Monterey, CA

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Three of my boys are home schooled and Monterey Bay had the Home School Day on Monday November 2. So we packed up four of the boys (the other is in Public School) and headed down Sunday afternoon for a fun night at the Hotel first.

Public School day is FREE which put this right in out price range. The kids loved it especially the sea otters. The big hype is on the Sea Horse exhibit which I felt was so so. There is a large tank with sharks, big tunas, barracudas and a number of other fish.

Most of the fish are salt water, but they did have some nice looking trout; wish I had my rod and a fry pan; but they probably would have tossed me out.

What I did not know is there is a huge underwater canyon that goes 2 miles down right off the Monterey coast. The average depth of the world's oceans is 2.5 miles so what they have is an area with multiple habitats they can study close by.

So I had to write a blog announcing Barry's seminar in my home town. We're sponsoring the event and we picked out the coolest spot, a hawaiian steakhouse restaurant!!

This seminar isn't about appeasing upset loan officers with rounded edged it'll be ok speech. This seminar will teach loan officers to actually know what they are doing, know what they are talking about, and better evaluate where they think the market it headed in a short term and long term way.

He'll also be touching on new regulations and changes in the mortgage industry, so many people have questions, and Barry will help shed some light!

Are you in California? This seminar is worth coming to, and it's almost full. On top of Barry's invaluable info, enjoy a Hawaiian afternoon getaway with Hawaiian food drinks and atmosphere!

Details:

Thursday Novembr 12 from 3-5pm at Kula Ranch Island Steak House in Marina, CA
This seminar includes a fabulous late lunch too. Come ready to take a lot of notes!

Register here and I'll see you there!

http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=192195

With the Holidays just behind us now, the numbers for Monterey, California are a bit on the sluggish side, which is to be expected. The number of sales in January reflects just how little was going on here in Monterey in the month of December. With jumbo loans still very difficult to get, and with the over abundance of lower priced investment opportunities in the surrounding areas, it is no surprise we only had 3 closed transactions for the month. But as you can see, there were only 5 sales last year in 2008 for the month of January. Historically the month of January is slow for Monterey and the rest of the Peninsula as tourism is slow, the weather is sometimes a challenge, and the locals are not making any significant moves over the holidays.

The real difference can be seen in the number of pending properties and in the average and median prices when compared year over year. January of 2008 saw 14 properties pending at the end of January while this year there are only 6! That represents a significant slowing in buyer activity. The average price is down 30% from a year ago to $455,000 and the median price fell 34% to $430,000.

Buyers are very particular right now and are looking for a deal. Foreclosures are starting to impact non distressed sales and buyers are becoming more bold with their offers and sellers are realizing they may not get a better offer than the first one. This can be seen in the sales price being 14% less than the asking price on average.

Sales in Monterey were rising steadily the second half of the year as many first time home buyers are taking advantage of the lower prices available to them and I would expect them to pick back up where they left off once winter ends.

Days of inventory hit a 2 year low in December. This was partially due to a strong month of sales and many sellers taking their homes off the market for the holidays.

Prices on the Monterey Peninsula rarely go down like they have in recent months! This is a great time to take advantage of the lower prices and the historically low interest rates to finally own a piece of Monterey real estate.

The real estate market is very hard to generalize. It is a market made up of many micro markets. For complete information on a particular neighborhood or property, call me or send me an email.

Monterey, CA Real Estate Statistics

Listings in Monterey, CA