Home Foreclosures
San Diego real estate – home foreclosures
San Diego real estate
Being in the trenches … the front line of local San Diego real estate activity, it’s hard for me to believe that we just passed through the “Summer of recovery” at least it was according to this administration’s proclamations.
Although many of the real estate reports for San Diego indicate that sales have increased last month, they also show that home prices have continued to fall. The sales increase in my opinion can be totally attributed to normal seasonal factors. What is really troubling, is the fact that during our seasonally strong traditional marketing period which just ended last month, home prices in San Diego were still in decline. Read more 
San Diego Mortgage Default Rate Drops
San Diego foreclosures
According to MDA DataQuick, a real estate analysis firm based in La Jolla, during the first half of this year, there were 5,458 notices of default in San Diego County and 3,315 foreclosures. The San Diego real estate default rate has dropped nearly 45 percent from last year!
A 45% decline in San Diego home foreclosures sounds good on the surface, but, one should be aware of the fact that the huge number of San Diego short sales was the main cause of the drop in foreclosures.
If one considers the number of San Diego short sales, the actual San Diego foreclosure rate has slid less than 6 percent.
San Diego Homeowners – End Up Screwed
San Diego home foreclosures
Under-water San Diego homeowners are left with two not-very-appealing choices: stop making payments, take a major credit hit and risk the lender seeking a court judgment for the balance of the loan — or keep paying and hope the house begins to appreciate, however little, again.
There are many government programs to help homeowners in trouble & I advise all distressed San Diego homeowners to seek out these programs. However, from the recent reports on the performance of these good intentioned programs … so far they have been dismal failures!
Perhaps the government needs to understand that there is nothing wrong with renting! Some of the many under-water homeowners were simply not suited to own a home!
What of the San Diego homeowners who are not under–water on their mortgages? What benefit is there for homeowners that were resourceful, hardworking and buying only what they could afford when they could afford it?
The majority are offended that they — and their children and their grandchildren — will be paying for someone else’s mortgage woes through higher taxes.
California home foreclosures
San Diego Foreclosures Rise
San Diego foreclosures
Data from ForeclosureRadar shows San Diego home foreclosures fillings took a 19.81% rise from July into August. On the good news side, this figure was down 24.38% from a year ago.
For California, notices of Default filings, the first step in the foreclosure process, jumped 16.6 percent in August, the fourth successive increase in as many months. Fewer homeowners found foreclosure relief as foreclosure cancellations dropped 11.2 percent while more homes were lost, up 15.6 percent to 17,841 foreclosure sales.
Sean O’Toole, CEO for ForeclosureRadar said: “We’ve seen these kinds of upticks before, my guess is, we’re still just bouncing around in this range.”
San Diego Home Mortgage Defaults Easing
San Diego home mortgage defaults
San Diego County defaults fell 39% in the first quarter of 2010 vs. 1st. quarter of 2009 MDA DataQuick reported yesterday.
There were 6,170 notices of default for the quarter, down from 10,111 a year earlier, and 2,263 for March, down from 3,832 in March 2009. Foreclosures totaled 3,096 in the first quarter, slightly up from 3,073 a year ago, and 1,137 in March, up from 734 in March 2009. Read more
San Diego Home Foreclosures Jump 41.9%
San Diego foreclosures
Although default notices dropped to their lowest level in more than a year in December, MDA DataQuick reported yesterday, the number of foreclosures rocketed up for December, up 41.9 percent from November and up 20.9 percent from a year earlier.
DataQuick president John Walsh said.“Clearly, many lenders and (loan) servicers have concluded that the traditional foreclosure process isn’t necessarily the best way to process market distress.â€
San Diego Home Foreclosures Up 66%
San Diego home foreclosures
Dataquick of La Jolla, reported that San Diego County June notices of default were up 66% over May. But, the number of default notices were down 11% from June 2008.
John Walsh, President of DataQuick said: “There is a perception that the housing market is dragging along bottom, that it probably won’t get much worse, and that the lenders need to get serious about processing the backlog of delinquencies, either with work-outs or foreclosure. We’re hearing that some lenders and servicers are doing just that, hiring more people to do the necessary paperwork. That means the foreclosure numbers will probably shoot back up during the third quarter.”
San Diego Home Foreclosure Ploy
San Diego housing market
In the San Diego housing market the undisputed hottest selling properties are bank-owned, foreclosed homes and condos.
Many San Diego home buyers are exhibiting characteristics of the famous Alan Greenspan term, “irrational exuberance.†Use of the terms, “bank owned,†“bank foreclosure,†“lender reposition,†“foreclosure sale,†etc., are sure to draw a crowd to view the property. If the property shows half-way decently, there will be offers, and sometimes multiple offers.
Adding my observation to the above facts, a number of lenders have hit on a marketing ploy to create a buying frenzy which guarantees an almost instant sale. In the majority of cases the offer(s) exceed what may have been realistically expected if the property was marketed the traditional way.
Here are some actual examples of this technique for San Diego home sales.
- On 4-8-09, a bank owned home in east Carlsbad was listed at $499,900. Based on the location, age and size of the home, I estimated the current value at $575,000 to just over $600,000. Within one day of the listing, the listing agent had multiple offers. According to the agent, the lender required it to be on the market one week before they would look at any offers. The agent speculated that based on the number of inquires, she would have 40 to 50 offers in the one week period. This home sold for $597,000. The sales price was almost 20% over the listed price. Doesn’t a sale of $97,100 over the listed price suggest that it was listed way under the market?
- A bank-owned Little Italy one bedroom condominium was listed in March for $234,900. The estimated fair current value for this condo was approximately $275,000 to $280,000. The listing agent stated that within 3 hours of the MLS listing being submitted, he had an offer. Again, the lender would not look at any offer until the condo was on the market one week. This San Diego property generated 21 offers within the 1st. week, of these, 11 were at or above the $234,900, listed price.  This Little Italy condo sold at $295,600, or $60,700, approximately 26% above the listed price! I was told the accepted price was $15,000 above the next highest offer.
- A San Carlos planned-unit-development, bank-owned 4 bedroom was listed at $344,900. The estimated fair value for this condo was approximately $410,000 to $425,000. Inside of one week, this San Carlos property had an accepted offer at $410,000. This was approximately 19%, or $65,100, above the listed price!
Banks are purposely under listing property with the strategy of creating a buying frenzy to result not only in a very quick sale, but, a sale at or above the fair market value. Is this practice fair or even legal? It is on both counts. If the bank does not list it properly, they could end up with a sale way below the current fair market value. On the other hand, it isn’t fair to neophyte buyers/agents. Buyers and/or their agent who do not recognize the ploy, may be wasting quite a bit of time writing offers that in some cases, will not even be considered or countered. Also, what about shattered expectations? A number of buyers/agents may honestly believe that their full price offer has a chance of being accepted. In reality, they not only have zero chance of getting their offer accepted, but in the majority of cases, they will not even get a counter-offer.
So what is a potential buyer looking for a bank owned property bargain to do? If they are smart, the best advice would be to seek out an experienced agent and implicitly follow that agent’s advice.
San Diego Home Foreclosure … Is It Really So Bad?
In a Wall Street Journal article published on 1-31-09, Ramsel Su (a real-estate consultant and a former REO broker) made some interesting and controversial observations on the current housing market bust.The intent of modification programs to date is to create a generation of mortgage slaves. Fortunately, mortgage slaves can free themselves via foreclosure, and the masses are choosing to do so."
Personally, here in San Diego, I've seen a number of media outlets review the typical hard working family forced to move because of their home being foreclosed. These situations are indeed sad and make for interesting human interest stories.
San Diego Home Sales Up … Prices Drop 30%
A total of 19,926 new and resale homes sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month. That was up 19.2 percent from 16,720 for November, and up 50.5 percent from 13,240 for December 2007, according to MDA DataQuick.
Regionwide, foreclosure resales accounted for 55.7 percent of December's resales activity, up from 54.7 percent in November, and up from 24.3 percent in December 2007.
| Sales Volume | Median Price | |||||
| All homes | Dec-07 | Dec-08 | %Chng | Dec-07 | Dec-08 | %Chng |
| Los Angeles | 4,430 | 5,848 | 32.0% | $470,000 | $320,000 | -31.90% |
| Orange | 1,731 | 2,580 | 49.0% | $565,000 | $397,000 | -29.70% |
| Riverside | 2,503 | 4,435 | 77.2% | $355,000 | $209,000 | -41.10% |
| San Bernardino | 1,518 | 2,862 | 88.5% | $315,000 | $180,000 | -42.90% |
| San Diego | 2,468 | 3,325 | 34.7% | $430,000 | $300,000 | -30.20% |
| Ventura | 590 | 876 | 48.5% | $525,250 | $338,000 | -35.60% |
| SoCal | 13,240 | 19,926 | 50.5% | $425,000 | $278,000 | -34.60% |