Most real estate agents in the San Francisco Bay Area will concur that while we are not completely out of the woods, things seem to be improving in our local market. There may still be some pain coming down the pike, but this article from the Associated Press today offers some exciting news about how we compare to the rest of the nation as we climb our way out of this “Great Recession.” I quote:

Of all cities, San Francisco has shown the sharpest turnaround. After values plunged 46 percent to their low in March of last year, they have regained 21 percent, the best performance in the S&P/Case-Shiller report.

The San Francisco Chronicle also has an encouraging article in the Business section today referencing the same report.

Heady stuff if you ask me, and certainly what I am experiencing in my business. A couple that I am working with just saw a fixer-upper that they are considering, but the listing agent reports that he already has 3 offers on the table and plans to present them to the seller this evening.

Two of my listings went into contract over the past two weeks and another is looking like it may get an offer soon.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, when a property is priced well, buyers need to be prepared to move quickly. While we are certainly not in the dot-com boom days of multiple offers driving prices sky-high, we are in a situation where there are a lot of buyers waiting for the right opportunity, so as soon as a well-priced, attractive deal comes on the market, there is no time to “wait-and-see” if you truly want to buy it.

I have a feeling that in years to come, we will look back at this time period as a real buying opportunity. I anticipate that we will continue to see some ups and downs over the next year or two as the economy in general works through the various challenges we face as a nation, but in certain pockets in the market, things are heating up and this window may not last much longer, at least in the Bay Area.