About Hayward's Downton Hayward

Hayward CA housing market: boom to bust. Over 60% of sales in 2011 were bank-owned.

Downtown Hayward CA offers its version of an urban experience to residents and guests who go to the ultra-modern City Hall, see movies at the new multi-screen movie theater, get a bite to eat at many restaurants that range from the ubiquitous taqueria to fine dining at Neumanali’s. Library. Hardware store. Grocery. Yup. All here. For added measure, BART is just around the corner from an enclave of newer townhouses and condos.

Today they had their weekly Farmer’s Market. And in summer, they have their outdoor concerts.

No wonder that at the peak of the market, many people were drawn to the new homes that were being built just around City Hall. They offered inexpensive housing, great financing, easy commute, and an semi-urbanite experience.

Then the dam burst. Like many cities, the Hayward housing market came crashing down. The following charts show the market trends for detache single family homes.

Median for Sale vs Median Sold

Looking at 2011 compared to 2010, the trend seems to be slowly on the upswing towards the end of the year.

Sold properties (and what percent were foreclosures?)

According to this chart, the number of bank owned properties sold (striped section of the chart) declined from 90 sales in December 2010 to 69 in December 2011. This could be encouraging, and may be interpreted that fewer properties are being foreclosed, too. Perhaps more short sales are being approved?

Months’ Inventory

This chart clearly illustrates low inventory of properties for sale, and the downward trend continues to a low of 1 month’s inventory as of end of December 2011. The blue line represents average days on market. This is somewhat erratic in 2011, and ended with 45-days on market at end of the year.

Unofficial Tour of Hayward

There are several landmarks --- click here for photos. Someone did a video tour of Hayward --- nice photos, but he narrated it tongue-in-cheek. If you’re easily offended, turn off the sound ;).

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Top 5 real estate stories in 2011 nationally and in Alameda CA

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The Century / Cinemark Theater opened on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and B Street in downtown Hayward.

I am going to have to take a photo expedition and document a building that is hopefully going to be changing the landscape of downtown Hayward.

It seems that downtown Hayward just cannot get a break. In the same week the grand new brand new theater opens up downtown that the announcement was made the MERVYN's would be going bankrupt and closing all of their stores. The corporate headquarters for the MERVYN's stores was located on Foothill Boulevard just over two blocks away from the new theater.

The MERVYN's corporate headquarters is (was) a huge piece of property in downtown. If anyone has any grand development plans that can use a large parcel of land, now would be a good time to speak up. I could always refer you to a great commercial agent specialist.

The old 1960s high-rise civic center sits empty across the street from the MERVYN's site.

That's progress