The Rich Get Richer in Real Estate

We've had a few weeks to digest the news that there's a better than 50/50 chance of home prices falling in the next year, and today's news from the Wall Street Journal only piles on more of the same: housing inventories are rising pretty sharply in some markets.

Although the closest the WSJ gets to the Bay Area is Los Angeles -- which saw an 88% surge in inventory compared to a year ago -- a little digging around reveals that upscale sellers in the Bay Area are also facing big inventory spikes. By "upscale," we mean "houses costing $1.5 million or more." There are 80% more on the market in Alameda County compared to this time last year, 74 % more in Santa Clara County, 30% more in San Mateo County and 24% more in Santa Clara County. The sole exception? San Francisco. However, in some of those locales (like Alameda county), the total number of homes sold and sales volume (i.e. how much money everything went for) rose. So there appears to be some demand for these houses.

SFist admits that the idea of a healthy multimillion-dollar home market is somewhat dizzying, especially when the number of not-so-multimillion-dollar houses being sold in the Bay Area slid for the 9th month in a row last December and the number of homeowners being served default notices rose.

If would-be real estate flippers feel like rubbing a little more salt in their wounds , they can hit Zillow.com, which will track, in gory detail, how home values have slid in your area for the last few months. Still, if you want to get dirt on how much your neighbor paid for his house, it's a fun site. SFist is curious to see if it'll affect the way people craft their real estate bids from here on out.

Flickr photo of house in Rockridge by idontlikewords.

SFist Lisa, contributing