Sorry, it has been a while since I have updated the blog. Short sales take a lot more time than standard sales and they seem to be the predominant force in the market right now. Hanging out all day on the phone with the banks offers very little time for blogging and updating the website. That being said, I wanted to continue my thread of the trends in the foreclosure and preforeclosure activity in Huntington Beach to seek out patterns and trends which will help buyers and sellers navigate this unique market. So here are the numbers broken down by zip code:
92648 - 280
92649 - 158
92647 - 186
92646 - 267
For a grand total of 891
Of those figures 292 are condos and townhomes, 561 are Single Family Residences and PUD's, and 38 are land, business, or multifamily.
Good News! That was an improvement in every zip code from the last blog in April!
In addition, there are 676 total Active listings on the MLS for Huntington Beach. That is slightly higher than April. Although skeptics might see that as a negative, I personally think a healthy market requires slightly more inventory than the figure from the last blog entry. Plus, with the tax credit recently ending, in my opinion that inventory could have shot through the roof. I believe these are all healthy signs of a snails pace recovery, albeit a recovery and not a double dip.
Now on to the bad news...of the 891 people that are distressed in Huntington Beach only 147 have their home on the MLS. Now don't get me wrong. I am not the realtor that wears the red blazer with the Realtor pin anchored to my lapel for the world to see. I do not believe that a short sale is the answer for all distressed homeowners. However, that being said, it is beneficial for far more than 17%. Legislation is constantly providing more and more benefit to short selling over a standard foreclosure. Fannie and Freddie will now (with re-established credit) let you purchase within 2 years with 20% down with a short sale on your credit. With a standard foreclosure you will have to wait 7! That means 83% of the distressed homeowners will not be re-entering the housing market for 7 years. That is not a healthy statistic for the economy or the housing market. Plus, deficiency judgements are being sought after like never before forcing many of these former homeowners to file for bankruptcy. That also is not healthy for the economy/housing market. Many of the horror stories of 12 month escrows and cash contributions have also been addressed with recent legislation. However, the average homeowner seems to be unaware of this advancement. I talk with more and more buyers/sellers/ and even other Realtors at my open houses that have no idea that short sales are not nearly as ugly and painful as they were even six months ago. I think this area of concern because:
1.) Confidence will not be restored in the market place when there are this many foreclosures looming.
2.) Bad/outdated information leads to frustration and buyers give up trying to buy.
3.) Potential Sellers are out of the real estate game for the better part of a decade and might be so frustrated after dealing with deficiency judgements and HOA litigation that they might not ever want to come back into the market.
Luckily there is a simple solution to this problem. Whether you are a Realtor/friend/parent/sibling/grandparent/etc it makes no difference...if you are not up to date on current information for distressed homeowners KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT. You will cause more harm than good. The more people that are actually guided to professionals that can help them the faster we will all get through this and can go back to griping about healthcare and leave the real estate market alone for a while.
As always call or e-mail me with questions...
Jason Kiffe
Real Estate Broker
Lic # 01430639
949-293-9959
428 Main St #207
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Huntington Beach Housing Statistics as of April 2nd, 2010
One of the most common questions I get lately is about foreclosures. When is the shadow inventory going to hit the market? How many foreclosures are there in Huntington Beach right now? What is the price range for foreclosures in Huntington Beach?
So I am going to go away from my usual political sattire, and I am going to make this a regular monthly post on my blog. So feel free to follow the blog if you want to stay up-to-date on the trends and direction we are going in regards to distressed properties. Afterall, we are all in this together.
# of foreclosures by Zip code in Huntington Beach
92648--319 preforeclosure and foreclosures
92649--172 pre and foreclosures
92647--235 pre and foreclosures
62646--312 pre and foreclosures
That is a grand total of 1038. These are not necessarily all listed......these are just preforeclosures and foreclosures in public records. Of that number 307 are condos and 679 are single family homes. Now for all you math wizards I am aware the numbers do not add up. That is because the remaining 52 foreclosures are either commercial or multifamily, or land.
That number doesn't jump off the page at me.........that is until you do a blind search and see that (excluding pending, back-up, and hold do not show listings) there are only 543 active listings in Huntington Beach. That is with ZERO parameters. Of that only 148 (ranging in price from $122,750 all the way to $2,050,000) are tagged as preforeclosure, foreclosure, or short sale homes. (which is relying on real estate agents to correctly tag there listings, so there is a margin of error.....I know, should be basic, but you would be surprised!) What does that all mean. Basically we have a lot of hurting people and a lot of inventory getting ready to come on the market. That being said, demand is very high and there are numerous buyers for every house on the market, but it does give you a good idea of the amount of inventory that is going to have to be absorbed in Huntington Beach.
As always, feel free to call or e-mail me with specific questions, neighborhoods, etc.
Jason Kiffe
949-293-9959
So I am going to go away from my usual political sattire, and I am going to make this a regular monthly post on my blog. So feel free to follow the blog if you want to stay up-to-date on the trends and direction we are going in regards to distressed properties. Afterall, we are all in this together.
# of foreclosures by Zip code in Huntington Beach
92648--319 preforeclosure and foreclosures
92649--172 pre and foreclosures
92647--235 pre and foreclosures
62646--312 pre and foreclosures
That is a grand total of 1038. These are not necessarily all listed......these are just preforeclosures and foreclosures in public records. Of that number 307 are condos and 679 are single family homes. Now for all you math wizards I am aware the numbers do not add up. That is because the remaining 52 foreclosures are either commercial or multifamily, or land.
That number doesn't jump off the page at me.........that is until you do a blind search and see that (excluding pending, back-up, and hold do not show listings) there are only 543 active listings in Huntington Beach. That is with ZERO parameters. Of that only 148 (ranging in price from $122,750 all the way to $2,050,000) are tagged as preforeclosure, foreclosure, or short sale homes. (which is relying on real estate agents to correctly tag there listings, so there is a margin of error.....I know, should be basic, but you would be surprised!) What does that all mean. Basically we have a lot of hurting people and a lot of inventory getting ready to come on the market. That being said, demand is very high and there are numerous buyers for every house on the market, but it does give you a good idea of the amount of inventory that is going to have to be absorbed in Huntington Beach.
As always, feel free to call or e-mail me with specific questions, neighborhoods, etc.
Jason Kiffe
949-293-9959
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
War of Words
There was a lot to not like about George W. Bush. For example, he would chuckle mid sentence for no apparent reason, he often used the syntax of a hillbilly, and overall I just felt like he had no idea what his job description entailed.
That being said, looking back there was one thing I can honestly say I miss about George W...........ignorance was bliss. I read recently that in his 8 years as President of the United States he appeared on television less times than Obama has appeared in his first year in office.
Now let me stop right there......I have one giant concern with that......who is running our country? After all, those press conferences, speeches, Sportscenter, The Tonight show, The Late Show, etc......take time. Ever sat through the taping of a 30 minute sitcom. If you have you know that it takes ALL day. It is one of the most grueling experiences that you will ever endure.......and that is only a half hour sitcom!!
So our President is a Narcissist. It is America, and we all tend to get caught up in appearance and fame. So I will give him a pass on that one.
However and more importantly........when your face time, which is taking away from the job you should be doing, is being used almost exclusively to air dirty laundry, point fingers, bad mouth fellow politicians, the FED, banks, Wall Street, and Health Care providers. That is where I draw the line. Can you imagine if Steve Jobs came out tomorrow on prime time television talking about how incompetent the board of directors over at Apple are..........about how his creative director is making way too much money and how he has this great new idea that they are too stubborn and stupid to grant him permission to move forward with. What would happen next? I imagine the stocks plummets, The board and high ranking employees come out to defend themselves and slander Steve Jobs right back, the shareholders revolt, and a couple dozen people minimum lose their jobs.
The difference between the two? Steve Jobs isn't foolish enough to make such comments. Sad.....considering the argument can be made that the United States is much more important that Apple.
One last note: Have you ever given your dog a treat for going to the bathroom on your carpet? That's crazy right? Well that is essentially what just happened with the passage of the Heathcare reform. Let me be the first to welcome you to the new world of politics ladies and gentlemen.........public slandering has been proven effective and is here to stay! We have just entered the next stage of reality television.........
That being said, looking back there was one thing I can honestly say I miss about George W...........ignorance was bliss. I read recently that in his 8 years as President of the United States he appeared on television less times than Obama has appeared in his first year in office.
Now let me stop right there......I have one giant concern with that......who is running our country? After all, those press conferences, speeches, Sportscenter, The Tonight show, The Late Show, etc......take time. Ever sat through the taping of a 30 minute sitcom. If you have you know that it takes ALL day. It is one of the most grueling experiences that you will ever endure.......and that is only a half hour sitcom!!
So our President is a Narcissist. It is America, and we all tend to get caught up in appearance and fame. So I will give him a pass on that one.
However and more importantly........when your face time, which is taking away from the job you should be doing, is being used almost exclusively to air dirty laundry, point fingers, bad mouth fellow politicians, the FED, banks, Wall Street, and Health Care providers. That is where I draw the line. Can you imagine if Steve Jobs came out tomorrow on prime time television talking about how incompetent the board of directors over at Apple are..........about how his creative director is making way too much money and how he has this great new idea that they are too stubborn and stupid to grant him permission to move forward with. What would happen next? I imagine the stocks plummets, The board and high ranking employees come out to defend themselves and slander Steve Jobs right back, the shareholders revolt, and a couple dozen people minimum lose their jobs.
The difference between the two? Steve Jobs isn't foolish enough to make such comments. Sad.....considering the argument can be made that the United States is much more important that Apple.
One last note: Have you ever given your dog a treat for going to the bathroom on your carpet? That's crazy right? Well that is essentially what just happened with the passage of the Heathcare reform. Let me be the first to welcome you to the new world of politics ladies and gentlemen.........public slandering has been proven effective and is here to stay! We have just entered the next stage of reality television.........
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Discounting the Discount Rate
So by now you have probably heard the big news. The FED unexpectedly came out and raised the discount rate last week. As a repercussion........the market panicked, homeowners everywhere dropped their head in disgust and I even saw a couple Realtors with a case of the "lip quivers". So what now.........are we destined to succumb to rising rates, falling home prices, and on a more positive note, CD's yielding higher than a .05% return?
Don't get ahead of yourself. Go ahead and put down the stiff drink and call off the relocation to Canada for now. The discount rate increase will impact your life about as much as a fly getting a cramp in its wing.......in Africa. I'll even go as far as to say that if you are a frequent traveler to Africa I might even be overstating things. The discount rate is essentially the rate at which the banks would receive funds from the Central Bank. In normal economic times these are overnight loans. In times of turmoil........2008 for example, these loans were given up to 90 days to be paid back at a 0-.5% interest rate, depending on when in the last three years we are talking about. Which the banks, of course, would then turn around and invest in our Businesses and individuals right?
Yeah, not so much........that might have been the FED's intention but.........what happened more recently as things calmed down was that banks were utilizing these "overnight" loans to invest at their discretion for large interest returns. There were some banks making twice to three times the interest income that they did in prior years. We are not talking about hundreds or even millions, think hundreds of millions.
Let me stop right there and say, I personally find it completely shocking that the bank would exploit, for gain, our Central Bank and Tarp (aka taxpayer funds) for personal gain without any regard for the best interest of the United States and its account holders and consumers. Just shocked.
Am I laying on the sarcasm thick enough? So if you were wondering why the banks earnings looked so good by the end of the year when we were talking financial Apocalypse in March........there you go. But, that being said, unless you are a major shareholder in a bank, it really shouldn't affect your life one little bit.
However, be forewarned the day of reckoning is coming. GDP is rising and money is still flying off the press in DC. So rates will be rising......just hopefully later than sooner.
Okay, now you can commence with that stiff drink......
Don't get ahead of yourself. Go ahead and put down the stiff drink and call off the relocation to Canada for now. The discount rate increase will impact your life about as much as a fly getting a cramp in its wing.......in Africa. I'll even go as far as to say that if you are a frequent traveler to Africa I might even be overstating things. The discount rate is essentially the rate at which the banks would receive funds from the Central Bank. In normal economic times these are overnight loans. In times of turmoil........2008 for example, these loans were given up to 90 days to be paid back at a 0-.5% interest rate, depending on when in the last three years we are talking about. Which the banks, of course, would then turn around and invest in our Businesses and individuals right?
Yeah, not so much........that might have been the FED's intention but.........what happened more recently as things calmed down was that banks were utilizing these "overnight" loans to invest at their discretion for large interest returns. There were some banks making twice to three times the interest income that they did in prior years. We are not talking about hundreds or even millions, think hundreds of millions.
Let me stop right there and say, I personally find it completely shocking that the bank would exploit, for gain, our Central Bank and Tarp (aka taxpayer funds) for personal gain without any regard for the best interest of the United States and its account holders and consumers. Just shocked.
Am I laying on the sarcasm thick enough? So if you were wondering why the banks earnings looked so good by the end of the year when we were talking financial Apocalypse in March........there you go. But, that being said, unless you are a major shareholder in a bank, it really shouldn't affect your life one little bit.
However, be forewarned the day of reckoning is coming. GDP is rising and money is still flying off the press in DC. So rates will be rising......just hopefully later than sooner.
Okay, now you can commence with that stiff drink......
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