There are two lessons here: First, read the whole article before dismissing it out of hand. Second, real estate now is, more than ever, hyper-local.
In my article yesterday about the San Francisco Chronicle’s Coverage of Bay Area real estate news, I implied I thought they were way off base. I stand by my assertion that the local markets I serve remain very strong, but as reader Siddharth pointed out in a comment:
Indeed, after taking a closer look at the article, the Chron’s coverage was better and more accurate than I gave it credit for. In spite of the dramatic headline and first paragraph, which implies doom and gloom across the entire Bay Area, author Carolyn Said does point out that there are “pockets of activity” where things are going strong.
The overall Palo Alto market, of course, remains one such strong pocket, with median prices pushing $2M…
but as the numbers from our friends at Altos Research show, that strength is not market-wide. Quartile 1 — the lowest quartile of prices — has seen prices dramatically retreat from their March 2007 high of $1.15M to a more sane level of $950K, perhaps a function of the sub-prime market fallout.
However, quartiles 2 and 3 — the second-lowest and second-highest, respectively — continue their upward march, with quartile 2 at around $1.65M and quartile 3 at just under $2.4M.
…while the highest quartile is dropping.
Wow! Look at those deals…those of you who had been shopping for a $4.25M home now only have to pay $3.5M!
The moral of the story? First, the Chron article is more balanced than I gave it coverage for, and secondly, not only is real estate local, local, local…but even within each geographic market, there are different sub-markets which behave seemingly independently.
Tags: Palo Alto, Real estate
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?RE: Any thoughts on the feds (in)activity this morning?? August 5 at 9:46 pm 
�Good news, your equity line and business line of credit rates remain the same as yesterday, as the Fed held short-term rates steady today. Why? Because despite unemployment concerns, the economy is doing fine (1.4% growth year to date-- thank you exports!), core inflation is under control at this point, gas prices have dropped over 6% recently and it's more prudent to maintain a steady helm when the economy appears relatively balanced. Eric T. Trailer, Principal
“It is a bifurcated market, with continued brisk sales of homes in desirable neighborhoods, especially in the $750,000-and-up range.”