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Actives:

  San Benito County-134 of which REO/Bank Owned-22 or 16%

  Hollister-68 of which REO/Bank Owned-15 or 22%

Pendings:

  San Benito County-234 of which REO/Bank Owned-52 or 22%

  Hollister-192 of which REO/Bank Owned-41 or 21%

Absorption Rate:

  San Benito County-0.57 month’s supply or 17 days supply

  Hollister-0.35 month’s supply or 10.5 days supply

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Sold’s for the week: 8

High: $495,000 Short Sale, FHA Loan

Low: $130,000 REO/Bank Owned, FHA Loan

Full-Price or Over-Asking: 4 or 50%

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Sale Type

REO/Bank Owned: 3 or 38%

Short Sale: 4 or 50%

Equity Sale: 1 or 13%

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Financing Type

New Conv. 1st: 0

FHA Loan: 6 or 75%

All Cash: 2 or 25%

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A light week for closings due to the holiday.

Seems just about everyone is checked out for the most part. I put a REO/Bank Owned listing back on the market after the appraiser blew up the deal by triggering excessive lender required repairs. The property is the second least expensive on the market and I’ve only gotten about 5 calls so far.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125903489722661849.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

Interesting article in the WSJ regarding homeowners and their equity.

Don’t forget 30% of all homes have no mortgage against them.

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Actives:

  San Benito County-137 of which REO-23 or 17%

  Hollister-67 of which REO-12 or 18%

Pendings:

  San Benito County-238 of which REO-50 or 21%

  Hollister-196 of which REO-42 or 21%

Absorption Rate:

  San Benito County-.58 months supply of inventory or 17 days

  Hollister-.34 months supply of inventory or 10 days

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Solds for the week: 19

   High-$431,000 New Anderson home, Conv. 1st (Actually 2 closed this week at the same price)

   Low-$140,000 REO/Bank Owned, All Cash

   Full-Price or Over-Asking: 14 or 74%

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Sale Type

  REO/Bank Owned: 7 or 37%

  Short Sale: 7 or 37%

  Equity Sale: 5 or 26%

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Financing Type

  New Conv. 1st: 11 or 58%

  FHA Loan: 4 or 21%

  All Cash: 4 or 21%

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Wow! A big week for closings…must have been the holiday next week and people making sure they get their first time homebuyer credit?

The Absorption Rate remains dramatically low! Shocking!

Single Family Residential

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Actives:      SBC-138 of which REO/Bank Owned-17 or 12%

                          HO-74 of which REO/Bank Owned-11 or 15%

Pendings: SBC-237 of which REO/Bank Owned-53 or 22%

                          HO-195 of which REO/Bank Owned-44 or 23%

Absorption Rate:

          SBC-.58 months supply of inventory or 17 days

            HO-.38 months supply of inventory or 11 days

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Sold’s for the week: 13

   High: $440,000  REO/Bank Owned, FHA Loan

   Low:  $90,000  REO/Bank Owned, All Cash

Full-Price or Over-Asking: 10 or 77%

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Sale Type

  REO/Bank Owned: 9 or 69%

  Short Sale: 4 or 31%

  Equity Sale: 0

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Financing Type

  New Conv 1st: 4 or 31%

  FHA Loan: 3 or 23%

  All Cash: 4 or 31%

  Other: 2 or 15%

Is your real estate agent a Realtor?

When a real estate licensee ~ salesperson or broker joins a local board of Realtors they must also join California Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. Only then can they call themselves a Realtor!

If your agent does not belong to all 3 associations they are technically a “real estate licensee” not a Realtor.

Here’s a little pet peeve of mine…..we are not Real-la-tors. We are Real-tors. There is no -la- in Realtor and if you can’t properly pronouce your own profession….well then in my opinion you don’t deserve to be one.  If you can’t pay attention to the detail of properly pronouncing your own profession what other details are you going to miss in ohhhh something huge like a CONTRACT!

http://www.houselogic.com/

Click on the link and have a look….its great stuff!

http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/

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Actives:   

SBC-132 of which REO/Bank Owned-15 or 11%

HO-72 of which REO/Bank Owned-10 or 14%

Pendings:

SBC-244 of which REO/Bank Owned-57 or 23%

HO-198 of which REO/Bank Owned-47 or 24

Absorption Rate:

SBC-.54 months supply of inventory or 16 days

HO-.36 months supply of inventory or 11 days

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Sold’s for the week: 17

High: $435,000 REO/Bank Owned, New 1st

Low:  $120,000 REO/Bank Owned, FHA Loan

Full-Price or Over-Asking: 13 or 76%

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Sale Type

REO/Bank Owned: 10 or 59%

Short Sale: 4 or 23%

Equity Sale: 3 or 18%

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Financing Type

New Conv. 1st: 5 or 29%

FHA Loan: 9 or 53%

 VA Loan: 1 or 6%

 CASH: 2 or 12%

Wow! A very strong week for the Sold’s.  The Short Sales made an impressive showing with 4 closed.

The inventory continues it’s march downward.

Calif. median home price – September 09: $296,090 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region September 09: Santa Barbara So. Coast $750,000 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region September 09: High Desert $117,820 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index – Second Quarter 2009: 67 percent (Source: C.A.R.)

Mortgage rates – week ending 10/29/09 30-yr. fixed: 5.03% Fees/points: 0.7% 15-yr. fixed: 4.46% Fees/points: 0.6% 1-yr. adjustable: 4.57% Fees/points: 0.6% (Source: Freddie Mac)

In the last month over 100 Notices of Default were filed. I went through the list and cross referenced to the MLS to see how many homeowners were trying to do a Short Sale vs. just letting their home go to Foreclosure. The national average is 70% of distressed homeowners do nothing to try and stave off Foreclosure. The number held true for Hollister and San Benito County at large.

The folks receiving letters from me are to those 70% who have not reached out for help! I hope they see the genuiness of the letters and there are honest, ethical agents out here with the skill set to help them figure this out. They really are not in this alone.

An interesting side note ~ there were 3 or 4 homes that were Bank Owned/REO’s that sold within the last year and their near owners are in default. All of them were FHA Loans so you know at the time of purchase the buyers were well qualified. So I’m so curious what happened to these homeowner’s. I would love to hear their story. We they effected by the economy and maybe lost a job or …… do they know the market has continued to trend down over the last year and they feel like the house isn’t worth what they paid for it so they’ve just stopped making the payments. To some degree I wonder how much of that is going on. It seems to be a possible cultural phenomenon.