2010 California Housing Market Outlook & the East Bay Market

According to the California Association of Realtors, the market is on the mend. However, the healing process is expected to slow and lengthy. There hasn’t been a “magic bullet” from the government stimulus incentives.

Home prices have stabilized or improved throughout California. Home prices bottomed out in 2009, with sizeable gains in 2010. Alameda County saw year to year (August 2010 over August 2009) median price gains of 15.1% for existing detached homes. Contra Costa experienced a year to year gain of 6.8%. The market bottomed in 2007 and since then, California has recovered at a faster rate than the National Market and has performed at or above the long term averages. Bay Area Notices of Default decreased by 38.8% in 2010.