Market Update

In all fairness, I am not just using this site as a marketing tool to try to
get you to purchase a home and put your financial future in my hands. If that
is your impression please read the following article by a "Neutral Third Party."

California March 2007 Home Sales
April 12, 2007
A total of 39,800 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That's up 27.5 percent from 31,228 for February, and down 31.0 percent from 57,675 for March 2006. An increase from February to March is normal for the season. Last month's sales made for the slowest March since 1997 when 36,498 homes were sold. March sales from 1988 to 2007 range from 29,356 in 1993 to 68,848 in 2005. The average is 46,256.

The median price paid for a home last month was $484,000, a new record. That was up 2.5 percent from February's $472,000, and up 3.0 percent from $470,000 for March a year ago.

The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $2,230. That was up from $2,196 in February, and down from $2,235 for March a year ago. The peak was $2,372 last June. Adjusted for inflation, mortgage payments are 8.3 percent above the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle.

DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers cover all sales, new and resale, houses and condos.

Indicators of market distress are moving in different directions. Financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is declining significantly. Foreclosure activity is rising but is still within the normal range. Down payment sizes are stable and flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity is down, DataQuick reported.