There are still a lot of bank-owned single-family homes  in Contra Costa County.  Today there are 14 bank owned properties for sale in Walnut Creek.  Concord has 91 bank owned homes for sale.  Pleasant Hill has 13 foreclosed homes for sale today.   There are 37 foreclosed homes for sale today in Martinez.  And Pittsburg currently has 263 bank owned homes for sale.

If you would like a list of these homes, please email or call Jill Cruey,

jill@crueyhomes.com

.  Be sure to specify the city that you are interested in.

The Contra Costa MLS shows a total of 219 single family homes pending today in Concord.

The chart here shows there are currently 361 single family homes for sale in Concord today.  That gives us roughly 2 months worth of inventory.

At the CAR expo in October 2008, 3 economists did a seminar on navigating today’s housing market. Jack Kyser is the Chief Economist on the staff of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC). One of his comments was “the media putting a negative spin on the numbers”. He said that he looks at the employment numbers as a strong indicator. Chris Cagen with First American Real Estate Solutions says that a strong indicator is inventory. John Karevoll, DataQuick Information Systems analyst says that we are experiencing a “normal balancing of the market”.

Yesterday’s big event for the California Association of Realtors (CAR) was held at the Lesher Civic Center in Walnut Creek.  Gov Hutchinson, Assistant General Counsel, Legal Department spoke about the new changes in the tax law relating to real estate.  One of the changes is in the capital gains tax law pertains to people who plan to sell their primary residence, claim the full home-sale exclusion to pay little or no capital-gains taxes — and then move to a second or thrid home they’ve owned for some time, convert it to a primary residence, sell it and once again pay little or no capital-gains tax.

Leslie Appleton-Young, the chief economist for the CAR, showed data and charts relating to the current economic real estate conditions in California. You view the data by clicking here. Contra Costa County’s Median Price of Existing Detached Homes was 701,298 in August 2008 and $ 883,445 in August of 2007 which is a decrease of 20.6%.

Here is one of Leslie’s chart for the 2009 California Housing Market Forecast.

To view all of the data and charts presented on the California and Contra Costa real estate, CLICK HERE.

The following chart shows the sold REO (real estate owned by banks) and short sale statistics for the month of September 2008 in the East Bay.

I have been keeping track of bank owned homes in Walnut Creek, Clayton, Concord, Pleasant Hill, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Martinez, Pittsburg, Bay Point, Brentwood and Antioch as they hit the MLS. My last post was on 8/6/08 and I reported 132 new listings for a one week period. Now for an 8 day period, there are 150 new listings with:

• 63 Bank owned properties in Antioch
• 7 Bank owned properties in Bay Point
• 16 Bank owned properties in Brentwood
• 13 Bank owned properties in Concord
• 2 Bank owned properties in Lafayette
• 6 Bank owned properties in Martinez
• 2 Bank owned properties in Orinda
• 39 Bank owned properties in Pittsburg
• 1 Bank owned property in Pleasant Hill
• 1 Bank owned property in Walnut Creek

If you would like to down-load the list of these Contra Costa REOs, click here.

There are 132 new bank owned properties in Contra Costa County listed on the MLS since 7/28/2008 in Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Martinez, Concord, Pittsburg, Bay Point, Lafayette, Orinda, Pacheco and Walnut Creek. Check out the new list.

• 53 REO homes in Antioch
• 6 REO homes in Bay Point
• 18 REO homes in Brentwood
• 15 REO homes in Concord
• 1 REO home in Lafayette
• 6 REO homes in Martinez
• 1 REO home in Oakley
• 1 REO home in Orinda
• 1 REO home in Pacheco
• 26 REO homes in Pittsburg
• 2 REO homes in Walnut Creek
• 2 REO homes in Pleasant Hill

June 2008 Bay Area Home Sale Activity reported in the San Francisco Chronicle show that sales are up in cities that have been hit hard by foreclosures. The chart below shows comparison of number of the sales to last years sales for the month of June and is reporting resale single family residences and condos as well as new homes. To view the complete chart with additional details click here.