Crabtree report: Housing market weakens slightly
By THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN
The median sale price for existing single-family homes in the Bakersfield area was $130,000 in January, down 3.7 percent from December but up 2.4 percent year-over-year.
That's according to the Preliminary Crabtree Report, a monthly gauge of the local housing market prepared by Gary Crabtree of Affiliated Appraisers.
Softening demand has weakened the market, with unsold inventory up 13.7 percent from December to January, the report said.
Total supply was flat for the month with 1,582 active listings and pending contingent offers.
Contingent offers are purchase offers that await approval by a bank in a short sale.
A short sale is an agreement between a lender and a seller to put a home on the market for less than the outstanding balance of the mortgage.
"The short sale listings and sales continue to plague the market with a disproportionate portion of listings versus sales," Crabtree wrote. "As an example, in the last 12 months, the market averaged 1,064 short sale listings per month, yet only averaged 130 closures."
In other words, only one in eight short sale listings actually close.
As they have for several years running, lender-owned properties accounted for an alarming number of sales transactions in the Bakersfield area last month amid a deluge of foreclosures.
There were 421 foreclosures in January, up from 400 in December but below 588 a year ago.
The number of short sales in the area continued its agonizingly slow decline, accounting for 31.8 percent of total sales in January, down from 35.2 percent in December and 49.5 percent in January 2011.
Overall closed sales dropped 11.4 percent to 483 from December to January. Pending sales -- a measure of future demand -- dropped a whopping 56.8 percent to 150 in a month.
Most CommentedMost Popular
Measure G is not, technically, a ban on medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives in unincorporated Kern County. Practically, it comes very close to being one.
Q: Why are "motorized scooters" (two-wheeled, no seat) allowed on the streets? To my knowledge, they are not licensed, tagged, insured. They have NO lights, horns or other safety items.
The Kern County Republican Central Committee is set to decide Monday whether to revoke the charter of a local black Republicans group for endorsing a Democrat for elected office.
Many of the United Farm Workers of America's leaders and foot soldiers remain with the organization decades after its founding 50 years ago, but some have transitioned to other positions in business, government and advocacy.
A Bakersfield mother of two who took up competitive cycling nine months ago after an injury ended her marathoning career died Sunday while competing in a bicycle race outside Yosemite National Park.
A prostitution sting netted 15 arrests Wednesday. Three female Bakersfield Police officers and one female investigator for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) pretended to be prostitutes at a motel located near three ABC licensed establishments, according to an ABC news release.
A Bakersfield police officer shot and killed a man who was armed with a gun in a northwest Bakersfield apartment Monday morning.
Two sisters were arrested on suspicion of breaking into a business with five children in tow Saturday night.