Lamorinda Real Estate 2012 — Where the market is now, and what lies ahead — Final Chapter in Series

3 02 2012

Our local Lamorinda market typically begins its cycle of increasing inventory in mid-February, and continues the growth in available homes for sale through June.  The best market for a buyer or seller really depends upon the relationship between available supply and demand.  We have seen years where the most favorable relationship for sellers is early in the cycle as buyers come out of their holiday season hibernation needing a home, and find very limited supply.  This often occurs with people involved with year-end corporate relocations.  Regardless, the real strength of the market normally runs through July, and then demand subsides significantly due to the fact that it’s often too late in the year for buyers to close an escrow and have their children start in our local schools prior to the first day of class.

For buyers and sellers in 2012, it may be best to engage the market earlier, rather than later due to the historically low interest rates.  If demand for loans increases significantly, lenders will increase rates slightly to moderate demand.  This will impact home affordability.

Today’s buyers are sophisticated and market-savvy by the time they write an offer on a home.  It is therefore imperative that sellers realistically price their home to the market and not simply try and “test” it, hoping for the “one right buyer”.  The latter “strategy” never works, and only serves to devalue the prime selling opportunity when a home first hits the market.  The old adage that “you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression” applies to the marketing and pricing of a home.

Be wary of placing too much credence on the national or even the local media that regurgitates “national market” real estate statistics.  We don’t live in a “national market”, and the statistics that get broadly published are many months out of date.  Even the coveted S&P Case-Shiller housing index is always looking one quarter in arrears, and even at its narrowest focus, it lumps us into a measure of performance for the entire bay area market.  In fact, a  Wall St. Journal  article from this week stated, “But right now, the connection between what the S&P/Case-Shiller index says and what is actually going on with housing may be lukewarm at best.”

We believe the tide has turned and that 2012 will present a unique opportunity to reengage the real estate market, either as a buyer or a seller.  Don’t hesitate to contact us with your questions or for assistance in navigating you through the market.


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Lamorinda Real Estate 2012 — Where the market is now, and what lies ahead — Chapter 2

29 01 2012

As we continue with “Chapter 2″ of a three-part series on our forecast for the Lafayette real estate market, Orinda, and Moraga — commonly referred to as “Lamorinda”– we find that in 2011 the strength of the market continued to be the sub-$1M homes.  This is underscored by the fact that the average list price of a Lamorinda home on-market in the 4thquarter was approximately $1.4M, while the average price of a SOLD home was just below $1M.

Looking in a more focused manner at the Lafayette real estate market, the $2M+ segment is still extremely slow, while the $1M – $2M market has been very active and suffers from a lack of quality inventory.  As of the end of December 2011, there were only 10 homes on the market in this segment, with 8 closed sales during the month and 1 pending sale.  Below $1M, 6 homes went into escrow during the month of December against an inventory of 22 homes — so a little better than 1 in 4 homes found a buyer.

A number of other external factors appear to give rise to further optimism for the 2012 market.  Since most people require a mortgage in order to purchase a home, the underlying interest rate of the note plays an important role in determining home affordability.  Interest rates for 30 year fixed rate mortgages have fallen to an all-time low, averaging about 3.89% for conforming loans – those under $729,000.  For those able to afford a higher payment in exchange for only a 15 year term, they are being rewarded with conforming loan rates averaging just 3.15%.  Jumbo loans – those over $729,000 – are readily available for qualified buyers from most major lenders at rates in the low 4% range!

Nationally, foreclosure filings have dropped to the lowest level since 2007 – another signal that the tide may be turning.  Some believe the decline may be due to delays by the banks in processing foreclosures and that we’ll see an increase in them as we head deeper into 2012.  Even if that is the case, the increase may be more than mitigated by new programs packaging large blocks of foreclosed homes for investors.  Numerous large commercial enterprises are now entering the single-family home market, seeking to bulk purchase large numbers of properties that will be turned into rentals.  One of the recent market entries is the private equity fund, GI Partners, out of Menlo Park.  They envision expanding their investment in single-family homes to about $1B in the next two years.  A very recent 26-page paper by the Federal Reserve outlined programs for converting the glut in foreclosed homes to rental stock.  Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to announce pilot programs in the weeks ahead.  What’s it mean?  It strongly suggests more decreases in inventory which will result in additional shoring up of the market, and will be supportive of strengthening home prices.

When you check back next time, we’ll finish up with where we think the Lamorinda real estate market is headed for 2012.

 


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Why the time may be right in Lamorinda Real Estate…

7 06 2011

The national media jumped all over last week’s Case-Shiller data announcement that real estate markets had dropped to 2002 pricing levels and that we were entering a “double-dip” period of the housing market decline.  Bad news sells, and the media hounds were all over this one.

It’s important to look at matters like this with a sense of proper perspective.  When the tide goes out, all boats ride lower in the water, but that does not mean that they all sink equally low, nor that that some won’t rise to higher levels when the tide comes back in. The current downturn is being driven by a glut of foreclosures in the broader market, and an employment market that is still weak due to the vastly improved efficiency of America’s private sector employers.  The foreclosures are artificially lowering “the tide” in Lamorinda real estate, even though we have relatively few of them within our immediate market.

According to CoreLogic, national residential prices dropped 7.5% in April over April 2010 levels, yet stripped of the foreclosure sales, prices were only off one half of one percent (0.5%).  In Lamorinda, the April 2011 median price was down just 2.5% from April 2010 — a much healthier performance level than the “national” markets.  Ah… remember, there is NO such thing as a “national” real estate market, yet that is what the media keeps referring to in the myriad of bad news real estate articles.

It’s refreshing to see some balanced perspective in the press, for example in this past weekend’s Wall St. Journal article “Why It’s Time to Buy“.  According to the article, there are numerous reasons to buy now:

  • Mortgage rates at near 50 year lows, dropping to an average of 4.55% last week.
  • Moody’s Analytics reporting that the ratio of home prices to income is now 20.9% lower than the 15-year average through 2010, and 12.5% lower than the 1989-2004 average.
  • Nationally, Moody’s is predicting that the glut of foreclosure homes will subside by 2013, and that prices will begin edging upward then… sooner in areas such as the land of Lamorinda real estate where we have not been severely impacted by distressed properties.
  • Demographic indicators such as “household formation”—the number of new households each year—are on the rise, and will take a sizable “bite” out of housing inventory… helping the “tide” to rise.
So, what does the future hold? Once the foreclosure mess begins to clear up, say housing economists, the traditional drivers of the housing market—demographics, affordability, loan availability, employment and psychology—should take over. According to CoreLogic’s chief economist, Mark Fleming, “The regular housing market is hanging tough.”  With a highly diversified economy surrounding Lamorinda, record low mortgage rates, and foreclosure levels FAR below those found in most parts of the country, it’s hard to imagine a better time to buy for the long term.  Just remember, you’ll never know when the market has bottomed out until its on the way up.

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The Sun Has Emerged, But Not In Lamorinda’s Upper End Real Estate Market

28 05 2010

The month of April gave many people in the Lamorinda real estate market hope that we were embarking upon a recovery in the upper end market segment.  With seven $2M+ homes pending within the first 3 weeks of April, it almost seemed like a return to the days of irrational exuberance. Fortunately, we haven’t turned the clock back to the crazy times when people sent pictures of their children, a box of warm chocolate chip cookies and pleading letters accompanying their home offers, but it would be nice to see a bit more upper-end market energy this month.

First of all, the highest velocity in the market is in the sub-$1M price range.  We’ve talked about this before.  It’s more affordable, homes previously unseen in the price range are hitting the market, and our state and federal governments have provided financial incentives to first time buyers.  And yes… our bankrupt state is still providing a tax credit to these buyers without regard to the buyer’s income.   It’s expected that the state of CA funds will dry up by mid-June.

As we move up-market, the story begins to change.  The segments of $1M – $1.5M and $1.5M – $2M both are performing about the same with about 5 months of inventory based upon the leading edge of the market — the “pending” sales.  These are properties in escrow that have not yet closed.

The upper end market is dominated by Lafayette real estate and Orinda real estate, and there are very few rays of sunshine penetrating the dark clouds overhead.  In the $2M – $2.5M price range, there are 7.5 months of inventory, but in the $2.5M – $3M range, there are 11 homes on the market and there hasn’t been a single sale since May 1st!  In the $3M+ range, there are a whopping 16 homes on the market, with 1 home pending in escrow in the same time frame.

What lies ahead in Lafayette and Orinda’s upper end real estate market?  It’s pretty clear that April’s splash of activity was isolated, and caused a lot of people to jump into the market thinking that we were going to see a robust return to the days of old.  Most of the homes in $2.5M+ price range are significantly over-priced, even assuming that there are a sufficient number of buyers to absorb the inventory.  We know this is not the case.  There are very few buyers in this range, and they are well-educated, financially savvy people who are generally seeking homes that represent a sound economic investment.

Concurrently, we are seeing financial distress properties hitting the market.  At least two bank-owned upper end Lafayette homes hit the market in the last couple of weeks, and there are others that involve short-sales or financial hardship situations within the Lafayette and Orinda real estate markets.  I expect to see further compression in this market segment as the distressed inventory sells and becomes the benchmark for pricing over the coming year.  Bottom line… there will be increasing downward pressure on our upper end market that will easily extend through the 2010 selling season, and most likely influence next year’s, as well.


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Categories : Lafayette CA Real Estate Forecast, Lafayette Real Estate Forecast, Lafayette, CA Real Estate, Lamorinda Housing Market, Lamorinda Real Estate Market Statistics, Orinda Real Estate Forecast, Orinda, CA Real Estate

Lamorinda Real Estate Market Statistics

9 03 2010

On a year-over-year basis, it is clear that we are seeing considerable improvement on a broad basis across the Lamorinda real estate market.

The “devil is in the detail”, and that saying certainly applies to our current real estate market.  Let’s look at the subsegments, beginning with the most active segment of under $1 million:

  • Inventory is down approximately 20% from Feb 2009.
  • Closed escrows are more than double Feb 2009.
  • And, the leading edge of the market, pending sales are well over double last year’s performance.

If we look at the “upper end” of the Lamorinda market — $1.5+ million, we see a much different story:

  • The actual market performance stats for Dec 2008 – Feb 2009 were better than for Dec 2009 – Feb 2010.
  • Based upon closed sales in Feb, we have approximately 15 months of inventory in the Lamorinda real estate market over $1.5M.
  • Although no home is “average”; the average price per square foot for homes in this segment has bounced around because of the scarcity of sales, however it is averaging around $475 per square foot.

Inventory levels by price segment:

  • $1M – $1.5M:  10 months of inventory based upon closed sales.
  • $1.5M – $2M:  10 months of inventory based upon closed sales.
  • $2M – $3M:  12 months of inventory based upon closed sales.
  • $3M+ :  14+ months of inventory based upon NO closed sales in Dec 2009 – Feb 2010.  There are two homes presently pending in escrow.

Conclusions:

  • Our market has improved over 2009.
  • Homes priced correctly to the market under $1M are moving with considerable velocity.
  • As we move up market, pricing sensitivity becomes more acute as buyers have far more options.
  • The upper end market remains very soft and inventory levels appear to be growing significantly.

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Categories : East Bay Housing Market, Lafayette Real Estate Forecast, Lafayette, CA Real Estate, Lamorinda Housing Market, Lamorinda Real Estate, Lamorinda Real Estate Market Statistics, Orinda Real Estate Forecast, Orinda, CA Real Estate, Uncategorized

The Lamorinda Real Estate Market and Buffett’s Housing Predictions…

2 03 2010

The “Oracle of Omaha”, Berkshire Hathaway’s Chairman Warren Buffett, went on record Saturday in his annual letter to shareholders stating that residential real estate market problems will be substanitally behind us within the next 12 months:

  • “[Within] a year or so residential housing problems should largely be behind us, the exceptions being only high-value houses and those in certain localities where overbuilding was particularly egregious. Prices will remain far below “bubble” levels, of course, but for every seller (or lender) hurt by this there will be a buyer who benefits. Indeed, many families that couldn’t afford to buy an appropriate home a few years ago now find it well within their means because the bubble burst.”

 

 

 

Even though Buffett didn’t specifically mention the Lamorinda real estate market, this a reassuring prediction for those who have have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the market to bottom.  As I have said before, one will never know the market has bottomed until it heads up and we are looking back.  Although there are dire predictions of a “double dip” in the market due to forthcoming foreclosures, it appears thus far that those predictions have been over-stated and we are presently bumping along the market’s bottom… with relatively normal seasonality.  If Buffett is right… and he usually is… 2010 will be a very good time to be a buyer of real estate.

The “official” market stats have not been published yet by the various MLS boards, however that doesn’t mean we can’t take an early peek at the Lamorinda market for the month of February:

  • 162 homes “Active” on the market compared to 172 homes in 2009.
  • 78 “Pending” in escrow compared to just 21 in 2009!!
  • 28 “Sold” with closed escrows compared to just 12 in 2009!!

These aren’t the “official” stats, however I don’t expect that there will be much variation from what the Contra Costa Association of Realtors publishes in the coming week.  Clearly, 2010 will be a MUCH better real estate year than 2009.  It is also clear that we could begin to see some firming up of prices, and perhaps some price increases in certain segments of the market.  More about this in subsequent posts…


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Further Thoughts on the 2010 Real Estate Market… Lafayette, Orinda, Walnut Creek …

23 12 2009

Through the trials and tribulations of life, I’ve learned to trust my “gut” when it comes to people and investment decisions — including what we are likely to see in the forthcoming 2010 Lafayette, Orinda, Walnut Creek real estate markets, as well as the surrounding communities.  I’m not suggesting that we toss empirical date out the window, rather that we assimilate it and then use our “gut” to make the right decisions.

With that said, I’ve written quite recently about the fact that we are in the “middle innings” of the mortgage melt-down crisis. There is nothing out there to suggest that 2010 is going to see any type of “rebound” in the market. I wish it wasn’t so, but the data and my “gut” both tell me to face reality here. As a matter of fact, after reading the latest stats on the economy, my gut is telling me that the window of opportunity for both buyers and sellers may lie between now and mid-2010.  Yes, it’s very nice to see the encouraging US housing market numbers published in the national press.  Like everything else in the news, you need to read the fine print.  The improvement is on a national basis, not local, and the average national home price is quite a bit different from what we see in our local markets.  The improvement in the market has been largely associated with affordable housing for investors and first time buyers.  Very little inventory in the Lafayette, Orinda, and/or Walnut Creek markets fits this profile.  Eventually, we’ll see a “trickle-up” effect, but I don’t see it as imminent in 2010.  If I’ve captured your interest, read on…

Of course, the latest economic news is very encouraging, but it doesn’t necessarily translate immediately into an improved local housing market. Most economists now believe that the US emerged from the longest recession in decades sometime within the last several months. As one would expect, California is still lagging behind, and has not seen the resurgence that many other states are beginning to feel.

The third quarter report on gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to show an annualized expansion in the US economy of close to 3 percent… a very healthy improvement. According to the Wall St. Journal, economists from JP Morgan Chase and the Credit Suisse Group are predicting 4th quarter growth up in the 4.5% range. The all important consumer confidence numbers also appear to be on the rise — very important to the economic recovery process.

So, where is the bad news and why do I think that the window of opportunity for buyers and sellers may be between now and mid-2010? The potential “bad guy” in 2010 may be The Fed as they assess what they are going to do with the unusual convergence of sound economic growth and low interest rates. Continued high unemployment may temper any temptation to raise interest rates, but since its still possible that prices may rise, inflation will be closely monitored. According to a report in the Wall St. Journal, former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder believes that The Fed may have to boost interest rates as soon as June of next year.

If that occurs, then the effective cost for homes in the Lafayette, Orinda, & Walnut Creek real estate markets will increase as the cost of borrowing moves up. Within an already weakened housing market, any sort of substantial increase in interest rates will have an exaggerated negative impact.

So, as we enter the coming year, keep an eye on The Fed and what they may do to try and tame inflation. Hopefully, they’ll also be mindful of the potential impact a rise in interest rates will have on the all-important housing recovery, but that doesn’t mean that will dissuade them from bumping rates. Just keep in mind that markets are ultimately determined by simple supply and demand. If less people can afford a home, demand drops along with prices. So… a seller’s best bet for the upcoming 2010 market is to sell during the traditionally most active real estate season of late winter through early summer, while interest rates are still at all-time lows. Buyers will find a plethora of long-term solid buys now and for the foreseeable future, although a bump in interest rates could impact overall cost for a short period until market prices reflect the new cost of money.

So… if you find yourself in the Lafayette, Orinda, Walnut Creek real estate markets, or the surrounding communities, prime time real estate season may lie just ahead.


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Categories : Lafayette Real Estate Forecast, Lafayette, CA Real Estate, Orinda Real Estate Forecast, Orinda, CA Real Estate, Uncategorized, Walnut Creek Real Estate

Chapter 4: Lafayette, Orinda, and Walnut Creek Real Estate… The Current Market, Foreclosures, and Beyond.

21 12 2009

Overall inventories in Contra Costa County have been on a steady decline over the last 12 months, and now stand at a slimmed down 40% of where they stood last year.   To give a sense of perspective, the county inventory for this past month is down a whopping 2900 units from where it stood exactly one year ago.  There’s no negating the positive nature of these numbers, however the overwhelming majority of these sales represent the lower end of the county market that was most impacted by the subprime loan meltdown.   Many of the homes were foreclosures, REO properties, or otherwise sold by financially distressed sellers.   As I pointed out in the earlier “chapters”, we’re still in the middle innings of the mortgage meltdown, and it’s too early to begin celebrating any sort of victory over the crisis.

Contra Costa County Inventory

 

The real news in this segment is being made at the upper end of the market.  For those who have read my previous posts, this comes as no surprise.  For the purpose of this discussion, we’ll define the “upper end” market as being comprised of any home over $1.5M.  That’s fairly conservative for communities where $2M+ homes have historically been considered the starting point for this domain.

Lafayette and Orinda $1.5M+ Homes Inventory

 

So, what’s going on in this segment?  “Not much” is the correct answer to this question.  Based upon the latest data available for November,  we have a robust 21 months of inventory on the market at $1.5+ in Lafayette and Orinda!!  It also doesn’t look like the situation is going to turn around anytime soon.  With NO homes in this segment reported as “pending sales” during November, we aren’t going to see any type of a bounce in “sold” properties in December.  January is not exactly the time of year when we see buyers rush into the market, yet we often see inventory start to flow in by mid-month.  In the upper end, I suspect it’s going to get worse before getting better.


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Lafayette, Orinda and Walnut Creek Real Estate Market Forecast for 2010 – Chapter 3

10 12 2009

So, as we continue to examine the market with a view towards a Lafayette, Orinda, Walnut Creek and surrounding area real estate forecast, we still need to look first at the big picture. As one of the early comedic geniuses, Stan Laurel, once said, “What a fine mess you’ve got us in.”

By late 2008, the mortgage crisis had began to shift from subprime loans to the prime loans typically reserved for some of the best qualified borrowers and Credit Suisse is now predicting that there will be more than 6M new foreclosures by the end of 2012. Many of these are expected to be at the upper end of the market, driven principally by the unemployment/under-employment problem.

Looking at California, before we eventually delve deeper into our local markets, we are seeing a reduction of inventory at the lower price points. Even the statewide range of $300-500K is down to about 3 months of available inventory. Much of this has been driven by the $8,000 Federal tax credit for first time buyers and probably has just simply shifted the demand curve forward for many of these buyers. The California $1M+ market segment, principally dominated by buyers well beyond their first time purchase, now stands at about 16 months of inventory. This only tells part of the story because “shadow inventory” lurks behind the scenes… homes in serious default that have not reached foreclosure yet, and in some cases Notices of Default have yet to be filed. The latest stats show that loan defaults are significantly outpacing foreclosure liquidation, so the shadow inventory continues to build. On a national basis, the market overhang created by this situation was at about 7 million homes as of November 2009, and new defaults are running at about 300,000 per month! If we look at San Francisco data from the Case-Shiller Index, we’ll find that when shadow inventory is included, the actual inventory is about 279% of what is publicly listed for sale.

Studies have shown that most market bubbles eventually return to the historical trend line. Based upon this theory, real estate economists generally believe that prices need to decline another 5-10%, on average, to reach trend line. Some market bubbles have seen prices cross over below the trend line, so that risk is present in the market.

Some recent signs of stabilization in home prices may be due to factors that are misleading people to reach the wrong conclusions about what is really happening on a short-term basis… ultra-low interest rates, the $8K first-time buyer credit, an increasing number of higher priced homes sold in foreclosure (raising average price calculations), a temporary reduction in the introduction of new foreclosures in the market due to government pressure, and MASSIVE Federal support for the market via FHA loans.

The August 2009 Deutsche Bank report stated:
While subprime and Option ARMs are currently the worst cohorts with underwater borrowers, we project that the next phase of the housing decline will have a far greater impact on prime borrowers (conforming and jumbo) … By Q1 2011, we estimate that 41% of prime conforming borrowers and 46% of prime jumbo borrowers will be underwater, a significant increase over the percentage of these borrowers in Q1 2009. The impact of this is significant given that these markets have the largest share of the total mortgage market outstanding.

T2 Partners believes that US home prices will fall further and reach bottom in mid-2010, but that there won’t be a quick rebound due to the enormous amount of unsold inventory coupled with tepid economic growth for many years ahead.
Wrapping us this not-so-encouraging chapter, we must take these macro factors into serious consideration as we seek to forecast local market such as Lafayette, Orinda and Walnut Creek real estate. We are not immune from the national and statewide issues. It was a wonderful ride up, but it’s important to acknowledge the present market reality and make our future decisions based upon fact and not fantasy. With that said, we have seen where micro markets can and sometimes do behave differently than national average. We’ll see.

Next chapter… a look at the local performance numbers for Lafayette, Orinda and Walnut Creek real estate.


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Predictions for the 2010 Real Estate Market — Lafayette, Orinda, Walnut Creek Real Estate — Chapter Two

4 12 2009

And so, we left off with bad behavior leading to bad consequences in the real estate finance market and the broader debt markets of Wall Street… As I’ve said previously, I don’t think we can look at any Lafayette, Orinda, or Walnut Creek market forecast without understanding the broader issues and how they relate to our local real estate market and micro-economy.

According to TransUnion, one of the country’s largest credit reporting agency, mortgage delinquencies rose for the 11th straight period in the 3rd quarter of this year. It’s important to understand that all types of mortgages are now seeing a surge in delinquencies. The “meltdown” began with sub-prime mortgages, followed by the option ARM programs. Now, we are seeing the early stages of “Alt-A” loans in default and delinquency. What are Alt-A loans? These are the loans that lie in between the nasty sub-prime loans and the prime rate loans granted to those with the highest credit worthiness. Just to put matters into proper perspective, approximately $402B in Alt-A loans were originated in 2006 !! In fact, these loans represent the majority of all “non-traditional” loans in the marketplace… the infamous “stated income” loans, interest-only programs, as well as option-ARMs. These types of programs grew over 400 percent from 2001 through 2006, but that doesn’t really paint a picture of the full magnitude of the problem. By 2006, the Alt-A programs represented over 13 percent of the approximately $3 Trillion in loan originations and actually grew about 7 times in dollar volume from the period 2001 to 2006. Now, we’re starting to see the magnitude of the problem ahead.

The huge wave of subprime loan problems is substantially behind us and was driven by loan interest rate resets. As the California unemployment rate continues to climb, we have moved into a mortgage crisis driven by loss of jobs and borrowers going “underwater” on their home equity. According to Amherst Securities, first mortgages with an average of $165,000 in declared equity at inception in 2006, found themselves with a NEGATIVE $149,000 in equity by September of 2009 !! The cumulative default rate tracked this loss of equity going from 1% to 48.5% over this period of time.

The reality is that delinquencies in both Alt-A and Prime rate mortgages are literally soaring. If you were to look at a graph, you’d see the delinquency rate climbing almost straight up beginning in early 2008… and getting steeper in recent months. THE COMING WAVE… Perhaps the most telling statistic is to look at the rate of Notices of Default (NOD). The rate of NODs on Prime Rate mortgages, (the ones issued to those with the highest credit ratings), is climbing nationally at the rate of about 10,000 PER MONTH !! Although the worst of the subprime problem is behind us, we are also poised for a spike in defaults from this category as we come out of federal moratoria which slowed down the rate of foreclosures and additionally, we see people with renegotiated loan terms default. If there is some “good news” to be found here, it’s in the fact that California was only ranked #4 in prime rate foreclosures as of about the mid-point of 2009.

To wrap up this “chapter” in the saga and lead us into a more localized view, we essentially have two out of five “waves” in the mortgage crisis behind us. Mostly ahead of us are more Alt-A issues in combination with Prime and Jumbo Prime mortgage delinquencies and defaults. Then, as we move out of the housing sector, we have about $3.5 Trillion in commercial loans at risk. The good news is that a lot has changed since the first two waves hit and our “system” is much better prepared to deal with the problems. Suffice it to say… we are still just in the middle innings of the “game”.

When we resume… I’ll look at the Lafayette, Orinda, Walnut Creek real estate market forecast and as well as for adjoining markets. I’ll try and describe what lies ahead as we close in on 2010 so you can make informed decisions about what may be your most significant personal asset… your real estate.


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Categories : Lafayette CA, Lafayette Real Estate Forecast, Lafayette, CA Real Estate, Orinda CA, Orinda Real Estate Forecast, Orinda, CA Real Estate, Walnut Creek CA, Walnut Creek Real Estate Forecast, Walnut Creek, CA Real Estate

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