In the Feb/March time frame I was seriously looking at houses. Every weekend I would go out and look at anywhere between 5 and 10 houses. I did that for a couple of months. Most if not all of those homes went pending in March/April. I've been checking to see what they closed at compared to what they were listed at. But they are just not showing up. Is anything over $400k closing these days? I want to say none of them closed but one or two have. The vast majority seem to be stuck in escrow hell. I wonder what the rate increases will do to all those pending sales.
It's certainly been an interesting and frustrating spring. I'm hoping summer will bring better pickings. So far the new listings are still picking up. This was another really good week in the tracts I watch. Quite a few new listings appeared. Several of them had prices that looked pretty good too. If I weren't taking off on a cruise on Sunday I might have gone and looked at a few of them.
My contacts in the biz still say the banks have boatloads of properties to unload and they still think they will release them soon. I've been hearing this for a couple of months now and I'm starting to think either my contacts are loopy or the banks are.
10 comments:
How do you find out how much they closed for? I usually look at sales on the Redfin maps, but there's got to be a better way.
Thanks
Check Zillow, they usually show what homes sold for.
We're seeing the same thing here in the Monterey area. Anything under $300k is "pending" - but we've only seen a couple things actually close. The past week alone we've had quite a few listings. My guess is late summer/fall of this year is when banks will start trying to move homes off of their balance sheets.
Have fun on the cruise. I envy you. My wife is 8 months pregnant - so we have to settle for a bed/breakfast in San Luis Obispo this weekend !!
we closed in eastvale in April when rates were still below 5%. got an fha loan at 3.5% down, plus we get $8k 1st time homebuyer credit. i think we're only in this house about $3,000 of our own money. not too bad. i think we'll be sitting pretty for quite a few years no matter what happens to the market. I'll be glad not to worry about losing our d/p money. it'll be a great rental property come 2025.
i wonder how many pendings will drop out because of the rate hikes. there's still a lot of pain that's coming to eastvale. i think there's a lot of frustration because since there is no penalty for submitting offers and backing out, people are just essentially playing with monopoly money. unfortunately, it takes the banks 3-4 weeks to go through every offer. our offer got accepted on Jan 2nd and closed in April. i can tell that the foreclosures on my street are getting the attention of foreign investors. america borrows money from foreign lands and gives them some american soil in return.
Kyle,
What was the total number of days for your home to close?
I did not know foreclosures took sooo long. I figured you could close within 2 months. Is that normal for foreclosures to take 3+ months to close?
first of all congratulations kyle. Secondly I was wondering about the foreign investors. How do you know they are foreign investors? I don't understand why someone would pay to come here and invest in a foreign real estate(When it is going down!). I just see a lot a headache in this process! just wondering.
i wonder how many pendings will drop out because of the rate hikes.
You folks are talking as though the rates are high. This isn't high. And $3K down... you "bought" a house. LOL You will be seriously underwater in a years time when rates are double-digit and prices plummet further.
Here is a piece of advice for all...
The single MOST IMPORTANT factor when purchasing a house is PRICE.
You might want to read this from the good doctor before taking the plunge...
Check: 1.6 Million Foreclosure Filings with 5 Months of Data. California Notice of Defaults and Foreclosures Skyrocketing.
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X. Since you are a man of exquisite taste, I, and I am sure, other of yuor readers are curios as to what "tracts" you follow. You are obviously going to buy in a good tract and for those of us that want to emulate you, we would love to get some ideas. Thanks
Tyrone,
I am right with you there on PRICE!!! I would rather buy when prices are low and interest rates are high. One is deductible and the other isn't and one you can later refinance and change and the other you can't (although the govt's working on that)!
Anyone buying now must think the price declines are near over! Not me! Los Angeles Case/Shiller year over year -22%. Thats not going to Zero tomorrow!
The only thing driving the buying right now is affordibility and payments. With prices still in the 300,000's, a .75% jump in a two day period could cause some shock to the system. Payments could go up by two hundred dollars some may not qualify anymore. I think this could further hurt highend housing!
5.5% is so 2003
I'm making a joke for the refinancers! Because they all have a 5 something loan already.
ojedalive,
our house was a short sale, not a foreclosure, i should've mentioned that. Short sales usually take quite long. The offer got accepted on January 2nd. It took 2 months for the paperwork to come through and start escrow. The banks are slow and understaffed right now that there's a lot of paperwork backed up. it was a really frustrating process, but we survived.
tyrone,
if i lose my tiny downpayment, so what, i planned on it, that's why we went FHA. I didn't buy to see where my house will be "in a years time". I'll still be in this house when the economy turns around, whenever that is. at least i have a place to live and an interest rate that will be the "lowest ever" for the next 30 years. i'm not planning on moving until my kids, whenever that happens, get through school. you're right, interest rates are still historically low, just not as low as they were 2 months ago. i think it's become a deterrent as they rise. so stop thinking in the short term and stop thinking that real estate is a good investment.
jesse,
to answer your investor question, a real estate agent in the eastvale area said that foreign investors have been canvasing the area. I can see on my street that the guy rolling up in a $160k AMG is not buying for himself in an $300k neighborhood. it just doesn't fit.
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