It never hurts to review the past and assess the future, however, the turbulence of the current national and international economy present severe challenges to the task of predicting the future.
The attached two county reports (one for San Mateo County and one for Santa Clara County) provide considerable data from the multiple listing service with results from 2007 and compared to recent prior years. Each report summarizes data for the county as a whole as well as individually for each city/town jurisdiction in it. You can check out the results for your city and any others in the
The additional report is a forecast for real estate in 2008 prepared by Leslie Appleton-Young, the chief economist for the California Association of Realtors. She has been at the forecasting business for a long time but her projections for 2007 made at the end of 2006 weren’t great. for example, she forecast a slight decline in prices statewide but prices actually rose slightly. Appleton-Young forecast a 7% drop in unit sales for 2007 compared to 2008 but the actual drop was 23% (wow, and that is after another 23% drop from 2005 to 2006).
Here’s the bottom line: In 2007, prices generally rose cmpared to 2006 and unit sales declined. Much of the rest of the state, and, for that matter, many places in the U.S., saw declines in prices and in unit sales. But for now, the mid peninsula seems to be relatively stable.
Please see the reports for specific data and I’d love to hear what you think:
2007 Year in Review – San Mateo County Real Estate Sales Data by City
2007 Year in Review – Santa Clara County real Estate Sales Data by City
2008 California Real Estate Forecase – California Association of Realtors
