Hillsborough real estate

The Hillsborough real estate market, one of the upscale residential portions of the larger San Francisco and Bay Area housing markets, has been showing mixed signals in the first half of 2010. According to a May 26, 2010 article from the San Francisco Chronicle, “The San Francisco area had the strongest quarterly performance among metropolitan regions in a closely watched home price index released Tuesday, although other areas and national numbers showed some weakening.” The piece, written by Carolyn Said, went on to note that “The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed the San Francisco area –which it defines as the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Alameda and Contra Costa – up 16.2 percent in the first quarter, compared with the same quarter in 2009. Other California areas also showed recovery, with San Diego up 10.8 percent and Los Angeles up 6 percent.”

The number of Hillsborough homes for sale that were actually purchased hit a near-record low in the month of April, however. According to a May 20, 2010 blog from the Press-Democrat, “Bay Area home sales in April reached their second-lowest level in the past 15 years, according to a report released Thursday. Last month, 7,003 homes were sold in the Bay Area, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. That was down slightly from March and from April 2009, but nearly 25 percent lower than the historic average of 9,278 sales for April.” The post from Real Sonoma went on to say that “The Bay Area median price for both new and resold houses and condominiums was $370,000, compared to $380,000 in March and $304,000 in April 2009. The median price has risen for seven straight months on a year-over-year basis.”

These two contradictory signals for the Hillsborough real estate market were also reported by a May 20, 2010 article from the Contra Costa Times. This piece by Eve Mitchell went on to note that “Bay Area home sales in April were down slightly from a year ago while the median sales price rose sharply. The sales slowdown was tied to some buyers delaying escrow until May 1 to get a bigger home-buying tax break.”