Sales of single-family, re-sale homes dipped 2% in July with the expiration of the Federal tax credit. Year-over-year, home sales were off 17.4%. Year-to-date, home sales are down 9.2%.

Condo sales, on the other hand, were up 28.5% over last July. Year-to-date, condo sales are up 5.2%.

The high-end market has been helped by increasing access to jumbo and super-jumbo loans. Historically, and until July 2007, the spread or difference between conforming mortgage rates and jumbo rates moved within a narrow range of about 0.20%. At the trough of the market, the spread was 1.9%. Now, the spread is down to 0.5%, and the secondary market for jumbo loans is awakening.

The median price for homes was off 0.7% from June, and it was down 4.9% year-over-year. The average price was off 1.1% from June and down 0.3% compared to last July.

The sales price to list price ratio for homes rose 0.6 of a point to 98.1%.

The median and average prices for condos were down 24.5% and 5.5% respectively year-over-year.

Pending home sales were down from June, but were still higher than the year before. Pending home sales were up 16.2%, while pending condo sales rose 67.3%.

Inventory for homes was up 7.5% year-over-year. This is the second month in a row inventory has been higher than the year before.

Speaking of inventory, Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of REALTORS® (C.A.R.), said, at a recent Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS®  (SILVAR) meeting in Palo Alto last month, in five to ten years California will experience a housing shortage.

She said household growth for the state is expected to be 200,000 a year. The CBIA reports only 13,000 permits pulled in the first six months of the year.

Remember, the real estate market is a matter of neighborhoods and houses. No two are the same. For complete information on a particular neighborhood or property, call me.