Posted on Sunday, 24th October 2010 by Charlotte W
The San Francisco area continues to have some of the hottest real estate markets in the nation, topping a list of places where homes are selling for more than the asking price.
The Bay Area accounted for four of the 10 zip codes where selling prices exceeded list prices, according to a new quarterly report from ZipRealty. The four included two in Oakland, as well as Berkeley and San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood. Strikingly, there was a wide disparity on pricing among the “hot” areas. Average sales prices in Oakland’s 94621 and 94603 zip codes were about $120,000 and $136,000, respectively, while those in Berkeley were over $460,000 and Excelsior topped $500,000.
Chicago has two of top three
The pattern was repeated for other hot markets across the country. The nation’s hottest real estate market was Chicago’s Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, where homes sold for an average of $61,000, but still came in at 8.7 percent over the asking price. Chicago’s Loop, meanwhile, was number three on the list, with properties selling just over 5 percent above list, with an average sales prices of $1.02 million. Other hot zip codes were in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; San Bernadino, Calif.; Covington, Wash.; and North Las Vegas, Nev., all bringing in sales prices at least 3.2 percent above list. The California market cooled off somewhat from last quarter’s report, when it had seven zip codes among the nation’s top ten. Zip codes for San Jose and Rodeo dropped out of the top 10. “While we’ve seen California top the list of the country’s ‘hottest’ home sale markets for some time, we’re now seeing signs that buyers in other markets across the country – including hard-hit regions like Florida and Las Vegas – may be taking advantage of the historically low pricing and interest rates characterizing today’s market,” said John Oldham, marketing director for ZipRealty. “The gap between homes selling most above and below asking price appears to be decreasing, an encouraging sign that prices may be stabilizing and both buyers and sellers could be adjusting to the new market reality.”
Florida markets continue to struggle
Florida continued to dominate the list of the nation’s coldest housing markets, despite having Fort Lauderdale in the top 10. The state accounted for five of the zip codes with the greatest markdowns from list price, with North Carolina and Pennsylvania accounting for the others. Even so, that’s a small improvement for the Sunshine State, which last quarter had seven zip codes in the bottom 10 list. The nation’s coldest housing market, according to ZipRealty, was in Central Durham, N.C., where the average sales price of $34,500 was more than 19 percent below list. Others in the bottom 10 ranged from about 12 ½ percent to 16 percent below list. The rest of the coldest markets, in order, were zip codes in Reading, Pa.; Palm Beach, Fla.; Naples, Fla.; Chester, Pa.; Springfield (Jacksonville) Fla.; Boca Raton, Fla.; Upper North Philadephia, Pa.; Singer Island, Fla.; and Lake Norman (Statesville) N.C. Once again, home values had little to do with how hot or cold a market was. Cold market average sales prices ranged as high as $1.9 million and $1.0 million in Naples and Palm Beach, respectively, while Central Durham, Chester and Upper North Philadelphia all averaged below $39,000.
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Tags: Bay Area, Markets
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