Buying or Selling a Home in Berkeley? 94703 is the hottest zip code in the USA

If its in the Chronicle it has to be true, right?  Well it is.... in black and white. I've been spouting off for a long time about the benefits of buying a home in South Berkeley, particularly in The Lorin District.  It seems as if the rest of the world might be catching up with me.  And what's good for home buyers in South Berkeley in this case is also good for home sellers.  At least according to Zip Realty who track such things across the nation.  When I say hot what is meant is that the sales price is consistently higher than the origninal list price.  In this case the number is 7.7%.  I truly believe that The Lorin will be the next "Temescal"  It has all the right ingredients and right now is an affordable entry point to those who want to live in this vibrant city.  If you want to read the whole article Click Here.  And if you want information about buying or selling a home in South Berkely or other parts of the East Bay please visit my websit: http://www.billfletcherhomes.com/ or call me 510-368-2854 and have a great day enjoying the bay area!

Berkeley Gourmet Ghetto Real Estate Market Update

The Gourmet Ghetto area of North Berkeley has long been a popular place to live.  Easily acessible to two BART stations, The University of California and some of the finest eateries anywhere such as Chez Panisse.  This Gormet Ghetto Real Estate Market update is mostly comprised of graphs that indicate a confused market but one in which houses to buy have become a scarcity over the past year. The median home price has declined since November of 2008 but seems to have stabalized and has begun to trend upwards a bit.  The lack of inventory has become the real story.  As soon as a property comes on the market the many buyers who want to live in this area are bidding the prices upwards.

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The red bar represents the price the homes were listed at or the 'For Sale' price.  The green bar represents the price that Gourmet Ghetto homes actually sold for.  Each pair of bars represents a separate month.  there were no sales for example in December, February or March

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This chart represent how long it took on average to sell a house.  The smaller the bar the quicker the Gormet Ghetto Homes sold. You can see that buyers bought Gourmet Ghetto homes 77% faster this November as opposed to a year ago.

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This chart represent each months supply of inventory or how long it takes for the properties for sale to be cleared off the market.  The higher the bar the more properties there are to choose from.  Anything over 7 months supply has been considered a buyers market.  Anything under 7 months supply has traditionally been considered a sellers market. This chart shows that compared with November of 08 this year has 50% less to select from.  Even a year ago the number still indicated a sellers market.  Right now if you were going to sell a home in the Gourmet Ghetto it would most likely sell pretty quickly.  If you were going to buy a home in North Berkeley's Gormet Ghetto you would most likely be facing competition from other buyers.

 Advice:  look for properties listed a a price below what you can afford.  These are the properties that you most likely can afford!

For more information on Gourmet Ghetto Home buying and selling or other real estate information in the East Bay please check out my webssite: http://www.billfletcherhomes.com/

For questions, comments, home valuations or other real estate wervices please feel free to email me: mailto:call.bill@redoakrealty.com

East Bay Realtor Real Estate Market Update: What's Happening in the LORIN district of Berkeley?

Median Home prices in the Lorin district of Berekely (South of Dwight, West of Adeline) have fallen in the past year by 11%.  At the same time availability (month's supply of inventory)has dropped by 82% signifying that this might be a good time to sell.  It certainly has been a good time to buy!

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Please visit my website http://www.billfletcherhomes.com/