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simchaland says

Everyone wants to buy in the Bay Area especially Chinese immigrants and Indian immigrants because they all have such great stores of cash. When sales slow down it’s because there’s pent up demand. Everyone in the Bay Area makes over $100k per year and there’s just more money here. Since there is such great pent up demand and supply is so low and everyone in the Bay Area makes north of $100k per year, the prices are sure to go up.

Hum! You mean to say... Too big too fail

I am interested in "price drop" not "sales drop".

@robertoaribas: Toughest part is to differentiate supply and demand indicators by house price range for e.g. midrange, 1+ mil range.

thomas.wong1986 says

simchaland says

Everyone wants to buy in the Bay Area especially Chinese immigrants and Indian immigrants because they all have such great stores of cash. When sales slow down it’s because there’s pent up demand. Everyone in the Bay Area makes over $100k per year and there’s just more money here. Since there is such great pent up demand and supply is so low and everyone in the Bay Area makes north of $100k per year, the prices are sure to go up.

Hum! You mean to say… Too big too fail

I love it. Think about the slogan possibilities.

"The Bay Area -- Too Big to Fail [TM]"

This is essentially the same headline as the May pending home sales down 30%. That headline is just translating into closed sales for July.

June pending sales was down 2.3% but essentially flat in the West so August closed sales will be flat in August. The most important forward indicator will be the Pending sales for July (most likely flat again based on mortgage application indicator), August and September, that will give some insights for sales in September, October and November.

No doubt about it, summer 2010 sales will be soft and home prices will be approaching March 2009 lows.

In other news, rents are up.

SF ace says

..rents are up.

Really? My rent dropped 8% and I am living in above avg. neighborhood.

dadab says

SF ace says

..rents are up.

Really? My rent dropped 8% and I am living in above avg. neighborhood.

Rents are still down over most of the Bay Area. I know because I'm always looking at rents for the people with whom I work. Landlords may advertise a higher rent, but most often they don't get it and will negotiate and give perks for signing a lease, such as 1 month free rent and free parking. This is becoming more and more commonplace from what I see.

simchaland says

1 month free rent and free parking

Simchaland, I see you're in Oakland so I have a question for you. I have lived in California my entire life (SF Bay area and SoCal) and I have never heard of being charged for parking while renting an apartment or condo. I have seen this concept in two different posts now. Is this something new in apartment complexes? Don't all apartments come with at least one parking spot for a one bedroom apartment, or two cars for a two bedroom? I have seen where condos come with two spots, but there are extras if the owner needs to rent an additional parking space for 35.00 a month. Thanks in advance for the education on this issue.

rob918,

Actually, it's not just the Bay Area where you will find parking at a premium. Often here in the Bay Area if an apartment building actually has parking spaces available, they charge rent for them. In my building there is a waiting list and it costs $50 per month to rent a space in our locked parking area. I don't find that it's worth it since I can always park within a 3 block radius of the building and I don't consider that an inconvenience. 97% of the time I can park in front of the building or at least within a block.

When I lived in Chicago, our apartment building had a two year waiting list to rent a space. Spaces were going for $70 per month in that building when I left in 2000. I couldn't afford that then so I would street park. Back then I was younger and it wasn't uncommon to have to park 5-10 blocks away from our building. I lived right on the Lake (Michigan) on the North Side and parking there is ridiculous still. I'd have to read all of the parking signs because street cleaning days were not regular. In some neighborhoods they hung street cleaning signs on trees the night before street cleaning so if you parked your car for more than a day, it was worth it to walk by and check for those temporary street parking signs. This was a regular "gotcha" ticket for the City and impossible to fight. Street cleaning tickets used to cost $50 each. Most City residents end up coughing up $100-$300 in parking violations because of the Byzantine parking regulations for street parking. It's definitely designed to be a money maker for Chicago. They depend on that revenue.

Some people in areas along the lakefront buy parking spaces. I saw parking spaces going for $10,000 each when I left. That's no joke. You'd get a deed for buying the parking space and everything.

Where I lived in Chicago there was a lot across the street from my building that rented monthly parking spaces (you could go month to month or sign a lease, no kidding!). If you went month to month a space rented for $60 per month. If you signed a 1-year lease, you'd pay $50 per month.

This is on top of a Chicago City Sticker that had to be purchased every year and put on the passenger side of your windshield that went for $50 per year back then if you were a Chicago resident. Now it's up to $75. And if you move into the City during the year, let's say 6 months into the City Sticker year, you still have to pay the full price of $75. If you buy a new car, you have to peel the old sticker off of the window of your old car, present it to the City Clerk, and pay a $20 "transfer fee" in order to get a new sticker for the new car. They make it so that you can't get the sticker off in one piece and usually the glue sticks to your windshield so you have to scrape it off with a razor blade. So, there was practically no chance to "slide by" by simply taking the old sticker and sticking it on the windshield of the new car.

Many of the suburbs of Chicago have their own City Sticker programs too. If you try to avoid it, late fees and penalties can apply. They get expensive fast. Read here for more detail.

Eventually I got rid of my car and only took jobs that were accessible by public transportation, which was cheap and convenient in Chicago, unlike here in the Bay Area. Back then, you'd buy a 30-day pass for $70 and ride the trains and buses for unlimited rides. And the trains and buses went everywhere in the City and the near suburbs.

I'm not sure what Manhattan and much of the other Boroughs of New York are like, but I would guess it's similar.

simchaland says

Actually, it’s not just the Bay Area where you will find parking at a premium. Often here in the Bay Area if an apartment building actually has parking spaces available, they charge rent for them.

Thanks for the information on this. Wow....I had no idea apartments were charging for parking. I guess they got the idea from hotels since they all gouge you for parking now.