Sonoma County's Energy Independence Program (AB811)

I recently attended a lecture on Sonoma County's Energy Independence Program (AB811) and found an interesting opportunity for anyone looking to improve the efficiency of their home.

Sonoma County has about $100M earmarked to finance home energy and water efficiency projects that get repaid through homeowner's property tax bills. You can start with a $395 home energy audit to help determine which projects would be best for your home and pay for those projects over a twenty year period through your property tax bill. The financing is actually a voluntary assessment or lien on the property so that when you sell the home, the assessment stays with the home - not the owner.

Projects can be up to 10% of the assessed value of the home and include solar panels, insulation, heating and cooling systems, waterless urinals, cool roofing and energy efficient windows - among others.

For an energy audit go to Sustainable Spaces
For details on the program, go to http://www.sonomacountyenergy.org/

I'm putting some resources together on my webpage so check back occasionally.

Market Summary for September 2009

Here's the market summary for September and we're still seeing some minor downward pressure on pricing as the REO's and short sales are snapped up. Although there "reports" that another wave of foreclosures are on the way, it doesn't appear that there are many on the horizon here on the Coast. But, as we've seen, things can change quickly and drastically.

The good news is that sales activity is up more than 20% over last year at this time and that could help stabilize prices.

A Closer Look at the Mix of Home Sales

An interesting look at the housing trends as the sales and prices begin their recovery. From the California Association of Realtors' Oscar Wei, Senior Research Analyst and Sara Sutachan, Senior Research Analyst...

California home sales continue to stay strong with seasonally adjusted annualized sales in July increasing 8.1 percent to 553,910 from 512,530 in June and 12.0 percent above the revised year-ago figure of 494,390. The year-to-year percentage gains in sales have moderated in recent months, and the 12 percent increase over the prior year was the smallest increase since April 2008. Year-to-date sales, nevertheless, remained well above the sales level of last year, with a 43.4 percent increase over the same period of 2008.

The statewide median price at $285,480 in July increased for the fifth consecutive month with a 3.9 percent increase over the prior month median price of $274,740. The yearly decline of 19.6 percent was also the smallest in the last 19 months.

For the entire article, click here.

Market Summary for August 2009

We actually saw an increase in the Bodega Bay median price while Bodega Harbour continues to see minor decreases. We're currently at mid-2004 prices. Click on the image above to see the details for August...

How Americans Spend Their Paycheck

Here's an interesting graphic on where our money is spent. Obviously, California's numbers are going to skew more toward housing with our higher prices, but interesting none the less.

click here for the graphic

Bodega Bay Market Summary - Jul/Aug 2009

Here's the latest data on the real estate market in BB. You'll see that we continue to feel the downward pressure from the relatively low number (but very influential) distressed properties. Those properties are certainly getting the majority of the action right now but the number of new listings is slowing significantly, at least for now. You've probably heard the reports that thousands of distressed properties will enter the market in the 4th quarter and while I don't know how many will be in our area, those reports alone are impacting the psychology of the market.

Showings have picked up again over the last couple of weeks. However, we've been experiencing a great deal of cyclical activity all year - up for a few weeks and quiet for a few weeks. Buyers are still leery of the near future but appear to be more relaxed than they were several months ago and that alone has made me less reluctant to take on listings. Six months ago I suggested holding off, today I'm much more open to putting a client's home on the market - at the right price, of course. The number of sales has remained slow but steady throughout 2009 and somewhat ahead of 2008 - I expect that to continue through the rest of the year with a leveling of prices.

Pricing the homes has been a difficult conversation for those looking to list. With the continued downward pressure, you can't list for the future as many did a few years ago. The numbers are more important than ever, even though buyers are frequently attempting to low-ball their offers. And some of them work. However, we're still retaining a list price/sale price ratio of 94.4% so sellers are holding firm once they find the proper price point. Currently, prices are about 16% below this time last year in Bodega Bay and 33% lower in Bodega Harbour. Much of the discrepancy is due to s short spike in Bodega Harbour prices last year.

Sales of new home rose 11 percent in Jun

Sales of new homes rose 11 percent in June, compared with May, and were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, according to estimates released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Sales were 21.3 percent lower in year-to-year comparisons.

The median sales price of new houses sold in June 2009 was $206,200; the average sales price was $276,900, according to the report. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of June was 281,000, representing an 8.8-month supply at the current sales rate.
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In Bodega Bay, prices continue to feel the downward pressure but are holding relatively flat. Bodega Harbour homes held steady with no change and all Bodega Bay homes saw less than a 1% reduction in July.