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We all tend to look for the bigger trends in real estate and typically succeed. However, the macro trends tend to fall flat when looking at a specific location. To hear the pundits (myself included) talk, California is an overpriced wasteland where properties are not moving and prices are too high.

But an interesting article in the Tribune out of St. Luis Obispo talks about some communities that are still very, very strong in sales and demand. So when you hear me pontificating about this trend or that trend, do not let it keep you from going out and doing your homework on your own local market. You may be surprised that you do not fit the national trends and may be pleasantly surprised.

Things have come full circle. Location counts again. That’s why the hot East Bay towns – along with a handful of other places around California, including neighborhoods in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Pasadena and Silicon Valley – is still reasonably hot. There are simply more people who want to live in these areas than there are available houses.

Not every East Bay house inspires a bidding war. Those that buyers collectively deem flawed or overpriced can sit for weeks. And the bidding never matches the truly wild excesses of 2004, when prices could shoot up 50 percent above asking.

But it’s still wild enough to first perplex and then disappoint many would-be buyers in these towns, which include middle-class El Cerrito, family-oriented Albany, woodsy Kensington, university-dominated Berkeley and a few neighborhoods in north Oakland.

Julianna and Penn Phillips, both architectural designers, want to stay in the Berkeley area but are seeking something bigger in a better neighborhood. ”We kept reading about how the real estate market is slowing down,” Julianna said. “Family members back in Pennsylvania were saying people couldn’t sell and were lowering their price.”

The Phillipses bid on two houses in the last six months. Both times, Julianna said, the process was the same: “You stretch your budget to a very uncomfortable place, and then someone comes in with a bid that sails way over your head.” via the Tribune

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