsss! (That’s for our sittin’-on-the-fence Buyers who may have already missed the price bottom they’ve been waiting for!)

If you keep track, the San Jose area is #16 in the Clear Capital Top 50 price forecast list for 2012. The Fresno, Ca. area is #18, with a projected selling price increase of 1.5%; the San Francisco-Oakland– Fremont area comes in at #24 with a 0.1% uptick

Clear Capital calls this projection “market stability” after home prices in most of the major housing markets again lost ground in 2011.

“Although the range of movement for U.S. prices stabilized through 2011, prices have settled at the lowest level since early 2001. The forecast for 2012 shows home prices starting with a dip in the first quarter, improving in the spring and summer buying season, and continuing to climb to 0.2% overall growth for 2012.”

Home selling prices peaked in late 2006, with a steady downward price plunge that continued to lose ground throughout 2011.

The Clear Capital forecast added: “Importance of micro-market analysis is reiterated as the 2012 forecast is for a flat U.S. market, but only 40% of individual markets (20 of 50) are projected to be stable.”

What about 2011? Selling prices generally were down when compared to the previous year: San Jose-area “micro-market”, down 2.5%; Fresno, down 7.3%; San Francisco area, down 4.7%.

Alicia Kay Lanier is a REALTOR (Ca. License #01318807) working with Home Sellers, Home Buyers, Investors, and Homeowners in Distress. Contact her at Alicia@AliciaLanier.com