Though San Diego real estate has been on the decline for three years in a row, signs are pointing to stabilization and eventually a rebound. According to the San Diego Union Tribune, which reviewed in October 2009 newly released quarterly data from MDA DataQuick, eight of 56 neighborhoods saw higher prices than a year ago, compared with only one or none in the recent quarters. The overall resale median price was $360,000, down just 5% from the same quarter in 2008, compared with 2008's fall of more than 24% from 2007 figures, which were around $500,000.

The paper reported a decrease in longstanding inventory as well, another positive sign for the market: The San Diego Association of Realtors said the number of active listings for detached homes during the week of Oct. 17 stood at 5,670, down from 8,562 in mid-July. For real estate in San Diego to really pick back up, foreclosures will have to stay at bay. In September, the city's foreclosure rate was 35.3%, up from 34.5 in August and the first monthly increase since January 2009. The Union Tribune also reported that "more than half of all resale homes that changed hands last winter had gone through foreclosure, (in September) it was down to 36 percent."

In mid-October 2009, according to Yahoo! real estate data, there were more than 3,500 homes for sale in San Diego with a median price of half a million dollars, up 4.2% since September. There were 21 new homes for sale, with a median price of just under $678,000, a fall of 23.1% since September, and there were nearly 8,600 foreclosed homes up for sale with a lower median price of just over $329,000, a price decrease from September of just 0.1%.

But analysts and real estate professionals caution onlookers not to get too optimistic too soon about the market, as it could easily revert back to negative figures in the coming months. “I have the worry that with rising unemployment, we're not out of the woods yet,” Kelly Cunningham, an economist with the National University Institute for Policy Research, told the Union Tribune. “There are more people that are struggling to make their mortgage payments.”

Though physically located thousands of miles away from the U.S. mainland, the distance has not been enough to keep the greater housing market problems affecting the U.S. from plaguing Hawaii as well. Maui real estate has been giving off mixed signals recently as to whether it is improving or still waiting to hit bottom. The island county's foreclosure rate surpassed the national level in September and accounted for some of the highest foreclosure rates in the state.

According to the Honolulu Star Bulletin, which cited data released by RealtyTrac, the number of foreclosures in the state of Hawaii was up in September by 12% from August levels, an increase of 63.1% over September 2008. Maui's foreclosure rate, at one per every 111 households, was starkly higher than the nation's average of one of every 372. "Since Maui's median price led at the peak, it only makes sense that it would be highest among foreclosure rates as loans come due and people continue to lose jobs,"  Keone Ball, principal broker at Carol Ball & Associates in Kahului, told the Star Bulletin.

Though signs for improvement aren't exactly abundant for real estate in Maui, but some indicators do seem to point to at least a gradual stabilization . In September, according to the Maui News, there were 53 closings on single-family homes, down only slightly from 66 in September 2008 or 74 in September 2007, but off quite a bit from the more than 100 in September of both 2004 and 2005. Condominium sales actually showed a slight improvement, with 62 sales in September of this year besting last year's figure of 50.

According to the Maui News, average prices remain about 20% lower than in 2008 and off around 30% from 2006 figures, when the average sale fetched more than $1 million. The average in 2008 was at $877,000; 2009's average stands at $715,000. Volume has also drastically decreased: In the first three quarters of 2008, 344 homes for sale in Maui were sold. So far this year, only 163 have closed. Median prices are down on both single-family homes and condos, with the former down 16% year over year and the later down 14%.

Maui real estate update provided by Jeff in Hawaii from American Dream Realty. He can be reached at 808-792-7040 or you use his website to search all available real estate in hawaii. It allows you to get daily email alerts of properties that meet your desired search area. His team can help you on all the Islands of Hawaii the Big Island, Maui, Kauai and Oahu where he lives and is based.

As so many other markets nationwide, the Chattanooga real estate market has suffered in recent years. The area has seen home sales prices fall 2.2% over the past five years, though this figure is much less than many of the other harder-hit market sin the country. In October 2009, according to data available on Yahoo, there were 2,687 homes for sale in Chattanooga with a median price of $144,000, an increase in price of 2.9% since September. Additionally, there were just under 450 foreclosed homes for sale in Chattanooga at a median price of $78,000, a 0.1% fall in price from September, and one new home.

But some local realtors maintain the market slump is simply that -- a slump that will soon pass. “After 50 years, I’ve been through several slowdowns, and in my opinion this has not affected us in Chattanooga as much as the one did in the late 1970s and early ’80s when Jimmy Carter was president,” Elgin Smith of Prudential RealtyCenter told the Chattanooga Times Free Press, noting that in those times, interest rates were up to 17 percent, versus less than 5 percent now.

Though the area's employment sector has suffered like so many around the country, it has been lifted with the impending opening of a new Volkswagen plant in the town, which will bring with it economic benefits and more jobs. According to the Times Free Press, a University of Tennessee study estimated the plant and its spin-offs would create nearly 12,000 jobs in the region, effects that will undoubtedly be a boon to the local real estate market.

According to Trulia.com, a real estate search provider, the average listing price for real estate in Chattanooga was just over $236,000, with the median sales price at over $112,000. Though there were 254 sales in September, that figure represented a more than 76% decline in sales from the year prior.

Though it was hit hard by the slumping housing market crisis that has affected nearly all of America, the East Bay real estate market shows signs that it may be improving as of late, even if the numbers aren't near where they were before the financial crisis. An October article in the San Francisco Chronicle said the most recent reports show that September actually accounted for a "modest increase" of sales in the Bay area in September 2009.

The Chronicle said median prices of home sales were up slightly in September, with fewer lower-priced foreclosures and more high-value homes added into the mix. In the nine-county Easy Bay area, nearly 8,000 resale homes and condos changes hands in September, enough for an increase of 8.4% since September 2008. Existing home sales accounted for more than 5,700 transactions, up 4.7% from 2008.

Though sales were up, prices were actually down, with September sales showing $380,000 as the median price for an existing single-family home, down from $400,000 from a year earlier, though slightly up from August 2009's median price of $375,000. Though real estate experts say home sales typically fall after the summer, real estate in East Bay remained steady this year after the summer, spurred on by the fast-closing chance for first-time buyers to cash in on the $8,000 government tax credit for buying a home, as the credit is only good up to Nov. 30. The amount of foreclosed homes on the market has fallen as well. Though it was still high in September at 32.8% of all sales, that figure shows much improvement on the record 52% level in February of this year. www.sfgate.com

Real estate data provided by Yahoo!, which compiles the information from data-provider Zillow, showed 1,442 homes for sale in East Bay in October, with a median price of $848,000, up 1.6% from September. There were also 1,673 foreclosures, with a median price of just over $547,000, a decrease of 0.6% from the previous month. The data included information of the San Francisco real estate market.

Like many markets across the nation, the Colorado Springs real estate market has been suffering in recent years along with the housing market slump and the U.S. recession. However, unlike most markets, which only began to see their major slides in 2008, after the fall of Lehman Brothers and the greater spiraling of financial markets, Colorado Springs real estate has been in decline since 2006, though the adverse effects have been more pronounced since the start of the recession.

Despite this spate of bad news over recent years, the market seems as though it may finally be on its road back to recovery, as statistics from September 2009 show home sales up more than 12% from September 2008, the area's second consecutive year-over-yera double-digit increase, according to local realtor Rick Van Wieren. But selling prices are mostly being met, with more than 97% meeting asking prices.

Data available on Yahoo! showed, in October 2009, Colorado Springs had a stock of just under 5,000 homes for sale, with a median price of $225,000. That price remains stable from September 2009. Additionally, there were 33 new homes for sale in Colorado Springs at a median price of just over $300,000 and more than 2,700 foreclosed homes for sale at a median -- and quite affordable -- price of just over $156,000. The price for sales on foreclosed homes was up 0.9% since September. Adding to a comeback in the market has been the return of a number of troops from overseas to the local Fort Carson, creating a bump in demand.

According to data from the Colorado Springs Gazette in September 2009, single-family home building permits had risen year over year this summer, although the figures follow upon three and a half years of decreases in construction. Home sales were up over the summer but had previously declined in all but one month since May 2006. Prices for homes sold in the month of August fell slightly, as they have each month for two years in a row. The area also has not been immune to the foreclosure crisis plaguing the country. Filings for foreclosures were up in August compared with 2008, having seen increases each month in 2009. Real estate in Colorado Springs is not out of the woods yet, Fred Crowley, a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs economist, told the paper.

The California real estate market is one of the wildest markets in the country, with record numbers of foreclosures and plummeting sales prices. However, California is a very large state and its real estate markets must be examined closely on a localized level, as fluctuations can vary widely. Before the economic crisis in the U.S. housing market, Palm Springs, California, was a high-value real estate market. And though home prices and values have fallen substantially since before the recession, they are still much higher than those in much of the rest of America.

Home sales in the state are expected to fall next year, unlike in most of the rest of the country. According to an article in the Desert Sun newspaper in October, a forecast by the California Association of Realtors projected home sales would slow by 2.3 percent in 2010, from a projected 540,000 homes this year to 527,000 next year. But real estate in Palm Springs has seen less damage than many in the Golden state. August figures showed the median home price up 5.4% since July, but down by 17% when compared with August 2008. Showing positive signs, however, the figure was the smallest year-over-year fall in price since March 2008, according to data compiled by brokers Greg Bauer and John Gillette.

The Desert Sun reported that David Carter, branch manager for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Palm Springs, said inventory was improving as well, with fewer homes for sale in Palm Springs. “What we have seen here in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, we've seen an increase in sales, slight though it may be. We have gone from an inventory at the bottom of the market of 26 months down to 5 months of inventory,” he told the Sun.

Higher-end homes have tended to fare better in Palm Springs real estate. In August, half-million-dollar to $1 million homes made up only 12.8% of sales in the city, but their median price was up 2.6% compared with prices in August 2008. Likewise, the million-dollar-plus housing market in Palm Springs, though only making up 3% of the market, saw median prices up 16.2% from August 2008. The heavy price decreases are mostly concentrated in bank-owned properties, most of which fall in the under $500,000 range.

The deterioration of the La Jolla real estate market has shown that no regional market is immune from the effects of the housing market crash in the U.S. The San Diego, California, area was recently named the most expensive market in North America by the Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index of more than 300 markets across the country.

Despite this designation, La Jolla, like many other communities, both affluent and less so, has seen a decline in its residential real estate values across the board over the past couple of years -- even if those decreased values still remain higher than in any other U.S. market. The market seems to have stabilized at least for the moment, however. In October, according to real estate data available on Yahoo, there were 530 homes for sale in La Jolla, down nearly 2% from the previous month, with a median price of nearly $1.56 million. Additionally, there were 195 foreclosed homes for sale, an increase from the previous month of 3.2%, with a median price of over $835,000.

This high-priced area is not safe from the troubles of foreclosures, either. Just because real estate in La Jolla is expensive does not exempt homeowners here from experiencing job losses and financial difficulties. A San Diego Union Tribune investigation, assisted by Zillow, found that more than 130 homes in the San Diego area priced at more than $1 million had been foreclosed upon from January 2007 through June 2009. Of the 23 most expensive San Diego foreclosures, five were located in La Jolla.
Overall sales in San Diego were down about 4% year over year in August, though it can be difficult to extrapolate information about the La Jolla market from the greater San Diego market data, since it varies so greatly from that of the greater region, particularly since the largest increase in home sales in San Diego has been in those less than $300,000, of which there are very few in La Jolla. http://www.fidelitypacificrealestate.com/San_Diego_Market_Conditions_Aug_09/page_2276914.html In the six-county Southern California region, sales in September were up by 11% year over year, showing signs that the popular region's market may be on its way back up, according to data in a San Diego Union Tribune article.

The Santa Cruz real estate market, like so many others, particularly in its state of California, has suffered setbacks and price declines since 2008, when the U.S. financial crisis really began to hit the American housing market. The Santa Cruz market has seen its share of falling prices, increased inventory, a rise in foreclosures and houses unable to sell. But by the end of summer 2009, signs seemed to point that real estate in Santa Cruz may be slowly on its way back up.

According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper, in the county, the median price of a single-family home fell just slightly to $500,000 in August  2009, after recovering around $100,000 over the previous five months. Sales have been steadily rising since the winter. Just 92 homes were sold in February 2009, compared with 175 in July and 155 in August. The median price of homes for sale in Santa Cruz has taken a hit and is unlikely to return to its high level of $770,000 in 2007, but the level of $520,000 in July is an improvement upon the $399,000 levels of February.   According to statistics compiled by Santa Cruz broker Connie Landes, the median September price showed the first time since December 2007 that the median price was higher than it was in the year prior. landes.rereport.com/market_reports

In August, sales were at the highest point in three years, and listings had dropped for eight months in a row, both encouraging signs that the market is steadily improving and investors' confidence may be coming back. Currently, the Santa Cruz real estate market has about six months' stock of inventory. Landes's statistics showed that the average number of days homes are spending on the market has decreased as well, to 62 in September, from 82 in August, and from 74 in September 2008.

The one hit on the market that is still taking its toll is foreclosures. In August, a record was set when more than 50 foreclosed properties were set for auction in one day. It was then estimated that nearly one-third of mortgage-holders in the county owed more on their homes than its worth, and about 1,300 homeowners were behind on their mortgage payments. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_13148702 According to Yahoo! real estate data, in October 2009 there were 282 foreclosed homes available on the market at a median price of over $563,000.

The state of the Denver real estate market has quite a bit of variance. As with the national real estate market, home prices have fallen, foreclosures have risen and many would-be buyers are staying out of the market, trying to wait for a recovery. But thing aren't all bad in the mile-high city. As market figures showed, as of August 2009, price changes year-over-year in homes for sale in Denver ranged from a decrease of 15 percent in one zip code to an increase of more than 47 percent in another area. Denver is still a highly desired location to live and many families are still buying homes here.

Home sales have risen quite substantially since the economic crisis began and prices hit their lows, but the prices are still at some of the lowest figures in 11 years. In June, 4,562 homes were sold, the lowest number since at least 1998. Resales of Denver condos, however, had risen 6.5 percent from 2008, the only category where gains were achieved.

The median home price for homes and condos in June was $210,000, off more than 15 percent of the peak prices of more than $247,500 in June 2006 but the highest figure since August 2008, showing that perhaps real estate in Denver is making its comeback and will soon be on its way to gradually rising again. Government-insured FHA loans were the most popular type of financing buyers used in June sales, accounting for 47.5 percent of purchases. (http://www.dqnews.com/Charts/Quarterly-Charts/Denver-Charts/ZIPCO.aspx

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Additional signs of improvement include a decrease in sales time: TeamCox Realtors reported that houses are currently on the market for 2.64 fewer days than they were in 2008, and 2.25 days fewer than they were last month, a welcome improvement. (http://realtytimes.com/rtmcrcond5/Colorado~Denver~teamcox) They also report that foreclosures in Denver had fallen 46 percent in the first quarter of 2009 year-over-year, a crucial indicator for the stabilization of the Denver housing market.

One of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, the Dallas, Texas, area, like so many others, has seen its share of setbacks from the national economic crisis. The Dallas real estate market has fallen from its peak since the financial crisis and recession hit, and plummeting home values and foreclosures have been a problem for many throughout the area. In March 2009, a report by First American CoreLogic found that more than one of five homeowners in Dallas owed more on their home than it was worth, a troubling problem that has afflicted many homeowners throughout the U.S. recently. (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/classifieds/news/homecenter/realestate/stories/030509dnbusunderwater.21fded5.html)

In addition, homes for sale in Dallas fell to record lows and foreclosures were at an all-time high. Despite all the bad news affecting real estate in Dallas, though, the decline has begun to slow a bit in the regional market. In the most recent S&P/Case-Shiller report in September, Dallas area homes were only down by 1.6 percent, an improvement from the fall in the city's prices by about 5 percent earlier in 2009. This and other reports have suggested that perhaps the Dallas real estate market has hit the price floor and will now soon to slowly pick back up. (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/classifieds/news/homecenter/realestate/stories/093009dnbuscaseshiller.c8b019.html) In the Case-Shiller report, many other major metropolitan cities were still experiencing decreases year over year of 10 to 30 percent or more, so Dallas's paltry 1.6 percent was seen as a sign for optimism.

“The rate of annual decline in home price values continues to decelerate and we now seem to be witnessing some sustained monthly increases across many markets,” Standard & Poor’s David M. Blitzer said in the report. In July 2009, there were 107 homes sold, one more than July 2008's 106, and the percentage of homes sold price to asking price remained at 96 percent, where it also was in 2008. However, prices had fallen. Sold price per home was over $237,000 in July 2008 and had fallen to $209,000 in July 2009.