San Diego - Home Prices rose the highest BUT where are all the foreclosures?

DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said the flood of foreclosures is being sopped up by investors and first-time buyers eager to take advantage of low prices.

LePage said that demand should lessen worries about the shadow inventory — homes that lenders have foreclosed on but have not yet been listed for sale. Some analysts have feared that banks would try to sell too many properties at once, depressing prices and leading to more foreclosures.

“My hunch is most foreclosures, if they’re priced right, go really fast,” LePage said. “We snapped up in California, on average, 17,000 to 18,000 foreclosure homes a month in 2009. It was an impressive clip, and that’s what kept the inventory of foreclosed homes from ballooning way out of control.”

In San Diego, he said 83.8 percent of foreclosures had been sold as of last fall and some that hadn’t changed hands are being rented.

Compared with a year ago, many doubts about the real estate market have dissipated, said Ross Starr, an economist at the University of California San Diego.
“A year ago, the world was falling apart,” Starr said. “We were hanging on for it to stop — and it stopped.”

Starr said the market is now in a “rocky period” of adjustment and it is unlikely prices will climb quickly.

So are we going to see a wave of foreclosures that everyone is talking about? Time will tell but .....

As for potential home buyers, UCSD’s Starr said now may be the time to strike, given historically low interest rates and reduced prices.
“For a well-financed buyer who stayed on the sidelines in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and who said prices were ridiculous, his foresight has been fulfilled and this is a great time,” Starr said.

San Diego home prices last month rose 15.8 percent from a year ago to a median $285,000, MDA DataQuick reported Tuesday, further evidence that the region’s real estate market is stabilizing and the HIGHEST rise of all Southern California's counties. We were the first to hit bottom, now the first to start rising, if only slowly and THAT'S NORMAL!

Sales were up for the 21st consecutive month, as transactions involving higher-priced, move-up homes kicked in to broaden the market beyond low-cost starter homes.


With sales rising, inventories lower, interest rates attractive and buyer interest growing, the latest report suggests that the market reached bottom last year and a recovery, if not under way, will come soon.

“Home values have stopped falling and there are signs that they’re edging up from the bottom,” said University of San Diego economist Alan Gin.


Jane LovedayWindermere Real Estate Agent619-519-1615 Cell http://janeloveday.com/http://www.facebook.com/realestatesandiego

A Crazy Day in the Life of this Realtor!

One house I visited recently had nothing, no cabinets, no bathtubs, no toilets, nothing! But some days are just golden, take my latest clients, we went out looking on their first day, they found a cute little house, backing up onto a park, in what seemed a quiet residential neighborhood. We submitted an offer which was accepted 3 days later and we then went and had our property inspection done. All seemed very good and right in the world. Until…

Right after the property inspection we were taking some measurements when we were visited by three very large members of the local Police Gang Control Unit, asking if they could enter the property to search for a weapon that had been used in a drive-by homicide the night before. It was a first for me, and definitely a first for my first-time homebuyers who were devastated to hear this news. The crime had taken place in the park behind and although no evidence of any weapon showed up, my buyers knew immediately they did not want to proceed with their purchase.

We are still looking, all is good now, but you just never know, we really do earn our money out there in this crazy world, our days are never, ever the same, we learn to expect the unexpected, to go with the flow, and to keep our thoughts and chins up.

Crazy is usual sometimes, as is frustrating, exciting, amazing, satisfying and much more! Our days are always an adventure, we have properties to preview, sellers to contact, buyers to organize, ads to place, appointments with sellers to make, schedules to arrange, and always, properties to navigate.

You can always keep up with me at http://www.facebook.com/realestatesandiego and http://www.twitter/com/sdrealestate


Jane Loveday
Windermere Real Estate Agent
619-519-1615 Cell
http://janeloveday.com

Foreclosure Bargains are Harder to Find!

Homebuyers hoping to snag a really good deal on a foreclosed home are finding it increasingly difficult because supply is shrinking. Foreclosures are now down over a year ago, There are mixed signals for 2010: It's unclear how much of the drop in mortgage defaults is due to shifting market conditions, and how much is the result of changing foreclosure policies among lenders and loan servicers.

"Clearly, many lenders and servicers have concluded that the traditional foreclosure process isn't necessarily the best way to process market distress, and that losses may be mitigated with so-called short sales or when loan terms are renegotiated with homeowners," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. (http://www.dqnews.com/Articles/2010/News/California/CA-Foreclosures/RRFor100127.aspx)

Not only have attractive homes in popular neighborhoods already been snapped up, but also government help for distressed buyers is delaying more foreclosures. See http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/refinance_eligibility.html


Demand is driving up prices. Investors say typical prices have climbed from 75 percent of appraised value to 85 percent or higher when there are bidding wars on foreclosures. While California ranks 3rd among the States with the highest rates of foreclosure, (Arizona and Nevada are 2nd and 1st respectively) the amount of foreclosed properties currently available has dropped significantly, with the majority newly listed are short sales.


Jane Loveday
Windermere Real Estate Agent
619-519-1615 Cell
http://www.janeloveday.com
http://www.twitter.com/sdrealestate
http://www.facebook.com/realestatesandiego