It's Official: If you've been waiting for the bottom...you missed it!

The numbers have been looking up for about the last 60-90 days: inventory is dropping off, sales volume is up and the closings are up.

Industry Barometer Shows Gains in Home Prices for Second Straight Month

Prices of single-family residential homes rose for the second consecutive month in June, Standard & Poor’s reported Tuesday. Quarter-over-quarter gains were also evident during the second quarter of the year, for the first time since 2006.

Yes the new lending guidelines are a hassle, no there's no 100% no doc loans but, the huge sucking sound that was our equity disappearing alongside 200+ banks and lending institutions, has eased.

The opportunity is there but you can't win if you don't enter the race.

market conditions, real estate, short sale, REO, cash flow, houses

Awesome Auction Opportunities!

I am not usually a big fan of auctions but, I understand the rationale. Advertise like crazy, create excitement and then sell everything while the frenzy has people thinking competitively vs intelligently.

I am normally the one doing the foot work. I am there to hold the house open for the week prior and answering all the same questions over and over and over as throngs of people parade through.

This time I was not holding the homes open, this time a friend's client called because he wanted to go.

I've been to a ton of auctions; IRS, RTC, DEA. They all have their quirks and quirky people that attend.

There were probably 2000+ people at this auction in Dallas. Just like the typical auction, the vast majority of people came with pennies in their pocket hoping for a steal on that perfect home. Then there were the serious investors, the ones that had seen 10+ properties and had maximum bids determined on all of them. Thirdly, there were the folks that had one specific property in mind and if they could buy it at a deal, they were ready. And finally, there were the lookie-loos, they were just wondering what all the fuss was about.

There were some deals that went a little high for me but there were plenty that went well below. My favorite home was one beautiful house by Preston Center that was worth $600-$650K that went for $250K! WOW!

I should have brought more money!

Coulda Woulda Shoulda! Now I'm sounding like my clients :-)

PS If you want info on future auctions just shoot me an email - 'cause I'll be there!

Mixed Emotions

TEXAS BORROWERS RECEIVE RESTITUTION


DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – As part of the largest predatory-lending lawsuit in history, Countrywide will use $8.4 billion to modify mortgage terms for 400,000 borrowers in Texas and ten other states who received unaffordable loans from the lender.

The settlement has reserved $7.5 million for Texas to distribute restitution payments worth $2,300 to help borrowers who already lost their homes or are near foreclosure — 120 days or more delinquent on payments.

About 3,260 Texans are eligible for restitution, according to a spokesman with the Texas Attorney General's office.

Under the settlement, borrowers could get the $2,300 payment if their first loan payment was due between Jan. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2007, and they made six or fewer payments before losing their home.

For borrowers who can't afford to refinance their mortgage and have to leave their home through a foreclosure sale, the settlement provides relocation assistance of $2,000 per borrower.


My first impression is that we are a bunch of big irresponsible babies. We can't drive with coffee in our laps. We can't take responsibility for our MEGA consumption and ruin of the earth. Now we also can't be expected to actually read what we're signing. Who are these people that bought houses that they could only afford for 6 months?

I honestly don't know the extent of this lawsuit. I haven't read what the complaint was. I haven't done any research. All I know is that a few people that overextended without considering the consequences have now made getting a loan so hard that it's considered a heroic event!

I'm blaming it on all the Jocks in high school. The ones that would do anything to bed a cheerleader :-)

Landlord Scams

Just met another prospective tenant that has to move because her landlord is being foreclosed on. She just moved in, gave a hefty deposit and now has to move.

It seems there are a lot of desperate people out there! I wrote about the scams on Craigslist where people posed as property owners and rented out homes that were in default. These "posers" took people's money and disappeared.

I don't know what to do to stop this theft. All I know how to do is to warn you of it's occurence.

If you need help checking on a property - and whether it's in default or researching who the owner is - just shoot me an email.

I am here to help.

R

Have Campbell Home Prices Hit Bottom?

Time to Get In The Game?

Over the weekend someone asked me if we've hit bottom - and I paused.

The challenge of playing the real estate market, like the stock market, is that it's only after the price goes back up that we can look back and ogle at "the bottom". My listings are getting more activity, there's less negativity in the market, financing is becoming available [more difficult than before but possible], we're happy to have gas under $4 [isn't that crazy!] It "feels" like we've already hit bottom and are coming out of it. I have a couple statistical reasons for you to ponder;

1) Sales per month have more than quadrupled. The number of sales per day dwindled to 338 completed sales in January contrasted with 1184 for the month as of 8/22.

California Realtors report homes selling more quickly - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):
In Santa Clara County the median price was $706,500, compared to the year-ago period's $852,500. Sales were up 2.8 percent in the year-to-year period.

2) OFHEO numbers show the national decline to be slowing with the San Jose Metro declining 8.33% since the second quarter of last year.

RATE OF HOUSE PRICE DECLINES SLOWS IN
SECOND QUARTER
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. home prices fell in the second quarter of 2008
according to OFHEO’s seasonally-adjusted purchase-only house price index.
The index, which is based on data from home sales, was 1.4 percent lower on
a seasonally-adjusted basis in the second quarter than in the first quarter.
This decline was less steep than the 1.7 percent decline in the prior quarter.
Over the past year, prices fell 4.8 percent between the second quarter of 2007
and the second quarter of 2008.

For my last bit of non-empirical evidence; my investors are buying! When an investor can buy San Jose real estate with 25% down and break even, they come out in hordes! And they are! We've gotten some great bank owned property, foreclosure inquiries are on the rise and we've been out bid on a couple properties as other investors are beating us to the punch.

There's only one way to make money in real estate. You gotta get in the game!