Get a Graphical Picture of the Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has put together a great National interactive heat map that overlays the residential loan data of sub-prime mortgage holders. I am bringing this to the attention of our readers as I just witnessed a home in inner Berkeley that received 14 offers. I also just read a post on 3 Oceans Real Estate that concurred that homes on the peninsula are also receiving multiple offers and counter intuitive to what is going on Nationally, selling for over the asking price.

Since the beginning of the liquidity crisis I have been posting that many Bay Area cities were not experiencing as severe a decline as the national news media had indicated. I also stated that if we were to see a rise in interest rates coupled with a stagnation or rise in median home prices (instead of falling median home values as the media had speculated), then many home buyers would get caught waiting for the sky to fall. Having watched the Bay Area real estate markets closely over the past year I have begun to see interest rates rise due to the lack of liquidity in the banking industry. Yet, in many popular Bay Area markets the median home values have not fallen significantly as many have projected. Of course this is not true for all cities, zip codes and houses. Thus, getting the advice of a local competent real estate adviser is of the utmost importance when considering purchasing a home. Through transacting in this market I have seen for both my buyers and sellers that in volatile times there is great opportunity for both.

The interesting thing about these heat maps is that they show the strength of the Bay Area’s home owners to wait out a real estate storm. Thus, the most desirable Bay Area houses have been very resilient to the housing down turn, while in the less desirable areas I have seen sharper drops in values. In Berkeley we are seeing a lack of desirable housing inventory. This has meant the desirable housing stock is receiving lots of buyer activity and often receiving multiple offers. I believe that this is because as these heat maps illustrate the East Bay and Most of the Bay Area is not inundated by as many short sales and foreclosures as many other parts of the Nation. The maps also indicate that the East Bay has home owners who have steady jobs, strong FICO scores and lower loan to values then say California’s Central Valley.