The Hillsborough real estate market, found in the midst of the larger San Francisco Bay Area housing market, saw an increase in median price along with a decline in the number of units sold. According to an October 21, 2010 report from the Contra Costa Times, “For the fourth-consecutive month, Bay Area home sales slowed in September at a time when super-low mortgage rates aren't turning many lookers into buyers. But while home sales were almost 20 percent lower from a year ago, the median price in the nine-county Bay Area was almost 10 percent higher in response to more sales of higher-end homes and fewer sales of foreclosed properties, said a report released Thursday by MDA DataQuick of San Diego…In the Bay Area, some 6,334 new and resale single-family houses and condominiums closed escrow last month, a drop of 5.4 percent from August, and a 19.6 percent fall from September 2009, said the report. Last month, the median sales price for a Bay Area home was $395,000, up 2.6 percent from August, and 8.2 percent higher from September 2009. The slowdown in sales comes at a time when interest rates are at historic lows, although on Thursday they edged up a tad to an average of 4.21 percent for a 30-year-fixed-rate mortgage. Last week, rates were 4.19 percent, the lowest since records were kept, going back to 1971.”

This positive news for Hillsborough homes for sale was echoed in an October 21, 2010 article in the Los Angeles Times. The report by Alejandro Lazo stated that “Bay Area home sales extended their slump for a fourth straight month in September and prices were mixed in the nine-county region. A total of 6,334 new and previously owned houses and condominiums were sold last month, a 5.4% drop from August and a 19.6% decline from September 2009, according to real estate research firm MDA DataQuick of San Diego. It was the slowest sales pace for any September since 2007. “The sidelines are getting awfully crowded in this housing game,” DataQuick president John Walsh said. “They’re lined with people who have the ability to buy now but are waiting for the right moment, and with people who have the means but lack job confidence.” The median home price for the region was $395,000, a 2.6% increase from $385,000 in August and up 8.2% from $365,000 in September 2009.”

The Burlingame real estate market, part of the larger Bay Area housing market, saw a decline in the number of units sold despite a fall in the number of foreclosures. According to an October 22, 2010 report from San Francisco Chronicle, “San Francisco Bay Area home sales fell in September to the month's lowest level in three years as high unemployment diminished buyer confidence. Sales in the nine-county region plunged 20 percent from a year earlier to 6,334 houses and condominiums, the smallest number for any September since 2007, data provider MDA DataQuick said Thursday. Transactions decreased 5.4 percent from August. Prices gained the most in Santa Clara County, where the median climbed 11 percent to $500,000. The only counties with price declines were Napa, where the median dropped 6.4 percent to $337,000, and San Francisco, where it fell 4.6 percent to $620,000, DataQuick said.”

Fewer Burlingame homes for sale were the product of foreclosure, according to an October 27, 2010 report also from the San Francisco Chronicle. The piece by Carolyn Said noted that “Fewer homes in California and the Bay Area were in the foreclosure pipeline in the third quarter compared with the same time last year, according to a real estate report released on Tuesday. "There is evidence there's less distress out there, but it's still at abnormally high levels," said Andrew LePage, an analyst with MDA DataQuick, the San Diego real estate information firm that published the report. In the third quarter, the nine-county Bay Area saw 12,690 default notices, which are sent after three months or more of missed payments. That was down 32.5 percent from a year ago, but up slightly from the second quarter. Over the past 15 years, the region's quarterly average for default notices was 6,231, so activity is still twice as high as normal. The results cover the three months that ended in September, so do not reflect fallout from the recent controversy over sloppy bank paperwork in foreclosures. Bank of America, for instance, temporarily halted foreclosures nationwide this month. Statewide, there were 83,261 default notices in the third quarter, down 25.5 percent from a year earlier, but up 18.9 percent from the second quarter. Trustee deeds, the final step of repossessing houses in foreclosure, stood at 6,757 for the Bay Area, down 9.4 percent compared with a year earlier and about the same as the prior quarter.”

The San Bruno real estate market has been reeling from the recent gas pipeline explosion that rocked the area less than a month ago. Many San Bruno homes for sale were destroyed, while the rippling effects of the blast continue to echo throughout the market. According to a September 30, 2010 report from the San Francisco Examiner, “The gas pipeline explosion that devastated a San Bruno neighborhood is likely to also deal a blow to home values in the area, though how big the drops will be and how long they will last is anybody’s guess, local real estate experts say. Since the Sept. 9 blast that killed eight people and destroyed 37 homes, there have been no home sales in the affected Crestmoor neighborhood, so it’s difficult to gauge the effect on the market, officials say. Still, two longtime Realtors predicted home prices in the immediate area will dip in the aftermath of the disaster. The market will probably recover over the long term as the area rebuilds, they said. “On that neighborhood, yes, it’s had a devastating effect on home values,” said Larry Franzella, a former mayor and partner at Prudential California Realty in San Bruno. “I think it’s probably temporary, and is temporary six months or two years? I can’t answer you.” The reasons for a decline are evident, he said — blackened trees, a gaping hole in the ground, empty lots.”

San Bruno homes for sale and the rest of the Bay Area got a small dose of good news when Bank of America temporarily stalled the sale of foreclosures earlier this month. An October 9, 2010 report from the San Francisco Chronicle stated that “Bank of America announced Friday it will suspend sales of foreclosed homes nationwide, dragging California into the latest chapter of the mortgage crisis and raising questions about whether the state's tenuous housing recovery would suffer a setback as a consequence. The move came one week after BofA and two other large banks said they were freezing foreclosure sales in 23 other states to investigate the sloppy preparation and review of documents, including paperwork that identifies the rightful property owner.”

Atherton, California, is an incorporated town in San Mateo County in the northern California region, that is home to a population of just under 10,000 people. Though the market for residential properties and real estate in Atherton was negatively affected by the recession in the U.S.  in recent years, in most recent months it has begun to show some signs that it is on the road to recovery.

In July, the most recent month for which statistics are available, according to statistics kept and compiled by the San Mateo County Association of Realtors, there were 23 new Atherton homes for sale listed on the market, up from 15 new listings in June. This figure was up substantially from a year ago, when there were just eight new listings in July. This year saw current inventory in the month at 62, down from a year ago, when it was 38. Despite a larger inventory, there were actually fewer sales this year. In July there were just four sales closed, versus 10 a year earlier.

The average number of days homes spent on the market before selling has returned to a relatively normal level. In July, homes spent an average of 48 days on the market before selling, down from 65 in June and down quite a bit from one year ago, when homes spent an average of 195 days on the market before selling, as the number of foreclosures in Atherton has leveled off.

The average sales price for a home in Atherton was $4.13 million, up from about $3 million the month prior and up from $3.2 million a year ago. The median price in July was $3.7 million, up from $2.5 million in June and from $2.7 million in July 2009.

The Palo Alto real estate market, found in the midst of the San Francisco Bay Area in Santa Clara County, has shown continued strength in the month of June. The median price of Palo Alto homes for sale has appreciated substantially year-over-year, and the number of distressed mortgages has declined. According to an August 5, 2010 article from the Milpitas Post, “The average home in Santa Clara County sold for 3.68 percent more in June than in May, and 12.51 percent more than June last year, according to MLSListings Inc. The June average sales price was $695,208 for single-family homes, townhouses and condos. "The strong demand we've seen since January continues to push recovery in our local market," said Karl Lee, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. "Santa Clara County has posted some of the best market numbers statewide and nationwide."Buyers and sellers closed sales on 1,431 homes in June, a 14.31 percent decrease from May and a 7.38 percent decrease from June last year…In another sign of a rebounding market, more homes are on the market. 6,455 homes were for sale in June, a 7.49 percent increase from May and a 15.60 percent increase from June last year. "We are finally seeing a healthier inventory level, particularly as more traditional, non-distress sellers work with knowledgeable Realtors to take advantage of this seller's market," Lee said.”

Mortgage defaults in Silicon Valley followed the suit of Palo Alto and Santa Clara County, according to an August 2, 2010 report from the Mercury News. The piece by Rose Meily noted that “California mortgage defaults hit a three-year low in the second quarter of this year, but foreclosures appeared to be on the rise statewide, according to a real estate information service. Santa Clara County didn't follow the statewide trend and, in fact, experienced the largest drop in mortgage defaults and foreclosures this period in the nine-county Bay Area…Santa Clara County and the Bay Area as a whole appear to have bucked the statewide trend this period. In the Bay Area, notices of default were down 38.8 percent. Santa Clara County had the largest drop in defaults, with 2,313 NODs filed in the second quarter, down 43.60 percent from the same period a year ago.”

The Millbrae real estate market, which is found in Santa Clara County in the Bay Area of the Golden State, is performing more impressively than other sections of the country. Housing defaults are decreasing and the median price for the region are higher than average. An August 8, 2010 report from the Mercury News stated that: “Santa Clara and San Mateo counties continued to run counter to a national trend of declining home values during the past quarter, according to a real estate report released today. Median values in the two counties showed encouraging gains, although a shadow is still cast over the region by a significant number of homes with negative equity, according to Zillow, a real estate information company. The median value of all homes in Santa Clara County was up 7.3 percent to $600,800 in the three months from April through June, according to Zillow. San Mateo County was up 2.5 percent to $655,800, after a flat first quarter of the year. The two counties "are markets that have definitely stabilized," said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. The encouraging performances came during a quarter when U.S. home values sagged 3.2 percent on an annual basis. But they were in line with median values in much of California, which showed signs of "a robust recovery" with a 3.5 percent gain over the year, Humphries said.”

Fewer Millbrae homes for sale were the product of foreclosures in the second quarter of 2010. According to a July 22, 2010 article from the San Francisco Chronicle, “The number of California homeowners headed toward foreclosure in the second quarter dropped to the lowest level in three years, as loan defaults in moderate-price areas continued to fall from the extremely high rates seen during the past two years, according to real estate data released Wednesday. While the number of default notices in the Bay Area did not fall as precipitously as in the state, it declined significantly from a year ago, according to numbers crunched by MDA DataQuick, a San Diego research firm. The findings correspond with efforts by the federal government and, increasingly, by mortgage lenders to work with distressed borrowers on loan modifications and short sales, the process by which banks allow homes to be sold for less than what is owed on the mortgage.”

The recovery of the Hillsborough real estate housing market, part of the larger Bay Area and San Francisco real estate markets, is beginning to falter despite suggestions that the region is at the forefront of a nationwide economic recovery. According to a July 15, 2010 report from the Los Angeles Times, “The Bay Area registered its third worst home sale performance for a June in 15 years last month, the latest evidence that the effects of government stimulus programs for buyers are beginning to fade. A total of 8,373 new and previously owned houses, town homes and condominiums sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month, according to the real estate research firm MDA DataQuick of San Diego. That was an increase of 1.3% from May, but a 3.1% decline from June 2009. The month-over-month increase was also more than half below the average historical increase registered between the months of May and June, DataQuick said. “The Bay Area market is getting a boost from super-low mortgage rates and a slightly friendlier lending environment for high-end borrowers,” DataQuick president John Walsh said. “But, barring new government stimulus, the housing market will be relying very heavily on improvements in the economy. A lot will depend on how many people find jobs, or stop worrying about losing the one they have.” A federal tax credit that offered up to $8,000 for certain buyers required home purchase contracts to be signed by April 30 and buyers to close their deals by Sept. 30. Economists expect the effects of that credit to wane in coming months. A separate state credit for first-time buyers and purchasers of new homes -- which allotted $100 million of taxpayer money for each category of buyer -- is also running out.”

However, a second expert from the Real Estate Examiner touted the strength of Hillsborough and other Bay Area homes for sale, claiming that the San Francisco Bay Area is spearheading the economic recovery of the entire Golden State. The July 20, 2010 report goes so far as to claim that the economic figures released by MDA DataQuick amount to a “boom time pace.”

The Burlingame real estate market, a part of the San Francisco Bay Area with a significant portion of coastline, showed an increase in the median sales price along with a decrease in foreclosures and a drop in sales. According to a July 15, 2010 report from ABC 7 News, “A record number of Americans could lose their homes this year to foreclosure. Data from RealtyTrac now projects 1 million foreclosures across the country this year. That number was closer to 100,000 per year before the housing market collapsed. However, the numbers are looking good in the Bay Area and the rest of California who is for once, doing better than the rest of the nation. Nonetheless, the foreclosure problem is not gone. Even though the numbers are looking good, looks can be deceiving. There are far fewer foreclosure signs in the Bay Area compared to last year at this time. Data at RealtyTrac.com says the number of foreclosures in the Bay Area is down 41 percent so far in 2010. Foreclosures are also down 51 percent in Alameda County and 44 percent in Contra Costa County.”

Fewer Burlingame homes for sale were actually purchased in the month of June, although those that were sold went for a higher median price. According to a July 15, 2010 report from the Contra Costa Times, “Bay Area home sales in June fell off slightly from a year ago with the expiration of federal home buying tax credits that had helped spur home buying activity. At the same time the prices rose in response to sales of fewer foreclosures and more high-end properties. In June, a total of 8,373 new and existing single-family homes and condominiums closed escrow, up 1.3 percent from May, but down 3.1 percent from June 2009, said a report released Thursday by MDA DataQuick. The Bay Area's median price was $410,000, unchanged from May, but 16.5 percent higher than a year ago. June was the ninth consecutive month that saw median prices rise on a year-to-year basis, but the median price was still 38.3 percent below the $665,000 peak in June and July 2007. In Alameda County, 1,664 homes changed hands in June, a 5.1 percent decline from a year ago, while the median price rose 19.4 percent to $400,0000. In Contra Costa County, 1,729 homes changed hands, a 4.8 percent decline from a year ago, while the median price rose 13.4 percent to $283,500.”