Wednesday, December 1, 2010

2011 California housing market forecast – what does it mean for the Silicon Valley?

The California Association of Realtors, in its “2011 California Housing Market Forecast” has projected a decline in California home sales for 2010, although home sales are expected to edge up slightly in 2011.

California home sales for 2010 are forecast to decline 10 percent from the 2009 sales figure of 546,500 homes sold. Sales in 2011 are projected to increase a lackluster 2 percent to 502,000 units compared with 492,000 units (projected) in 2010. After two consecutive years of record-setting price declines, the median home price in California will climb 11.5 percent in 2010 to $306,500 and increase another 2 percent in 2011 to $312,500, according to the forecast.

The real estate market has always been privileged in the Silicon Valley in comparison to the rest of the state. This tends to indicate a healthy market in the year to come in our area, and by our area I include Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto and Menlo Park, and of course the Cities nearby.

Almost no one expects prices to rise as they have been doing “pre-crisis”, but based on the hiring done by local companies like Google, Apple and Facebook, to name a few, I would not bet on prices going down next year. What do you think?
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