San Francisco! Can you hear it? It’s a pulse. Your pulse is coming back. You can put the defibrillation paddles back (for now). Today we get the Rosen Consulting Group “Market Focus” delivered to us by way of email, and dammit if it isn’t a welcome bit of good news:
Confident that the housing market is in the early stages of recovery, we expect a sustainable and modest rise in San Francisco home prices from this half-way point in 2010. Rising affordability levels, aided by already reduced housing prices, low mortgage rates, and tax credit incentives gave rise to a growing demand for housing units, particularly, at the low and middle ends of the market.
-As the year progresses, distressed properties will likely add to the for-sale inventory, restraining price appreciation through the remainder of the year. While the city’s level of distressed housing inventory is less concerning particularly in comparison to other parts of the country, we expect distressed sales to continue to weigh on homes prices. The total number of homes at some stage of the foreclosure process rose to 458 in May 2010 from 415 in May 2009, according to RealtyTrac. The increase in mortgage delinquency rates among prime borrowers observed in recent months should continue to restrain improvements in the market.The market’s eventual full recovery is dependent on improvements to the job market. And while the elimination of government incentives, as well as stricter availability of credit will test the market during the second half of this year,the anticipated rebound in job creation into the end of this year and the resulting rise in demand combined with the pent-up demand for affordable, for-sale units in the market should counterbalance these two trends and result in an overall positive year for the San Francisco housing market.
It all sounds good to us. Let’s just say we’re very cautiously optimistic given some of the latest events in our little world of representing buyers and sellers here in this fabulously cold in the summer city of San Francisco.
Woohoo! Finally, its recovering. Hopefully that never happens again.