An incorporated community in the San Francisco Bay area of San Mateo County, Hillsborough, California, is one of the most wealthy communities in America. It is a small community, with just over 10,000 residents, and consists entirely of large homes: A city ordinance requires all home lots be at least half an acre with 2,500-square-feet homes. There are no condos or apartments in the Hillsborough real estate community.

Over the past year, the Hillsborough community has seen its real estate absorption rate fall significantly. It started off the year at 7.7%, peaked in February at 12.8%, and by the end of 2009 had stabilized at 3% over the last three months. Real estate absorption rates reflect a market’s ability to absorb new homes for sale on the market; a lower rate suggest a decline in inventory.

In February of this year, there were 82 Hillsborough homes for sale on the market, a slight increase of 1.2% from both January and from February of the last year. There were 14 Hillsborough homes sold in February, a positive sign, as that constitutes a 40% increase over the prior month and a more than 55% increase from one year ago in sales volume. Sellers are receiving slightly less than their asking prices now, however, as the sales-to-listing price ratio in February was 94.7%, down less than 1% from both the prior month and last year.

Prices of Hillsborough homes for sale also show continually encouraging upward-leaning trends. In February, the median price of a listed home was $2.59 million, an increase of 8.1% from January’s prices and bettering February 2009’s price by 8.3%. For homes sold, the median price was $1.94 million, down more than 27% from January but up by more than 39% from one year ago. The median price per square foot of homes sold was $639, up 1.4% from January and up 7.4% from a year earlier.

The market for real estate in the inland area of Indian Wells, California, is typical of the larger U.S. housing market. Though prices have fallen steeply from their peaks around 2006 and 2007, the market seems to be slowly stabilizing and was helped last year by the government’s stimulus program offering up to $8,000 in tax credits to qualified home buyers. The Indian Wells real estate market saw increasing signs for optimism in 2009, and unlike most California markets, it has even seen a recent rise in prices.

In February 2010, the Indian Wells market saw 19 homes sell, according to DQ News. The homes sold during the month had a median price of $525,000, a staggering 54.4% increase from the median price of homes sold back in February of 2009, which saw a median price of just $340,000.

According to the Desert Real Estate report, which has a slightly smaller scope of what it defines as Indian Wells, February saw the community with a median price of $730,000 for single-family homes, an increase of 139% from a year ago and up more than 11% from January prices. The average price for Indian Wells homes for sale came to $818,818, a slight dip of 9.3% from February of 2009 and a fall of 18% from January’s figure. The report said there were 11 homes sold in Indiana Wells in February, up more than 266% from last year’s sales figure but down 15% from higher sales activity in January.
Likewise, the Indian Wells condo market saw increases in prices as well. There were five condos sold during the month of February for a median price of $425,000. That figure was up 21.4% from a year earlier and up 19% from January figures. The average price for condos sold was $433,000, up 24.9 on a yearly basis and 22.7% on a monthly basis. The volume figure of five condos sold accounted for a 66.7% rise in activity from February of 2009 and a 25%
increase from the month prior.

Widely known across the nation as being the county that is home to some of the country’s priciest real estate, Orange County has earned a name for itself for its lifestyle of luxury. The OC community Seal Beach is no exception, as it was named the top community in Orange County in 2008. But this community has suffered in recent years from a drop in home values and a rise in foreclosures. The community’s real estate trends show that the town is still struggling to fight its way out of a dampened real estate market.

The Seal Beach real estate market in February saw troubling signs, as both sales activity and home prices fell compared with a year earlier. According to the Orange County Register, in February, there were six homes sold in Seal Beach, a decline of one-third from one year prior. In addition, the median price of these six homes sold in Seal Beach was $617,500, enough for a decline of nearly 15% from prices in February 2009.

Looking back at data from a three-week period ending Jan. 14, we can see a more steady view of Seal Beach homes for sale. During that period, there were 10 homes sold in the community, which maintained the same level of a year earlier. Likewise, the median price for home sold during the December-January period was $787,500, a slight 1% increase from a year earlier. But as we can see from these statistics, that median price has fallen quite a bit just from January to February. Perhaps there was simply a large supply of lower-priced Seal Beach homes sold, or perhaps it is a more disturbing trend showing that the market still has room to fall more.

As of March 1, also according to the Orange County Register, a full one-quarter of Seal Beach homes on the market had seen a cut in price. These homes were seeing an average cut of 10% from the original price, working out to a decrease in asking price of more than $50,000.

Cave Creek is a relatively small suburban community found in Maricopa County within the greater metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona. Cave Creek real estate has declined in value over the past three years, a grim indication of the economy’s serious situation. According to a February 12, 2010 article in KGUN 9 News, “A reminder about how bad the economy is arrives in the mail soon and it has to do with how much your property is worth in Maricopa County. Most homeowners around Phoenix will see a third straight annual drop in home values.” The article, also released by the Associated Press, noted that “The Maricopa County Assessor’s Office said residential property values fell an average of 15.2 percent in 2009. Some cities are doing better than others with home values in Tempe declining 13.4 percent in 2009, while Tolleson witnessed a 27.3 percent drop in home values.”

An analysis conducted by Arizona State University suggests that Cave Creek homes for sale and other properties are heavily influenced by the rate of foreclosures. According to a February 12, 2010 piece in the Arizona Republic, “Foreclosures remained a dominant force in the Phoenix area’s housing market in January, as foreclosures and resales of foreclosure homes accounted for two-thirds of existing-home transactions during the month.” On the bright side, the article continued to say that “the free fall of housing values from the boom years seems to be over, with the median sales price in January at $136,500, up $500 from January 2009.”

A February 24, 2010 article in the Arizona Republic had some mixed news for metropolitan Phoenix and Cave Creek homes for sale, finding that “The federal tax credit for homebuyers boosted new-home sales in metro Phoenix last year. But the expiration of the credit looms, and a new-home sales and building have slowed again. The piece, composed by Catherine Reagor, continued to say that “Home building also slowed in January. There were 678 permits issued last month, compared with 799 in December. But building is up significantly from a year ago, when only 301 new-home permits were issued.”

Thousands of people move to Hawaii each year from the U.S. mainland, Asia, South Pacific, and abroad. Because of the state’s rather isolated location, the only way to move goods is via air or sea transportation. Therefore, it is next to impossible to move entirely by oneself and necessary to hire a moving company or relocation specialist to aid in moving furniture, boxes, and other essential items to people’s new homes and new lives in Hawaii. Most companies based in Hawaii offer domestic, international, inter-island, and local services. On the other hand, most companies based on the U.S. mainland offer only services to Hawaii from points on the contiguous 48 states. Relocating to Hawaii

Aloha International Moving Services does residential as well as industrial relocation and has been doing so for several years. The accredited mover has several warehouses in Hawaii in order to accommodate the times of its customers. While Aloha International Moving Services is a traditional relocation company that will pack-up belongings, transport them to Hawaii, and unpack them, one of the new ways of moving is the use of pods. Pods, short for Portable on demand Storage, has revolutionized moving and storage by letting customers back their containers at their leisure and having them picked up when filled.