The Hammond Real Estate Report

A mid-sized and affluent city in the San Diego metropolitan region, Coronado, California, lies five miles from downtown San Diego on a peninsula that is connected to the mainland by a 10-mile-long isthmus. For this reason, the city is often commonly also referred to as Coronado Island. The city’s residents are quite wealthy, and therefore Coronado real estate tends to contain some of the most expensive properties in the region. In 2009, the median price for single-family homes in Coronado was the second-highest of any city in the Central San Diego region, second only to La Jolla.

Last year, the market for Coronado homes for sale continued to show ongoing signs of struggle caused by the recession and the general downturn in the national and local economies. There were 105 single-family homes sold in 2009 in Coronado according to the San Diego Union Tribune’s annual zip code chart, and those homes sold at a median price of $1.25 million, a 14% decline in price year-over-year. The year saw 87 resell condos sold at a median price of $850,000, a decline of more than one-third annually. Additionally, there were two new homes sold, with a median price of $828,500, down 7% from 2008. Overall, all properties saw a median price of $1.09 million, a fall of 19%.

So far in 2010, the Coronado market has shown mixed signals for where it is headed in the new year. Condo prices are up, but home prices are still down from where they were one year earlier. According to the San Diego Union Tribune’s monthly zip code chart, in March there were 15 single-family resell homes sold in Coronado at a median price of $920,000, a 43% decline year-over-year and down from $1.2 million in December 2009. Condos, however, saw seven sales at a median price of $1.03 million, an 8 increase from March 2008’s prices. This was up substantially from December’s median condo price, which was $662,250. Additionally, there was one new home sold at a price of $1.07 million.

A mid-sized city located in the southwestern portion of Orange County, Laguna Niguel, California, is home to a population of more than 60,000 The city began as a master-planned community in the San Joaquin Hills. According to a 2008 estimate, the city’s estimated annual median household income was around $98,000, and housing prices are reflectively high, though in terms of Orange County, prices fall about in the mid-range. The Laguna Niguel real estate has suffered in recent years as the economy has tanked, forcing many homeowners into foreclosure and bringing down the values of many homes. However, other buyers have been able to hop into this market that they were previously priced out of, and sales volume has increased.

At the end of 2009, according to the Orange County Register’s annual zip code chart, the median annual price for homes in Laguna Niguel was $520,000, representing a 9.6% decrease from the 2008 annual median price. However, sales volume was up in 2009, with 972 Laguna Niguel homes for sale sold over the 12 months, a more than 27% increase year-over-year.

The Orange County Register’s monthly chart showed that in March, the median price in Laguna Niguel had fallen even further than its mark at the end of 2009, down to $518,750, though this was off a smaller percentage from March 2009, at a 7.4% drop. Sales volume continued to show more encouraging signs than price though, and in March, there were 97 homes sold, an increase of nearly 50% from the sales levels in March 2009.

In the most recent period for which statistics were available, a three-week period ended April 22, prices were down even further, at a median of $515,000, of 13% from the same time one year earlier, but sales were still up by a third annually, with 80 homes sold during those three weeks.

The overall political and economic situation facing Tennessee real estate and Chattanooga real estate in particular has sparked a number of actions from local politicians. This trend was noted in a March 16, 2010 article in the Commercial Appeal, which found that “A bill pending in the Tennessee legislature would make it easier for homeowners who are behind on payments to enter into negotiations with lenders to avoid viagra.” The piece, composed by Daniel Connolly, continued to state that “Lenders would have an incentive to participate because if they acted in good faith, they would be free of punishment for any violations of the Tennessee Home Loan Protection Act, a law passed in 2006 to combat predatory lending.”

A March 7, 2010 article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press described the various measures attempted to keep Chattanooga real estate for sale from becoming foreclosures. The article pays particular attention to Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, saying that “At the urging of his niece, Mr. McConnell reached out to Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, a government-backed housing agency that helped Mr. McConnell keep and fix up his house…Mr. McConnell is among more than 200 families CNE has worked with since launching its foreclosure prevention program last year. ‘Of the 219 families we saw in 2009, only seven have lost their homes, so we know we’re making a real difference in this community,’ CNE President David Johnson said.” The article, composed by Dave Flessner, continued to find that “CNE is among 48 local agencies in Tennessee and 101 in Georgia counseling financially troubled homeowners under a 2-year-old foreclosure prevention effort by the federal Neighborhood Works program.”

It seems that Chattanooga homes for sale may be recovering more quickly than the rest of the greater Tennessee real estate market, according to a March 18, 2010 article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The piece found that “Chattanooga shed about 10 percent fewer jobs that the U.S. economy as a whole during the Great Recession over the past two years. But the employment losses in metropolitan Chattanooga in the current economic downturn have lasted longer than previous recessions and continued into the fourth quarter of 2009 even as production rebounded late last year, according to a Brookings Institution study released Wednesday.”

The Colorado Springs real estate market, along with the rest of the state, continues to face the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis. According to a March 17, 2010 article in the Denver Business Journal, “Both real estate foreclosure filings and sales in Colorado rose in February year over year, largely because a moratorium on foreclosures no longer is in place this year, according to a report Wednesday by the Colorado Division of Housing.” The piece continued to note that “Foreclosure filings increased 6.5 percent in February to 3,042 last month from 2,856 in February of last year. But they were down nearly 14 percent from 3,535 in February 2008. Foreclosure filings are the initial documents, filed with county public trustee’s offices, that are used to start the foreclosure process. That process ends with the sale of a property at auction, unless debt related to the property is repaid.”

One particular segment of Colorado Springs real estate for sale, commercial real estate, is in an especially tight spot, according to a March 13, 2010 article in the Colorado Springs Gazette. The piece found that “As dissimilar as they are, a small shopping center in unincorporated Falcon, an apartment complex on Colorado Springs’ southeast side and a mini-warehouse storage facility near Peterson Air Force Base have something in common: They all fell into foreclosure last year – signs of a distressed local commercial real estate market that experts fear will worsen in 2010.”

One bright spot for Colorado Springs homes for sale was noted by a March 1, 2010 article also in the Colorado Springs Gazette, which noted that “The pace of homebuilding jumped last month to its highest level in nearly two years, while foreclosure filings might be stabilizing, according to a pair of reports released Monday.” The piece, composed by Rich Laden, continued to say that “Single-family homebuilding permits totaled 166 in February in Colorado Springs and El Paso County, a more than threefold increase from 53 permits during the same month a year ago, a Pikes Peak Regional Building Department Report said.”

The Cupertino real estate market is closely linked to the rest of the Bay Area’s economic fortunes. According to a February 19, 2010 article in Business Week, “Home sales in the San Francisco Bay area dipped more than usual last month, and median prices are down from December, suggesting the market has lost some of the momentum it gained in the second half of 2009, according to a real estate tracking firm.” The piece, composed by Evelyn Nieves, continued to say that “San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported Thursday that home sales dropped by 38 percent from December in the nine-county Bay Area. A decline in sales from December to January is normal for the season, but on average, sales have dropped 28 percent, the firm said.”

Cupertino homes for sale also faced a decline in sales volume, according to a February 19, 2010 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. The piece found that “The Bay Area housing market lost some of its 2009 momentum in January, according to an authoritative real estate report, but prognosticators do not necessarily see a shift toward slower sales in 2010.” The article, written by Robert Selna, continued to say that “Data analyzed by MDA DataQuick, a San Diego research firm, show that 4,853 new and resold houses and condominiums closed escrow in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That represented a decline of 38 percent from December and a 4 percent drop from January 2009.”

The Cupertino real estate market also faced a foreclosure problem in the early portion of 2010, according to a February 17, 2010 article in the Mercury News. The piece found that “After taking a break for the holidays, foreclosures spiked in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in January. Despite efforts by the federal government and lenders to help people stay in their homes, foreclosures rose 37 percent in Santa Clara County last month from December, and 71 percent in San Mateo County, according to a report Tuesday from ForeclosureRadar.” The article, written by Sue McAllister and Pete Carey, continued to say that “In another sign that housing woes are far from over, more homes are lingering in the foreclosure process…”