My Real Estate Blog

As usual I get the morning emails with news related to real estate from all over the country. NAR, the National Associaition of Realtors, has just released some stats about the rise in the number of homes sold, but the decline(still) in home values. In the Contra Costa area I have continued to see that to be true. Just when you think that home values have stabilized, you see them drop again. Here is the link from Inman News with the stats http://lowes.inman.com/newsletter/2011/11/11/news/161622.

In the Bay Area we have very localized markets. What is happening in San Francisco is very different that what is happening in Concord. And that is also different than what is happening in Antioch or Richmond. When you are looking for information about your city or your area in general, remember that you can consider what is going on around you in the general wide spread area, but we have to dig deeper to your neighborhood if you want the best comparables. That’s what I’m for!

The values from the peak of the market in 2006 to the bottom of the market have collapsed over 50% in most areas. In some cities the declines have been higher than that.

In the Contra Costa County area, rentals seem to be at a premium these days. You go out to take a look and show someone, and before you even get there, it’s been rented! Or get this, the rents are going up. What used to rent for $2500 in Walnut Creek is now renting for $2600-$3000, that is if you can find one.

One thing you want to be careful about is what you find on Craigslist.com. As much as it is a great place to go and search for rentals, I’ve heard many story about scams on homes that are listed for sale. Someone meets you at the property, you agree to rent it, give this person a deposit, and then they disappear along with the money. Then you find out that the property is listed for sale or is on the foreclosure line up. Just be careful and know who you are talking to.

Most local Realtors don’t handle rentals but there are a couple of local Property Management firms you might talk to Perchak Properties, ttp://www.perchakproperties.com/homes_for_rent.htm

Or, even consult some webpages like www.apartments.com

Since we are edging the Winter months right now, it doesn’t help that inventory is already low. Be persistant, and call a good Realtor, like me, if you need an extra hand looking for a property or leasing one out.

Which also brings me to the point that, if you are sitting on a pile of money, what a great time to buy investment properties! Many properties are priced such that you can actually get a positive cash flow. You can consider condo or townhouse purchases, but the the HOA fees really throw the numbers out of line. With rates so low, investors have been buying with an interest rate at 4.5% on rental purchases. Isn’t it time to at least think about it?

The word on the street is that foreclosures are still coming but there seems to be another 90 day moratorium in place to give banks a chance to modify loans for borrowers or to make efforts for borrowers to use a short sale. I’ve been to several seminars lately that have discussed the short sale process, and although lengthy and tedious it is a process that seems to be catching on. I’ve had some personal experience with a short sale, and other than some of the normal intricacies of the sale, it went fairly well for the most part. I’ll write more about short sales in another blog with more detailed information.

What I’d like to hit more on today is loan modifications. The President has passed a bill that is actually giving incentives to banks to work with borrowers to modify their loans and help to make it more affordable. Thus in doing so, many borrowers that may have ended up in foreclosure can modify their loan and be able to stay in their homes. There is some interesting detail I read in this site that I think will help make loan modifications more understandable.

One of the most important factors with any type of work you are doing with the bank is to be patient and persistent. You may have to make several calls to your bank before you get anyone to call you back. To say that the banks are overwhelmed would be an understatement! You also want to make sure you are getting to the “work out department” of the bank. It can be terribly frustrating when trying to get through to someone for help, and you’re really barking up the wrong tree.

Most of what we have seen in Central Contra Costa County is not a flood of foreclosures. It seems that the majority of those are coming from homes purchased after 2005, and the majority of home purchases have been before that time and the owners are fairly stable. For more information about what the Federal government is offering in the way of short sales, foreclosures and loan modifications, check out this link  and get more informed.