The Santa Cruz real estate market, along with the rest of the Silicon Valley, continues to face a number of challenges and hopeful indicators during the first half of 2010. Commercial real estate is very close to rock bottom, while housing affordability is mixed and home sales are starting to rise. According to a May 10, 2010 article in the Mercury News, “Pending home sales were up again in March, pointing to an upswing in home sales for the spring home-buying season, according to the National Association of Realtors. The Pending Home Sales Index is a forward-looking indicator of the housing sector based on pending sales of existing homes.” The piece, composed by Rose Meily, went on to say that “Contracts signed in March rose 3.5 percent to 102.9 from 97.7 in February, and is 21.1 percent above March 2009 when it was 85; this follows an 8.3 percent increase in February.”

Although it may not directly affect Santa Cruz homes for sale, the commercial real estate market in the region is in serious distress. According to a May 3, 2010 article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, “The county’s once hot commercial real estate market has cooled considerably, with nearly a million square feet of office space empty at the start of the year and asking rates dropping compared to a year ago. The market hasn’t hit the 1 million mark since 2004, according to Cassidy Turley BT Commercial, which reviews the data for Santa Cruz County quarterly.” The piece, written by Jondi Gumz, continued to say that “Industrial vacancies rose to 7.3 percent from 3.3 percent in the same time frame, with the asking rate dropping 11 percent to 85 cents per square foot triple net…In the city of Santa Cruz, office vacancies edged up from 14.7 percent to 15.2 percent. Asking rates were $1.88 per square foot, off by just 4 cents.”

The affordability of Santa Cruz real estate is mixed, according to a May 13, 2010 article in the San Jose Business Journal. This piece found that “An index of the affordability of homes for first-time buyers rose between the last three months of 2009 and the first three months of 2010. But it was down from last year’s first quarter.”

Real estate experts are worried that the Indiana real estate market may be a ways away due to slow real estate activity, despite low mortgage rates and the federal tax credit incentives. Although previous months have posted improvements, real estate experts don’t expect the improvements to continue and believe that winter home sales will stall. Indianapolis is ranked as one of the worst faring cities in the nation in terms of real estate activity. Realtors can only hope that the coming months will bring only small declines if improvements cannot be made.

According to the Indy Star, November has posted promising signs of an improving real estate market in Indiana. However, real estate experts don’t believe the recent success is enough to prevent the expected halt in the Indiana real estate market during the winter months despite the incentives offered to prospective homebuyers through low interest rates and the federal first-time homebuyer tax credit. The Indiana Association of Realtors posted that in the month of November, just over 5,000 homes were sold in Indiana, a 36.5 percent increase from November of 2008. The increase in sales in Indianapolis was 27.79 percent between November of 2008 and November of 2009, ranking the city as the seventh-worst improvement among large U.S. cities. Real estate experts have also noted that there are people interested in buying, but the strict lending standards enforced by local banks has made it extremely hard for prospective buyers to obtain loans. Job security and high unemployment rates have also played major roles in slowing the Indiana real estate market. Although the real estate market is expected to worsen over the next few months, real estate experts have noted that the declines in sales and median prices may be small due to signs that the Indiana real estate market has bottomed out.

The Indianapolis Business Journal has also reported on some of the real estate successes seen in 2009, offering hope that recovery may be near. Some of the top stories include recent growth and an increase in real estate activity around the Indianapolis International Airport, support for restoration of historic buildings in downtown Indianapolis, and the success of some local businesses. The industrial real estate in Indianapolis was also reported to be quite successful, preserving a stable vacancy rate and only slight decline in rent rates, despite the struggles in most other parts of the economy. Although there have been many promising stories suggesting real estate improvements, real estate experts have also noted that another wave of foreclosures is expected to hit the local real estate market in early 2010.

Like many cities in the Sunshine State, Tampa has been hit hard by the recession in the United States as the Tampa real estate market has fallen, with home values plunging and foreclosures skyrocketing. The market may have been overheated before, spurred on by speculation, which has contributed to its fall in prices.

However, all is not bleak. The market for real estate in Tampa seems to be on the rebound as of late. According to the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, there were 1,131 homes sold in October, up from just 876 the year before, many likely spurred on by the government stimulus-rebate program for home buyers. Condo sales volume was up too, as were villa and townhome sales.

However, prices are still lagging on homes for sale in Tampa. The average sales price of a residential home sold in October was $170,932, down from $205,410 in 2008. Condo prices were down by around $34,000, townhomes were down by around $36,000 and villas were down by $38,000 — great news for buyers but not so good for sellers.

And the St. Petersburg Times reported that sales in the Tampa area in November were up by more than 50% in the month of November, as compared with the previous year’s figures. Mortgage default rates were still high, with October giving the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area a 15% 90-day-plus delinquency rate, the highest of 2009, and a 9% foreclosure rate — also the highest of the year. As these homes are returned to the banks, the inventory available will continue to build up.