Saturday, December 13, 2008

What's is like on the streets?

It's been a few weeks since I went out looking. I was wondering from those that have been pounding the pavements, "what are you seeing?".

I can see from the listings on Redfin that homes in the areas I've been looking are sure as hell not moving. The upper end of the market seems to be dead. Some homes that I thought would sell quickly due to their low prices are still listed after weeks or even months in some cases.

15 comments:

Sara said...

I've noticed the same in Eastvale. I think there are less buyers. But I read somewhere that banks now are keeping their listings on the market until they actually close escrow.

Knife Catcher OC said...

Well, in talking to any agent it appears that there are 3 offers on every house!!! OMG!!! Better make a offer over the asking price!!!!! My parents are very well established and are easily one of the most qualified buyers looking right now. Without selling his current property, they can buy in cash. So house hunting they go (outskirts of riverside... large land type of property good for retirement) and it was amazing that every single property had over 3 offers! Of 10 houses they went to all 10 had multiple offers!!! Now did any of them sell? ZERO! Must have been really good offers. It took about 3 weeks until the selling agents called to say, “Better act now… all other offers fell through!” (4 of these calls only) My dad is a real (BLANK) to these agents and tells them to pound sand. Realtards ( a good name for a real estate agent these days) are trying to pump that market up. To them everything is worth more than selling price. All 10 are still for sale or sold back to the bank per foreclosure radar. (Like my realtard use of the “!!!” which you see in every listing today!!!!!!!) My personal opinion is that the real estate industry is killing any hopes of recovery. Price a house where it should be and maybe make a sale. With a family member who is now doing foreclosure/sale valuations, he is getting yelled at and insulted by many people when he gives his opinion of the correct price for the market. Sellers and Realtards say he is wrong almost every time. To them he is an idiot. What is sad is his track record is pretty good, not perfect, but pretty darn good. It just takes the sellers and realtards a few months to realize he is right when they get zero offers and the properties go back to the bank.

golfer_X said...

Sara

MLS rules don't allow them to keep a listing active when an offer has been accepted. Once a contract is signed it goes pending and usually vanishes from sites like Redfin. If it falls through they will change the listing back to active. This happens quite a lot. I see homes drop off and then show up again in few weeks.

There are options that allow you to see pendings but they don't usually show up on sites like Redfin when using the standard search.

Renee' said...

I have noticed this as well - but what I have also noticed too is that these gi-normus bigger homes are not selling. By the time you pay for the Mello-Rues, the HOA and the high cost of cooling, heating and use of water in these homes - you are looking at another $500 or more a month!
Pardee homes have seen this and are redesigning their homes that they are slated to build in Elsinore next year. The vacant pads they have standing now WERE to have 2300sq ft + homes built on them - now - they are looking to build homes 1100sq ft to about 1600sq ft....new homebuyers are learning from old homebuyers that bigger and better doesn't always mean finders keepers.

Sara said...

I see--that's good to know!

Anonymous said...

In terms of housing market? I'm tired of looking at the same damn 5 houses that have been for sale for the last 6 months. I'm ready for the new foreclosure wave or spring or whatever will bring some new stuff to the market.

As for other places? The hubby picked up Lego Batman and Star Wars for the oldest at Circuit City for $15 each (Wii games). SCORE! And I went to Toys R Us the other night and it was totally dead. Maybe 2 other people in there with me. The only place that I've seen busy lately is the Olive Garden across from Tyler Mall, but they had half the restaurant closed off, making the front of the place look full, so it was really a bit of an illusion. We went across the street to the Cheesecake Factory (didn't want to wait 30 minutes) and they were dead. We got right in no problem.

elprofe said...

I read your blog often but hardly post. It is a great blog.

I have been looking at housing in the IE for 2 yrs now looking to buy my (our, just in case my wife sees this) house. It has really been a roller coaster and I have learned a great deal from reading blogs. We started in Lake Elsinore, then shifted to Eastvale...considered many others...and now we are looking at Rancho Cucamonga, specifically in the Victoria Gardens area. What I have noticed is that hardly any homes are selling in the area. Most the sales are trustee sales. I keep seeing more and more foreclosures pop up. About the multiple offers that agents claim, well the other day we were really interested in a particular house and the agent tells me "I have too other offers and one is above what your asking price is" so I looked at her and said, "well great you dont need mine then if you have two, tell those two people that I wish them luck and I walked out". She followed me to the door like a used car salesman. It was pathetic. Most if not all of the multiple offers are for short sales and those are just strange. Some home owner calls a Realtor and says they want to sell their house, the Realtor says sure lets price it at $360 even though you owe $750. This number is just pulled out of thin air and it is nothing more than wishful thinking on both the Realtor and home owners part. I have a subscription to Realtytrac and I will say that some of the REO are fishy. One particular home located across the street from Victoria Gardens shows up as an REO that last sold for $800,000 in 2006 and has no recorded sale after the date (04/08) it became an REO. However when I check RedFin and Zillow it sold earlier this month for $423,000, a 47% drop. Which is why we are now considering this area since we would have never bought an $800K home but we can consider $400K homes. I checked the San Berdu assessors online data base using the parcel number and it shows that it was owned by Bank of New York (info matched the REO date from Realty Trac) but it also showed a sale of the property on the dates shown on Redfin and Zillow to another person. So someone is wrong and I am leaning towards Realty Trac. Other properties that show up as REO on both Redfin and RealtyTrac are taking from 4 - 9 months to get listed so there are going to be a crap load of homes next spring. On Redfin though it seems like most of them in the area I am looking at are short sales which we refuse to participate in. Our current lease is up next August so we have some time but I hope we can find something soon. My wife and I are just tired of moving and renting so I hope we can buy soon. I would love to get the input from other bloggers or you X. My wife and I are both teachers and although it seems like there will be cuts I dont think its likely we both loose our jobs. We are basing our budget on one income. We have saved one year of income and we could put 20% down but we will be using a 3% down payment loan from the state teacher retirement system. We have no kids. We are 27/26. We have zero debt besides student loans ($260 monthly combined). Fico 700+. I do think that homes will still go down a bit if we were to buy a good deal today but not nearly as much as if we would have bought in 2006. Again I would love feedback from anyone.

doghouse said...

My realtor has sold over 40 house this year, yes some of them were for closures,he's been selling for over 25yrs.
my point?
we looked for almost a year, yes prices fell, ALOT, its my experience that the good ones are selling, and the trash are still unsold,( not all but most) we bought because I feel the selection is best right now, the price was good, and the neighbor hood has one other house for sale.
I expect prices to drop more, but not much, mean time selection is deminishing, and its taking fast action and alot of homework, not to mention agressive pricing/bidding to get what you want.
you ever go xmas shopping on xmas eve?? not much selection huh?

golfer_X said...

I have the opposite problem Doghouse. There are too damn many homes to choose from. Sure some are better than others. But most of the areas I'm looking are newer homes. The difference between a good one an a bad one is a few thousand in landscaping and possibly some upgraded flooring in most cases. No doubt the pearls are selling faster, they usually do though.
I don't think a shortage to choose from will be an issue for quite some time. I don't think the selection will diminish any time soon. If anything it will increase over the next year or two. All you have to do is take a peak at the list of NODs on foreclosure radar to see what will be hitting the market in a few months as REOs.

Whether prices will continue down is anyones guess. In most areas the prices are still way out of whack with the long term trend. In other areas the prices are very close. The less desirable areas are there or close to it. Prices in MoVal are back to where they were in 1990. In fact if you factor in the interest rates you can buy cheaper today than you could in the late 80's in those areas. Now Corona, Riverside and anything west of the 15 still has a way to go to reach those levels.

Roberto Huntsinger said...

I placed a couple offers on some nice 2 bedroom condos that have been on the market for over 120 days in bad Fontana Randal and Citrus, The listings were for $80k and I offered $49k cash with a 20 day closing, niether bank countered even close. Oh well I will throw paper at them again next month, hey by then I will have had a chance to go take a look at them.

Take care!

Unknown said...

I would like to 2nd Knife Catcher OC's comment.

I've been looking at the bigger homes (3000sqf+) in South Corona and this is the latest bull that I had to put up with this weekend....

When a 4000+sqf listing had reduced from 730k to 550k. Listing also states that seller will pay closing and pay for landscape. Talked to my agent. My agent said he finally got a hold of the listing agent. So after the merry-go-around that all parties endured, my agent told me that price to do the deal is 600k and no freebies. Yet, I'm told that there are no serious offers in place.

I don't know about these agents but I thought prices are in the decline. Same house a few doors down sold in July for 552k. By the look of the record, this seller is trying to flip this house he bought in Aug for 505K off a trustee sale.

I guess the original 729k price tag was not working out too well in enticing potential suckers so he wanted to try 550k just for giggles...

But why settle for 550k? Why not list it for $1 and then tell the legit buyer that the price is really 1 million!!!

Is the real estate board for real when it comes keeping these realtard in check or are they just for giggles, too?

golfer_X said...

I think I saw that listing, or one just like it in the Retreat. It caught my eye because it looked like a flip to me too.

As much as I like that tract I just can't bring myself to make an offer in there. The taxes are way high and the HOA fees are insane. I know they just raised the HOA fees because there are so many not paying. It was either raise the fees or lose the guard. The remaining homeowners voted to raise the fees.

Renee' said...

I'm sooooooooo tired of hearing from the agents and now even the lenders that there are 10 offers on one home - blah, blah, blah. Half of it is crap and the other half is these banks waiting to see if there is anyone who will give them what they want - HoHoHo's. Two to three more months with these Alt A & ARM loans going into foreclosure - yep - theywon't be waiting around to get an offer - they will be taking what they can get.

Unknown said...

Hi, golfer_X,

The bull from my above comment IS about that listing you're thinking of...

As a legit buyer, I'm doing my thing to make sure I come to the table with everything the seller wants (20%, fast close, & all that good stuff).

I'm even willing to deal with the Mello Roos and HOA on top of that. It is a lot of money but I like the area and I will work very hard to afford it and pay for it.

But them seller agents are playing these little minds games... They are doing a very good job of turning legit buyers like me away. I guess legit buyer like you and I are a dime a dz and they feel they should not have problem selling these houses in the next few month or so....

I do suspect most of the time these seller agents are either fishing for suckers or fishing for a buyer without a buyer's agent so he or she can take commission on both ends.

I guess they figure why settle for 2.5% selling commission when you can do the same work and get 2.5% selling commission + 3% buying commission when the right buyer comes along.

golfer_X said...

Can you believe anyone would try a flip in The Retreat? What a moron! You should submit an $420k offer just to piss him off. Besides $420k is probably what they will be going for 6 months from now. Or you can use this logic. He paid $505k in a declining market. He set his own comp 6 months ago. Prices have been going down 3% per month according to DataQuick so starting at $505k in July that makes in $420 today! There are so many ways to mess with him. regardless even at $550k that's a tough sell since there is a REO on Sanctuary of similar size for $448k. The flip is on a nicer lot and the kitchen looks better but that's not worth $100k. Especially since you're going to get peppered with golf balls being on the right side of the 16th fairway.