Local Market Observations
What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Auctions? “The foreclosure of the Base Village properties in Snowmass Village, most recently scheduled for June 1, has been postponed once again, marking the eighth time the sale date has been moved, according to Tiffany Wancura of the Pitkin County Treasurer’s Office. However, the fact that the banks requested a longer time frame, rather than just month by month, as has become the standard practice, increases the odds that the foreclosure sale may indeed happen following the Labor Day weekend.”
“‘I think this time everyone has taken a more realistic approach (which is), ‘let’s just give it three months and get all of the things we need to get done, done’ said Jim DeFrancia of Lowe Enterprises, which is acting as the property’s receiver.”
“He also said that there is actually some pending activity in the long-stalled base area project. ‘We have some condos in Capitol Peak that are under contract,’ he said.”
Or foreclosures? “Foreclosure activity showed a significant increase last month in Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore and San Ramon. Pleasanton saw four foreclosures in April, according to CalREsource, a real estate reporting service. They ranged from a 903-square-foot home on Arroyo Court that was obtained by Dublin Limited for $139,700 to a 1,368-square-foot home on Francisco Street that was valued at $570,000.”
“Five foreclosures took place last month in Dublin, with investment groups acquiring properties ranging in value from $245,500 for a 1.234-square-foot home to a 3,790-square-foot home, acquired by the Silvergate Investment Group for $708,400.”
“Livermore saw the most foreclosures during the month, with 10 listed between April 7 and April 25. The lowest-priced foreclosures was a 960-square-foot home on Elm Street, taken over by JP MorganChase Bank for $199,203. The most expensive was a 2,274-square-foot home on Ridgecrest Circle, acquired by ING Bank for $602,799.”
“There were eight foreclosures last month in San Ramon, ranging from $149,121 for a 949-square-foot home on Reflections Drive to a 4,558-square-foot home on Calico Court that was taken over by Bank of America for $1,007,500.”
“Some Realtors suggested that sales opportunities in the mid- to-low-priced housing market fell because incentives for first-time homebuyers went away. That left more sellers whose home mortgages were more than they could afford with few prospective buyers.”
Or development? “For the past 86 years, Miami Corp. has been recognized for “enlightened” management of the 59,000-acre rural Farmton Tree Farm. Miami Corp. officials have come under pressure to develop the site to produce income. The proposed Restoration development, just a little north of Farmton, could double the current population of 21,225 in Edgewater by adding 8,500 homes on 5,181 acres during the next 15 years.”
“In addition to other developments already approved, both Volusia and Brevard counties each have more than 40,000 vacant housing units, according to U.S. Census records.”
“‘You and I know … (those) ranchettes would never happen,’ said Volusia County Councilman Carl Persis, one of two who voted against the Miami Corp. plan. ‘They’re not going to find people to live out there. That would take 200 years.’”
Just did a quick search on the SD MLS (Redfin dot com). There are 921 homes currently listed with over 3000 sq ft of floor space; I’m surprised there are so many nice homes for sale that the all-cash investors haven’t managed to snap up by now!
And don’t forget Prof all those wonderful aged trees ( and orange groves in FL) that could have been used for shade and to help insulate these huge homes and fruit to eat….all sliced diced and clear cut.
My grandparents had about an acre with a 2 gardens, and all sorts of trees apple pear peaches, we had blueberries strawberries and she canned a lot of it …lets say, i didn’t have a bad childhood.
My grandparents had ??
As did mine but they had about 1/6th the amount of land that you did…They still did everything that you describe though…I still Jar vegetables & fruit due to what I learned from them…
On 1/6 of an acre? It’s almost doable. There’s a great book, “The Backyard Homestead,” with diagrams on how to grow your own food on 1/10 of an acre. The author seems to think that a quarter acre is enough for almost everything, including a dozen chickens, a rabbit hutch, and two pigs (no thanks).
These days, the just the footprint of those monster houses is 1/10 an acre.
Professor, I’ve also been following 92127,92128, and 92064 pretty closely, and my unscientific observation on Redfin is that in a rough price range of 500-700K for SFR’s, the ratio of new houses coming on the market vs. houses sold has been about 3 to 1.
Thanks — we are paying attention to some of the same areas. The complimentary impression I have to yours is that anything decent priced under $500K is getting snapped up quickly, while homes priced north of $500K (or some break point in that vicinity) are sitting on the market unsold.
I believe that Rancho Bernardo West (92127, where we rent) has a significant microclimate advantage over locations east of I-15 (Rancho Bernardo East, 92128, and Poway, 92064) — perhaps 5 degrees cooler on average during uncomfortably warm summer days, due to better access to ocean breezes. There may also be greater fire risk east of I-15, at least based on the 2003 Cedar Creek and 2007 Witch Creek fires, which both roared through Poway but missed Rancho Bernardo West.
“The complimentary impression I have to yours is that anything decent priced under $500K is getting snapped up quickly”
What’s scary about that is the 500K is still a lot of money. My little burg has similar median HH incomes to greater San Diego, and our magic number here is 200K.
Hi.Here in suburban Boston (Arlington) I follow the market every day on Realtor.com. Wednesday it listed about 140 houses and condos. After Thursday’s Cases Shiller report and Friday’s jobs report the listings jump to 154. It never before increased but by one or two a day. Is it the double header bad news or the post memorial day season? The spectrum of prices is something else (not just the new listings.) There are some really delusional sellers. Some listings are a year old with prices decreases of a whopping 1%- 3%.
Many listings are below the purchase price from 2005 or earlier.
Here’s a really nice house (except all the stairs to get to it) that came up yesterday.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/70-Paul-Revere-Rd_Arlington_MA_02476_M34697-63013
But at $465K way too much. Its purchase price of $343K in 2001 seems high.
Holy cow! I wouldn’t give you but $120K for that. And even that will seem high to some of the more rurally-priced folks on this board.
I noticed the same thing in the DC area. There was a sudden spate of a dozen suburban neighborhood housing in the $230K range. And there are always 1-2 abandoned fixer-uppers in the $170K range in almost all the towns I’ve looked up on r e a l t o r . c o m .
By the way, today I drove by that $179K house where the roof was falling in. Somebody from the area posted that the place had burned down, and sure enough, there is NOTHING on the land except for 6 feet of stone fireplace and a “For Sale” sign.
95050-95054……..We have held about the same inventory now for about 4 months…One interesting observation is that I see more coming on the market in the “hot” area’s…Prices are holding remarkably well in these locations but it also appears that fence sitting sellers are stepping out and taking advantage of the opportunity of the relative strength in these locations…
I’ve noticed that as well — that it seems like the dam is starting to break in nicer areas.
I’m still seeing 1-6 new listings a day in my town and in our neighboring town - and I don’t follow townhouses or condos, so the number could very well be higher.
Houses that are under contract are staying contingent for what seems like forever. If I had to guess, I’d say it is taking about eight to ten weeks for many buyers to close (except for cash buyers, of course).
I monitor REO and short inventory only.
In just the past week I’ve observed new REO come on the rosters in areas(Northeast NY and VT) the Housing Crime Syndicate(NARscum) would characterize as highly desirable. They’re overpriced by one-third but they’re new so well see how long they sit.
The short the lying realtor said was “can’t lose, you can make money, it’s going to go quick” is still for sale. It’s been on the market for 2.5 months now.