A collection of charts, updated monthly, with up-to-date information and predictions about the course of the California real estate market.

The month of December 2011 saw a rise in construction starts for both single-family residences (SFRs) and apartments and condos. However, only 21,420 SFR starts took place statewide in 2011, 6% below 2010. The overall trend for SFR construction remains flat, with little change from 2010 expected until 2015. 25,595 multi-family starts were initiated in [...]

Housing prices in November 2011 remained level or dropped by 1-2 index points in all three home-pricing tiers in California’s three largest cities, according to the Case-Shiller price indexes (shown below). Pricing for high-tier homes has remained mostly flat and weak throughout 2010 and 2011, after a brief “dead cat bounce” rise in mid-2009. Average [...]

As both jobs and home sales remained scarce, 34% of all California home resale activity in the fourth quarter of 2011 was attributed to real estate owned (REO) inventory — approximately the same as in the prior quarter and down from an even higher 38% one year earlier. [For current REO data and analysis, see [...]

This article presents information on buyer expectations and optimism, to be used as a tool for evaluating future sales volume in California real estate.

37,734 new and resale home transactions closed escrow in California during December 2011, up 4% from 36,215 transactions one year ago. December is the fifth consecutive month in which home sales volume surpassed corresponding months in 2010, which could indicate the beginning of a larger trend. Home sales volume was relatively flat from month to [...]

The last quarter of 2011 saw a slight rise in both stock pricing and the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Stock pricing fluctuated from quarter to quarter over the course of 2011, but ended with almost no overall gain or loss. Meanwhile, the P/E ratio has shown a declining trend since its peak in mid-2009. Chart last [...]

This market chart presents 2011′s successes in the world of real estate: the thirty brokers who employ the largest number of agents.

Past NODs indicate how many foreclosures are yet to come.

This article introduces the reader to the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and discusses the usefulness of this entity in years to come.