No one in this industry thinks our troubles are over. We all know shadow inventory lurks, we all understand underwriters seem to get tougher and tougher on buyers each day, we understand short sales are far from streamlined. But in my very humble opinion, most of us believe it is better than last year, and better than the year before that.
What are residential builders saying about San Jose home market? A panelist discussion with Summerhill, Regis, and Blackrock regarding the housing market and challenges to meeting consumer demands for new housing.
Need Help with your Mortgage? A great program brought to us by the Department of Treasury and Housing & Urban Development to help at-risk homeowners in our community.
I have been tracking short sales and REOs (foreclosures) in the San Jose area since June 2007. I can tell you, consistently, short sales have represented about 30% of active listings and foreclosures have represented about 10-15% of the active listings. I show homes that are listed as short sales. I hear there are agents that won’t show short sales. Not sure how they do that. I started working on the numbers to find out how many short sales there are, how long they have been on the market, how many are pending, how long they have been pending, how many are vacant, and how those numbers are different between single family homes verses condos and town homes. Wow. There is no doubt there are a lot of home owners in trouble. There is no doubt the banks have inventory that they have not sent back to the public consumer. There is no doubt you can complete a web search on shadow inventory and find a ton of articles about the reality of its existence and whether or not these homes will come to market. More importantly, when will they come to market? Who knows? Maybe some high paid executive of the in the asset manager kingdom knows. They aren’t telling. But in San Jose, foreclosures are the smaller part of the market. I am more interested in the 1/3 of the market called short sales. These are the challenges of real life sellers, buyers, and agents. As of today, February 15, 2011, there are 777 active short sales in San Jose. Of that 777 homes, 81 have been on and off the market for over 1 year (10%) and 17 have been on and off the market for over 2 years (2%). Of the total listings pending sale,…
There are some great deals with foreclosures this weekend in San Jose. Lots of open houses to visit and a chance to get into a home while interest rates are still low. Remember, to purchase an REO home, you must be pre-approved, have proof of funds to close, and be ready to purchase AS IS. If you have questions about how to purchase a foreclosure (REO, bank owned) home, contact me. I offer a no-obligation consultation on the pros and cons of purchasing a foreclosure. Tags: Buyers’ Tips, Market Information, bank owned, foreclosure, foreclosures, how to, interest rates, open houses, REO, San Jose
If you are not planning on watching the Super Bowl, here are some potential deals in San Jose this weekend. Here is a list of bank owned homes that are for sale in San Jose with open houses today, Sunday. Contact me if you would like copies of comparable sales for any of these homes. Tags: Buyers’ Tips, Market Information, bank owned, foreclosure, open houses, real estate, REO, san jose
Here is a list of single family homes, condominiums, and townhomes that are bank owned (REO) properties available for sale and open Sunday January 30th, 2011. Contact me if you would like comparable market information for any of these homes. Click here for PDF of listings. Tags: Buyers’ Tips, Market Information
If you are reading or listening to news reports about the housing market, you may find conflicting information. Hard to believe that three out of the four largest banks showed profits for 2010 while so many home owners are continuing to struggle. Hard to believe that anyone above us in pay grade knows what is going on when the reports are so contradicting. That is when I turn off the television and start digging into the local numbers. When I look at the local real estate market, I look for several key things to tell me where we might be heading. First, I look at the basic model of supply and demand for each neighborhood. Which neighborhoods have a lot of houses for sale? Which neighborhoods have desirability (schools, shopping, commute)? Which neighborhoods have a higher percentage of short sales and bank owned homes? Which neighborhoods have more pending disasters with owners behind on their mortgage but the homes are not yet on the market? Where was the market before the bust for a particular neighborhood and where is it now? All these questions brought me to the following analysis. First, in this analysis I have only addressed single family detached homes and not condos and town homes. The condo, town home market has an entirely different set of issues going on with legal battles between builders and home owner associations, non-FHA certified complexes, and rules that only allow for a certain percentage of rental properties within the complex. I will save that digging for another day. This first graph takes a bird’s eye view of how the local markets have shaken out from boom to current bust. A couple of key items to note: 1.) The higher priced markets (Los Gatos and Palo Alto) did not drop quite as…
This housing market is tough. No doubt about it. In speaking with a broker friend of mine he stated, ” What other profession takes a direct pay cut based on the economy? If the market drops 40% , so does my pay check.” Although the reality of that stinks, I can deal with that fact. What I am having a hard time dealing with is the lack of honesty on all parties involved in a real estate transaction. Many have talked about the old saying, “Buyers are liars and sellers are too.”. But let me just say this market is pushing the limits of dishonesty. Desperation is clear on so many fronts of the real estate transaction that quite honestly, (pun intended) it is really beginning to irritate me. If you are a buyer, do not lie on your loan application. If you can not afford a house without deceiving the lender, simply do not buy a house. I recently had a situation where the buyer forgot they had a bankruptcy on their credit history. This was not, “I forgot to mention it.” because the loan application has a specific question about whether or not the applicant has ever had a bankruptcy. Tags: Buyers’ Tips, featured, Market Information, Sellers’ Tips, buying a home, credit reports, inspections, loan approval, selling a home
Ask this question and you will quickly find out there is no simple answer. Below are some guidelines for the various secondary market entities in regards to financing post foreclosure, short sale, deed in lieu, or bankruptcy. First step is to understand how each of these organizations define hardship. FHA: An event that was out of the borrower’s control that made a significant impact on the borrower’s finances and led to bankruptcy or foreclosure. Fannie Mae: A nonrecurring event that’s beyond the borrower’s control that results in a sudden, significant, and prolonged reduction in income or a catastrophic increase in financial obligations. Freddie Mac: A nonrecurring or isolated circumstance, or set of circumstances, that was beyond the borrower’s control and that significantly reduced income and/or increased expenses and rendered the borrower unable to repay obligations as agreed, resulting in significant adverse or derogatory credit information. Realize that every situation is different and how your specific financial situation is perceived by an underwriter is, well, up to the underwriter. These are broad guidelines but are helpful to understanding the impact of a choice made in regards to your mortgage and total debt. Tags: Market Information, Sellers’ Tips, bankruptcy, chapter 11, chapter 13, chapter 7, credit scores, deed in lieu, foreclosure, short sale
I do not do home loans. I could, but I don’t. I do know how to find the right house for my clients, negotiate the offer, and close the deal. That is my specialty. I leave the loan process to professionals that live and breathe loans everyday. Professionals like Gabe Bodner with RPM Mortgage in Cambell. Gabe and I have worked together on some easy purchases and some not so easy purchases. As a team, we have never lost a deal. One of the most common challenges comes into play when a client has a pre-approval but decides on the day they write the offer to “shop” the interest rate on their loan. Don’t get me wrong, anyone in the industry supports the right and the reason for a borrower trying to get the lowest rate. We understand that 30 years of interest is an amazing number. However, trying to get the lowest interest rate when rates change daily (almost every few hours) is a very elusive goal and can end up costing the buyer more money and stress in the long run. Loan rate shopping is more challenging today than it was even a year ago. With the new RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) of 2010, comes some very specific rules on how fees are disclosed to the borrower. This is a good thing, but the with consumer safeguards the typical 30-day close of escrow can be very, very tight. Many times there is a cost to being late. Loan locks may need to be extended or sellers may charge a per diem late fee if the contract is not closed on time. These changes are not necessarily the easiest to work with and many buyers don’t completely understand why it matters. In a competitive market, (high demand,…
A quick update on where we are in the Santa Clara County / Silicon Valley housing market. This information comes from the September statistics for homes currently for sale, pending sales, and homes that are sold. Lots of great little tid bits in this one graph. The blue area is the number of days it would take to sell all the homes for sale at the current rate of sales. The green line shows the number of homes in escrow. Normally, this line tracks closely with the red line, which shows actual sales. As you can see, the two lines have diverged over the past year. This is due to many homes being put into escrow as short-sales, contingent upon the banks’ approval. This is being done even before the banks know about the short sale. Subsequently, many of these escrows do not close. On average 30% of short sales return to the market over and over. Tags: featured, Market Information
