I'm glad I waited.....Woodcrest/Mockingbird Canyon

I've been looking at homes in the Woodcrest/Mockingbird Canyon area of Riverside. It's close to where the wife works and would cut a few miles off my commute too. I've been looking at the large horse properties with lots of 1 acre and larger. I looked in this area in 2003/4 and these homes were selling in the high $400s back then. Now of course they are closer to a million than they are to the 400s. Lately though cracks have been showing and the builders are sitting on homes, some of them over 6 months old. Naturally the prices are starting to creep down. There are also a few REOs showing up. Let's take a look at a few.

17892 GLEN HOLLOW WAY is the model I really like. If these were under $500k I would be very tempted to buy one. The home is a 4 bed/4 bath 3385 sq/ft single story with a 3 or 4 car garage. It has a cool courtyard in the center of the home. These sell new from the builder for $850k+. This particular home was purchased 9/05 for $773k. Other than pouring a little concrete and planting a palm tree in the yard I don't see that much done. Our intrepid homeowner thinks his palm tree is worth $327k! His asking price is $1,099,00.

What's his competition?



Well the builder has a larger model for sale for $749K at 17601 Deer Ct, Riverside 92504, this 5 bed/4 bath and is 3701 sq ft. Very similar layout just bigger. This is 32% less than home #1 and it's bigger


17622 LAUREL GROVE RD is another 3701 sq/ft model, this one is a REO and is listed for $714k undercutting the builder by $35k. This is 35% less than home #1 and it's bigger. This one was on the market for nearly a year at $899k before the bank took it back

Nice pic!

If these are too spendy or maybe a bit bigger than you need we have another REO at 17008 BIRCH HILL RD, this home is only a 3 bed/4bath and is 2966 sq/ft. the bank is trying to unload this one for $574k. This is 48% less than home #1 although slightly smaller.
On a side note 17916 CANYONWOOD DR is the same model as this one and they are asking $999,999. Gotta be a WTF are they thinking candidate!

Homeowner #1 would seem to be in bad shape but he only paid $773k (unless he Helod'c the hell out of the place). If we take a number between the bigger house at $714 and the smaller house at $574 that makes his place worth about $650 (since nothing is selling it's hard to say). So he is still looking at a loss of $120k plus fees ($39k). If you factor in holding costs of 3k/mo ($72K and that's generous) plus 2 years propery tax ($20K) he is looking at a total loss of $251k. In other words it cost him $10,458 a month to live in that house for 2 years.