On Tuesday, November 15th, 2011, The Embassy Suites in San Luis Obispo held its Annual Main Event to inform the public Real Estate Industry what to expect for the San Luis Housing Market in 2012. The main event included 3 speakers this year: the first and most popular being Leslie Appleton Young who is the Chief Economist for the California Association of Realtors. Leslie was extremely informative and factual. She began with percentages and statistics regarding the housing Market including other notable statistics like unemployment rate and Retail Sales. The middle of her presentation included the San Luis Housing Market numbers and she ended with a brief forecast for 2012.

Here are some highlights of her presentation:

• Unemployment Rate in San Luis Obispo County is: 8.6%
• Unemployment Rate in Santa Barbara County is: 9.3%
• Retail Sales were up 0.5% percent in the month of October, the growth is a result of the demand for iPhones…thank you Apple!
• From 2006 to 2008, the Housing Market dropped 44% in sales
• The market bottomed out in Fall of 2007 and plateaued in 2011.
• In California, 44% of the closings are either REO (bank owned sales) or Short Sales. It appears the number is coming down according to her report.

Here are some averages regarding Housing Inventory in California:

• There is an average of 2.6 months of REO Inventory
• There is an average of 5.9 months of Equity Sale Inventory
• There is an average of 7.9 months of Short Sale Inventory

Now for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties:

• 25% of closed sales are REO in SLO County and 16% are short sale. (We are in good shape compared to Solano County which has a percentage of closed sales coming in at 42% REO and 31% Short Sale.

In San Luis Obispo City, there are currently:

• 50 homes are in Pre Foreclosure meaning they have received a Notice of Default
• 34 homes are set for Auction meaning they have received a Notice of Trustee’s Sale
• 13 are Bank Owned, Real Estate Owned

Again, we would rather be in San Luis Obispo compared to Sacramento since Sacramento is experiencing 2667 hone in Pre Foreclosure, 1776 going to auction and 1281 are bank owned.

In October 2011, San Luis Obispo County closed 223 escrows and the median price was $364,540. Out of those 223, 24 were in San Luis Obispo City Proper with the median price being $506,500 also for the city of San Luis Obispo. San Luis Obispo City currently has 6.4 months of inventory.

Overall, the report card and forecast for the upcoming year is that the Housing Market will be relatively flat with activity increasing 1% and prices going up 1.7%.

If you are interested in more information regarding California Association of Realtors and other related topics, please visit www.car.org