Livermore Real Estate has Two Faces!
The good news is Livermore has 14 % fewer listings and 56% more pending sales than we did Oct. 07 when our inventory peaked. The not so good news is that distressed listings (foreclosed, bank owned & short sale) are a significant influence on our entry and mid level markets. This can crimp the supply of move-up buyers fueling our South Livermore sub-market. In the Tri-Valley, 21% of pending sales are foreclosures. Sounds bad until you look at Brentwood where 72% of pending sales are foreclosures. The silver lining in all these dark clouds is the demand for bank owned properties. It’s strong with most sales receiving multiple offers. When list prices attract multiple buyers it’s a good indication that prices are bottoming.
So where are we in our South Livermore executive home market? We may be at the bottom. There exists 4.3 homes available for every 1 in escrow. …Not bad, given the overall market. And….very few short sales or bank owned exist in our submarket. In fact, of the 157 distressed listings in Livermore, only 3 exist in our executive home sub-market in South Livermore (newer construction priced $900k+) How well our market absorbs the upcoming spring inventory surge may be very revealing! Far to many current buyers are bargain driven thanks to the constant media doom & gloom, but if inventory levels out, a sense of urgency may return to the market. That changes everything, and the new conforming loan limit of $729,000 (from $417,000) can only help!
Larry & Kathleen
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