Central Coast MLS Statistics - Residential
April 2007

New Listings - 899
Back on Market - 267
Price Changes - 1005
Contingents - 55
Pendings - 496
Solds - 362
Expireds - 221
Inactive/Withdrawn - 257

April was not a good month for Sellers on the Central Coast. Pendings declined from March's number, going under 500 once again, while new listings increased. I'll update the www.Slowatch.com graph and the city inventory chart when I get a minute.

Last month I blogged about an upcoming reality show on HGTV about real estate agents. Someone associated with the show that saw my earlier blog post emailed me tonite to remind that the show premieres tomorrow at 10 PM. It's called "Bought and Sold". I'm glad they reminded me since the first time I heard about the show it was to far away to set it up to record on my TIVO.

Wooooo WHooooo!

I got my Aerosmith tickets for the Mid State Fair!! I was kinda scared last night when I was at VONs and there was a kid in front of me buying a deck of cards. He said he was camping out with his mom in front of Boo Boo records to buy tickets. I hadn't purchased concert tickets for a popular show for awhile so wondered if trying to buy them online was going to work.

It took me about 25 minutes to get the website to respond and find me a pair of tickets and they are 11th row, center stage. Not what I was looking for but I thought I'd better grab them. I then got a pair in the back grandstand section (where I really wanted) so now I can choose which pair I want to keep. If you're reading this on Friday morning, you may still have a chance to get some tickets. Go to www.midstatefair.com and click the ticket icon in the upper right corner or go to www.vallitixlive.com.

Attention Parents of teenagers!

There's a product being marketed to teens and already available in some surf shops and clothing shops on the Central Coast called a Reef Dram sandal. The gimmick of this shoe is that it contains a flask that holds 3 ounces of liquid.

With most school districts having zero tolerance of alcohol, while it may seem pretty cool to bring alcohol to school in your shoes, it may end up in a suspension or expulsion. I know that teachers and administrators are already being made aware of these shoes so I don't think that too many kids are going to get away with anything for that long. If your kid asks for $45 to buy some sandals, make sure you see what they purchased just to make sure.

Desperately Seeking a Good Indian Restaurant

While Central Coast residents have over 100 choices for Mexican restaurants, I haven't found a good choice for Indian food. I know of only 2 Indian restaurants in SLO County and Santa Maria and they are both in San Luis Obispo. I've been to the one on Foothill Blvd for their lunch buffet numerous times. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give them a 5 for the food and choice. They used to bring a piece of tandorri chicken to your table but it looks like they stopped this as I haven't had any the last couple times I've gone. There is another Indian Restaurant down on Broad Street near South Street. I went there about a year ago with my wife and let's just say that we will never go back.

When I travel to either the Bay Area or LA, I usually always seek out an Indian restaurant as I miss a good Tandorri Chicken or Chicken Tikka.

Is there a market for a good Indian restaurant on the Central Coast??

The annual Rib Cookoff is this evening at Farmer's Market in SLO. Eating and voting begins at 6:15 with the winner announced at 8:00. Looks like tonite should be great weather too so if you have a craving to eat a couple of ribs, check it out!

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is different from the Interest Rate of the loan. The APR is used to determine the true cost of the loan. Basically, the APR takes into consideration the interest rate plus closing costs which determines the "value" of the loan. The Federal Truth in Lending law requires companies to state the APR for programs they advertise which should help consumers compare offers from different companies. This is supposed to prevent lenders from hiding fees. Not only can the APR be confusing to understand, it confusing to create. There is actually no clear rule how to calculate the figure. APRs may be calculated differently from company to company depending on which fees and charges they include in the calculation. The APR is supposed to be helpful for the consumer to determine the "value" of the loan but should not be the end all way to determine which loan to choose. I feel looking at the Good Faith Estimate is a much better way to compare loans. APRs do not include anything about prepayment penalties, rate locks, and balloon payments.

The APR does not affect monthly payments. Monthly payments are based off of the interest rate and the length of the loan. The APR quoted by a company (if calculated properly) should give you a good insight whether there are a lot of fees and charges. Here is an example. Company A quotes an interest rate of 6.0% for 30 years as does Company B. Company A quotes the same loan at an APR of 6.5%, and Company B quotes an APR at 8%. There is a 1.5% difference in APR, but no difference in the interest rate. This means company B is charging a considerable amount more in fees and charges (closing costs) for the same loan. My advice would be to ask company B to explain why their APR is so high, and see if you can get a good faith estimate. Just based on this scenario company A looks to have a much better deal, BUT there are still other variables. Maybe company A has a prepayment penalty on the loan and company B doesn't. Maybe company A didn't include some closing costs into their APR calculation, which sounds illegal but really isn't since there is no set law that I am aware of that mandates how you "officially" calculate the APR. There are industry standards that companies should be following but let's be honest here, most mortgage companies aren't known for their honesty. I am lucky to say I am with one of the companies that stand by their word and can deliver quality products and services and that do not hide anything. Sorry, I had to plug that for a second because I am proud of my new company, Peregrine Lending Company.

Hopefully this helped you better understand what the APR is and how to understand it. If you have any questions or comments you can reach me at: RBaker@PeregrineLending.com or 805-540-0866.

School District Boundaries

Some of the school districts have begun to put their school district boundaries on their websites so you can see what schools a home you are considering purchasing feeds.

Lucia Mar has two tools. A map which you can zoom on which shows the boundaries for elementary schools. It gets kinda confusing as you zoom to find the street you're looking for. You pretty much need to know the area to read this map. See boundary map They also have a nice tool where you enter just the street name (no street, drive, etc. after it) and it will let you pick the address range and show the Elementary, Middle School, and High School it feeds. Click this for street name tool

San Luis Coastal Unified has a text description of the school boundaries. See descriptions here They also provide a map but it's worthless. It's a small JPEG with no zoom capabilities.

Paso Robles offers maps. Here's the elementary school map, and the middle schoo map.

Santa Maria-Bonita School Distict has maps here.

Note: Districts change school boundaries based on enrollment changes. If the home you're looking to purchase is on or near a boundary line, you might want to check with the District to see when they meet to change boundaries for the upcoming school year.

Don Nelson, the basketball coach of the Golden State Warriors, must like Pismo Beach. He has brought up the "Pismo Beach Panthers" a couple times now. The latest reference is in response to the upcoming playoff game against Dallas.

"We just want to get there," Nelson said. "You can give us the Pismo Beach Panthers. We'll take them in a seven-game series."

But, who are the Pismo Beach Panthers? Does Coach Nelson know that the Judkins Middle School's mascot is a Panther so is he talking about the Judkin's basketball team??

This weeks issue of New Times lists some laws in SLO County that you may not know about. For example, did you know that you can't have a bunny rabbit as a pet in the city of SLO? Or there is no roller skating or skateboarding allowed in Downtown SLO? I knew that the city of SLO didn't allow drive-throughs in restaurants, but didn't know this law was created in the 70's during the energy crisis to not waste gas sitting in drive-through lines.

Read the entire article here

I updated the Inventory Reports for the individual cities. Some useful information if you're a Buyer. Remember...Knowledge is Power!

http://www.slocountyhomes.com/#Real_Estate_Statistics

(and click on Inventory Report under a city name).

Yesterday, I received a flyer in my mailbox at the C21 office from a local lendor with the title "Protecting Your Credit". It listed some things to watch out for to protect your credit card. One of the items said that hotel card keys contain your personal info on it (including credit card numbers) and the recommendation was not to turn these back to the hotel/motel but destroy them.

Unfortunately, this is incorrect and is one of those Internet e-rumors that has been going around since 2003. See this page:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/k/keycards.htm

Ryan's Mortgage Blog Part 2:
I stated last night rates were slightly up...BUT I should have been more specific. While the average rate may have gone up with a majority of lenders, that doesn't mean all of the lender's rates went up. Being a brokerage we have the ability to shop hundreds of lenders/banks to find the lowest rates out there. Granted when rates steadily increase or decrease they will eventually do so with all the lenders. In a case like the last couple weeks when rates were only slightly up, not all lenders followed suit. This was brought to my attention this morning when our company priced out a 5 year arm (interest only) at 5.625% and a 7 Year Arm (I/O) at 5.75%. Both of these rates are below what many news sites have the current rates at.
Another thing to note is lenders anticipate what is going to happen in the market and they price things into their rates ahead of time, so just because something happened on Wall Street today doesn't mean rates will change today because lenders anticipated this two weeks ago and adjusted their rates then.

Next week I will talk about the pros and cons of using a brokerage over a direct lender/bank. RBaker@PeregrineLending.com

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
I wanted to provide a post about how the mortgage market is doing since I haven't written about it in a while. I have seen rates rise slightly over the last couple weeks and an article from www.mortgagenewsdaily.com provided a possible explanation. Below is an excerpt from the article:

Mortgage rates rose slightly last week based on encouraging news about job growth. Conversely, fees and points related to originating mortgages have declined based on 3 of the 4 programs surveyed.

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey reported that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.22 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending April 12, 2007, up from last week when it averaged 6.17 percent with 0.4 point. Last year at this time, the 30-year averaged 6.49 percent.

According to Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist, "Interest rates in general ticked up following the release of the March employment data, which showed stronger job growth than what the market expected. This brought interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages back up this week to match the first quarter average."
If you have any questions or comments I can be reached at my NEW email address RBaker@PeregrineLending.com. That's right, I am with a new company as well...I followed in Keith's footsteps with a change.

If you're a Bank of America customer, be prepared to wait in line longer at ATMs. I just tried BofA's new ATM terminal in Pismo Beach. I had 9 checks to deposit and instead of putting them in an envelope and deposting them in the machine, you now have to insert each one to scan, verify it on the screen, enter the amount if the ATM can't make out the amount, ok it, and then choose to continue to another check. Their other new terminal wasn't working yet so when finished with the deposit, there was a line of 3 people. At the end, it prints out all the scanned checks (a waste of paper!) but doesn't even include your balance. If you want that, you need to spend even more time at the ATM. So, if you are in line and someone is taking 5 or more minutes at the ATM, don't blame them...blame the bank. Unfortunately, from the looks I got from the people in line behind me, it wasn't the bank they were mad at.

Different ways to show your home to potential Buyers

When you put your home on the market and on the MLS, you are wanting to make it as easy as possible for other Realtors to show your home to real Buyers. When a home is entered into the MLS, a Realtor chooses the showing instructions from a list.

For occupied homes, the most popular choices are:

- Call/lockbox
- Appointment only
- Appointment Listing Office

A Realtor can also choose "24 hour notice" as well

Call/lockbox means that the Realtor with the Buyer calls the number listed in the MLS listing (the owner or tenant). If no one answers, the Realtor can leave a message when they are wanting to show and then use the lockbox to show the home. It's courtesty within the Realtor community to give at least a 2 hour notice before showing on a Call/lockbox.

Appointment only means that the Realtor needs to make an appointment with the owner/tenant on when to show. If their is a lockbox installed, the homeowner doesn't have to be at home.

Appointment Listing Office means that the Realtor has to call the Listing Agent to arrange a showing appointment.

There is also a small area where the Listing Agent can add showing comments. This area is way to small to add more than a few words but there is also a "Confidential Agent Remarks" section which is a great place for the Listing Agent to communicate to other Realtors. What I do is put "see remarks" in the showing comments section and then communicate any additional showing instructions such as an additional phone number that the Realtor should call or other info such as the need to provide more than a 2 hour notice.

I had an unfortunate experience today while showing a home. This particular listing was "Call/lockbox". I called the number listed on the MLS listing and received voicemail. I left a message of the time I wanted to show and my number in case this was a problem. When I arrived to show with my clients, the person at home was unaware of my showing and did not have the home ready to show so we were turned away. The homeowner wanted to be contacted before a showing. I felt bad for both my clients and the homeowner. I know what a pain it is for homeowners during the time when their home is on the market and really try to mimimize the trouble for them. In this case, the showing instructions should have been "Appointment Only" instead of "Call/Lockbox" and there should have been instructions to say to use an additional phone number if no answer at the one designated as the phone number to call for showings.

I'm surprised how little the "Confidential Agent Remarks" section is used by agents. Not only to make the showing instructions clear, but it's also a great place to market (and hype!) the home to other Realtors. Some listings have no remarks in this section. Last year, I was successful in getting this section increased from 300 characters to 500 characters in the MLS system as I'm always running out of space. It's still not enough, IMO, but I was happy I got it increased at all.

When you list your home, have your Realtor send you a copy of the listing that other Realtors see in the MLS. That way you can see if the showing instructions are clear and what you want. There's no secret codes that Realtors use, if what you read on the MLS listing doesn't make sense to you, then it probably won't to other Realtors as well. By looking at the full listing you can also see how they are marketing your home to other Realtors.

Here's a mid-month check on our local market:

April 1 - April 15 - Central Coast MLS Stats - Residential

480 New Listings
231 Pendings
504 Price changes

We'll see how the rest of the month goes but it does look like we'll end up with fewer Buyers than we did in March and inventory will increase at a higher rate. (In March, we had a total of 845 New listings and 568 Pendings).

Tick, tick, tick..

Only 4 more hours to get your tax returns to the local Post Office. I believe all of the post offices last pick up is 5 pm. If you miss that cut-off, you'll need to drive to Oxnard which will take letters until midnight.

The Arizona Board of Appraisers has sent a cease and desist letter to Zillow to have them stop giving "Zestimates". They say that you need a license to provide appraisals but Zillow says what they are offering aren't appraisals.

In the letter to Zillow it states:
"The board requests that you cease and desist from all appraisal activities in the state of Arizona until such time as they are performed by a licensed or certified appraiser in this state. If you fail to comply with the board's request to cease and desist from these activities, the board will have no option but to pursue injunctive relief."

To me, what Zillow is doing is not appraisals but an online home valuation using public information. Some of their zestimates are close but many are 10-20% either too high or too low. It's just one piece of data that people can use. Realtors aren't licensed appraisers either but most homeowners will turn to Realtors to get an idea on what their home is worth as part of a Comparable Market Analysis (CMA).

The Internet is a really great for marketing-minded real estate agents in that you can get info on who sees your stuff online. How you interpret the data is the next challenge. For example, for my new listing at 680 Chorro I've had 286 visitors already come to the www.680chorro.com website since I listed the property on Thursday! I can also see what network they've come from such as AOL, Charter, SBCglobal, etc. I advertised the property in Cal Poly's Mustang Daily on Thursday and Friday and I can also see how many visitors came from computers attached to the Cal Poly network too.

I can also see how many Realtors have looked at the listing on the MLS since Thursday and that number is 131. This number is pretty surprising to me since we have over 2700 Realtors on the Central Coast and over 500 in San Luis Obispo alone. I hear Realtors saying "I monitor the hot sheet of new listings daily" but the 131 number says that not that many Realtors really do look at new listings. With this statistic, it looks like I may need to do a specific marketing effort directed at Realtors other than relying just on the MLS.

On April 12th, the Department of Real Estate (DRE) clarified whose duty it is to explain loan terms, the Mortgage Broker or the Real Estate Agent. In their updated article, it is the Mortgage Broker that has the responsibility to explain the terms plus explain the positives and negatives of the type of financing. Previously, the article said that some of the responsibility was on the Buyers Agent but the updated article has eliminated any responsbility from the Buyers Agent.

There is an article in today's Trib about a company that is paying amateur photographers to take photos of every home in area. The company, ZAIO, is paying 17 cents for each photo. They say they are creating a database of homes for appraisers and mortgage companies to use. It sounds like Zillow with a photo.

If you see some suspicious person going up your street, this may be them. They are supposed to notifiy the local police they are in the area and what they are doing but according to the article, Atascadero PD weren't aware of them even though they were taking photos in the area.

Read the article here

Downtown San Luis Obispo Condo - $349,900

Here's the info on the condo that I just listed today.

www.680Chorro.com

If you are a Realtor, here is the unbranded property website (without my contact info on it) that you can send to your clients.

www.680ChorroSlo.com

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
Before I get started I wanted to applaud the Florida Gators for winning the Men's NCAA basketball championship for the second year in a row....which enabled me to win my bracket challenge amongst friends!
Ok, back to the topic at hand...the loan signing. Being a licensed loan signing agent (notary) and working at a brokerage I have a unique outlook on the signing. Lenders/Brokers who offer their customers the best service and are up front with everything do not have much to worry about at the loan signing. On the other hand, a broker who hasn't been honest about all the figures in the loan would have a lot too worry about at the loan signing (they would be worry the customer would see the real numbers and would back out). By law, when a customer applies for a mortgage loan, the broker/lender must give the customer a "good-faith estimate" of the costs to do the loan within three days of applying. These are just estimates, but barring any set-backs can be some what accurate. In some cases brokers may pad the numbers for wiggle room, sometimes customers may gladly be surprised with cheaper costs than quoted, but others aren't so lucky.
The loan signing may be the first time you see the actual costs of the loan. The signing is YOUR time to go over the details and figures of the loan. Keep in mind there is no way you can read the whole document word for word at the signing which would take a whole day. You do get a copy to take home for your records. The typical signing, if done properly, lasts about an hour to an hour and a half depending if there are co-signers. If you are doing the signing at a brokers office do not let them rush you through anything, that may be a red flag there is something they don't want you to see. A good notary will do their job and point out all the important facts and figures to you and let you know what you are signing. It is in everyone's best interest to get the loan completed fast and on time, or penalties may occur, or you may loose the loan completely and have to start all over. So before you decide not to sign, make sure it is not because you are "nervous" or have "cold feet".
If for any reason you feel you have been misled and the numbers are not what you agreed to, do not sign the documents. With the notary still there call or talk to the broker/lender directly and see if you can work it out. In some cases, you can still sign and cancel within three days (Right of recession), but this mostly applies only to owner-occupied refinance transactions.
As a notary I was trained to point out 5 important pages to the client that were the "meat" of the loan:
1 - Estimated Closing Statement - Shows how much the borrowers owes/collects
2 - Deed of Trust - Make sure the Borrower information is correct.
3 - Note - This will show your interest rate and where, when, and how to pay your mortgage.
4 - Notice of Right to Cancel - Not all loans will have this, but this is the page you would need to fill out if you wanted to cancel (Right of recession).
5 - Truth in Lending Disclosure - Similar to the information on the Note, but has APR and total payment info.
Hope this helps if any of you have a signing soon. For those in the market, I know of a fantastic brokerage and a great notary agent in the San Luis Obispo Area :) If you have any questions feel free to reach me at 805-540-0866 or RyanBaker500@gmail.com.

I'm happy to announce that I am now part of Century 21 Hometown Realty. Century 21 Hometown has 10 offices covering the entire San Luis Obispo County and Santa Maria Valley. Due to the increased popularity and reach of my websites, joining Century 21 is a logical next step for me.

A little bit ago, I announced a listing service that partnered with agents with name-brand brokerages. I felt having a recognizable name on the yard sign was a plus, especially in this changing marketplace. Now I can offer the most recognizable name in the industry to help sell your home with 100+ agents here on the Central Coast.

Century 21 Hometown has offices in San Luis Obispo, Los Osos, Atascadero, Pismo Beach, Orcutt, Grover Beach, Santa Margarita, and Bakersfield.

I was at Disneyland the past couple of days for my middle daughter's 16th birthday. Had a great time! I plan on writing a Taking Teenagers to Disneyland webpage to share my experience and recommendations.

If you have been in downtown San Luis Obispo lately, you've probably seen the construction covering at the corner of Morro and Higuera. While Apple continues to not comment on if they are opening a corporate store in this location, I think there is no question now. Unfortunately, this means that the clock is ticking for the locally owned Mac store in SLO.

There was an explosion and fire at an Arroyo Grande home on Friday. It now looks like the company that serviced their propane tanks earlier in the day didn't close a valve and the gas collected in the garage and then ignited. It also sounds like the water heater wasn't at least 18" off the ground as you're supposed to have. The theory is that the propane would be able to evacuate so you wouldn't get an explosion like what happened in this case.

A downtown SLO condo is planned to come on the market later this week. It's 2 bedroom/1 bath and in an ideal location. Two blocks from the Mission! Includes 2 assigned covered parking spaces.

Pricing will be under $350K which is an extremely good value for a downtown condo. I sold this condo to a Poly parent a few years ago and now their son has graduated. It's 3 blocks to the regional transit center which has bus service to Cal Poly and other places in SLO and other cities in the County.

If you're currently looking to buy instead of paying rent while your Poly student is in school, this would be a terrific choice. Or, a great choice as well if you want to be close to downtown SLO. Contact me and I'll provide you more info when I list it. If you've been out looking already, you already know that there aren't many comparable properties like this one on the market right now.

Reminder: Property Taxes are due on 4/10!

If you're looking for Open Houses, check out this site:
http://www.centralcoastopenhouse.com/

The Open House listings this site displays are part of our MLS System. Any Realtor can enter their Open House times for free. If you have a home listed and don't see your Open House listed here, contact your Realtor and ask them to add it.

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
I just read news that there is a scam offered to homeowners related to the Community Reinvestment Act. This immediately grabbed my attention because our company works with programs that were based off of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Basically, the CRA was passed in 1977 by congress that encourages banks to help low-moderate income communities, as well as making sure customers are being treated fairly by the lenders.

My company works with lenders from around the nation that offer programs for low-income and/or certain geographic areas (low-median home prices) that help promote home ownership, which in turn may help residents take pride in their neighborhood. It is a form of "neighborhood beautification". The programs I deal with are completely legit and can truly help people save money. The problem is they are harder to qualify for than it looks and a majority of the homeowners do not qualify for them. For the few people who qualify, these programs can help get them into a better program. I do not usually bring up these programs unless I have a client that asks me about them, or after analyzing their info I see they could qualify. They are pretty rare, so I wouldn't get mad at your broker for not bringing it to your attention. They key is to find a broker that is knowledgeable on all the available programs on the market and who is able to analyze your profile/needs and determine which program(s) would best fit your scenario. Loan "A "may be great for one person, but no suitable for the next.

On to the scam...The Federal Reserve has recently made an announcement that there are mail solicitation scams that entitle homeowners to cash grants or equity payments based on the CRA. No such program exists. It is a case of false advertising. I am still looking into it, but I have also heard where companies offered similar CRA programs to sub-prime borrowers in exchange for large closing costs, but these programs were also bogus and just a way to squeeze unnecessary money from the borrower. So the point of the story is to be aware of mailings that claim you are entitled to money and also remember very few things in life are free anymore (I know, I know, not a very positive statement, but just trying to get my point across) and your mortgage is not one of them. The CRA was created to make sure people of the United States received fair lending practices...so if you feel you have been scammed you need to report it. I would report it to the US Department of housing and urban development (http://www.hud.gov/). If you have any questions regarding an un-fair situation you have encountered or of you think you were "scammed" on your current mortgage, feel free to contact me and I can try and help you get to the bottom of it. I can be reached at RyanBaker500@gmail.com or 805-540-0866.

Help fight graffiti

Looks like multiple cities are seeing a recent increase in graffiti. Both Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo have seen more graffiti in the last month than they usually get in a year. If the cleanup for a particular tagging exceeds $400, it's considered a felony if they catch the culprit. If you see anyone defacing public or private property, call the police!

And in the South County, gangs in Santa Maria are coming North into Nipomo and the community is still dealing with the recent drive-by shooting.

I then read in the paper yesterday that the Grover Beach Police Department has stopped their DARE program in local schools due to lack of funding.

It sounds like we need to deal with some of these issues before it gets worse...

Space rent now included in Mobile Home listings

Until today, when you looked at the detail of a mobile home listing through my MLS Searches, it didn't say how much the space rent was. This is important info since some parks are $300/month while others are over $900/month. I'm pleased to announce that the space rent is now included along with the other details about the listing.

Here's my Mobile Home Park MLS Map Search link

An online real estate company has put together a "Real Estate Consumer's Bill of Rights" that they are trying to get Realtors and MLSs to support. A lot of the items I've already blogged about over the past several years. While I don't think this will go anywhere, this does point out things that most people don't know or realize. For example, it is true that if I have a MLS Search on my website, I am prohibited from displaying non-MLS homes on the same site.

Read the Bill of Rights here

Oops...I made a mistake on the median home price chart. Cayucos Homes actually had a 1.1% increase in median price in the latest quarter vs. first half of 2006.

SloCountyHomes.com has record month

Both unique visitors to the site and visits to my Blog hit record highs in March. The site received 21,114 unique visitors for the month while the Blog had 3,921 visits!

I'm always looking at ways to keep improving the site. The vendor that provides the Online Home Valuation is in beta test with a new tool that I hope to have up on the site within the next few months. I'm also looking to add more guests to the blog that can share their expertise on real estate-related items. Stay tuned!

Median Home Prices in San Luis Obispo County Cities

I updated the sold reports for all cities for the first quarter of 2007 (January-March) and created a summary chart of the median home prices. It includes the percentage change between this latest quarter vs. the 1st half and 2nd half of 2006.

These had the biggest percentage drop in median price since the first half of 2006:

1. Cambria Homes (-20.7 %)
2. Arroyo Grande Homes (-20.6 %)
3. Oceano Homes (-17.7%)
4. Pismo Beach Condos (-17.5%)
5. Santa Maria Condos (-17.2%)

There were only two that had a postive percentage gain:
1. Grover Beach Condos (+24.7%)
2. San Luis Obispo Homes (+0.6 %)

See the summary median price chart here

I updated the New Listings/Pending Sales/Price Changes chart with the March data. The good news is that the number of Pending Sales was at a level we haven't seen since last August. Price changes took a jump up too. See the chart here


Inventory

I also ran the numbers for inventory levels in individual cities. The biggest jump in inventory was in Paso Robles, which added 46 units since last month's count. Morro Bay had the highest percentage jump (over 10%). A few cities decreased their inventory, but only by a couple units.

See the Summary Inventory Chart here

Central Coast MLS Statistics - Residential - March 2007
New Listings - 845
Back on Market - 249
Price Changes - 961
Contingents - 152
Pendings - 568
Solds - 399
Expired - 301
Inactives - 218