According to a recent article in the San Jose Mercury news Santa Clara County is up 4% in home sales over the previous year 2010.
With prices falling, single-family home sales in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties turned in their best March performance in four years, real estate information service DataQuick reported Thursday.
"A lot of people are convinced the world's not going to end," said DataQuick's Andrew LePage. "And when you look at where interest rates are and prices are, it's hard to imagine affordability getting much better."
That logic, plus a baby on the way, has Chau Pham and Guadalupe Garcia in contract on their first home, a foreclosure in San Jose's Rose Garden district.
The couple, both attorneys in their mid-30s, liked the house so much they bid slightly over asking price, Pham said Thursday. "Like a lot of people, we were a little bit leery of the market and not sure if it had bottomed out or was on the way back up," he said. "You can talk to 10 different people and get 10 different opinions. But we're expecting our first child in August."
Still, the market is lagging behind historic averages. Santa Clara County sales are 20 percent below the average going back to 1988, DataQuick reported, while San Mateo County was 28 percent lower.
One factor may be the number of homeowners underwater on mortgages who are unable to sell and move up to more expensive homes, some real estate agents said.
"There just aren't enough regular sales, and the bank-owned properties are eking out little by little," said Rebecca Gallardo of Protello Group Realty in San Jose, who represented Pham and Garcia.
To read the full article visit the San Jose Mercury News website
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