bubbleinfo.com

The Best of Bubbleinfo.com in 2008:

January - We documented the Adams St. property, and it’s kooky owner. She repeatedly refinanced her mom’s house, and then stopped making payments and kept suing the lenders for ‘elder abuse’. The funniest part was that in May the owner found us talking about her, and left her own response at the bottom of the comments:

http://www.bubbleinfo.com/2008/01/stolen-equity/

Her trustee sale is scheduled for next month.

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February - This month we first noted the new homes built on the corner of Carlsbad Village and Highland. When they hit the open market in June, 2006, the list prices were up to $1.499 million. By February they were down to $1.199 million and still didn’t have any takers, so they attempted to rent them out instead, asking $3,695/mo.

By the end of 2008, under a court order, they were listed in the mid-$800,000s for two weeks, and then withdrew them from the MLS. None marked pending.

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March - We saw a superior property in ‘The Ranch’ in Carlsbad get snapped up for cash at the trustee sale, and at the time I thought it was a great deal. The buyer still owns it (not a flipper!).

Here’s the post:

This will go down as one of the better deals of the year - the trustee sale was yesterday for this property at 7951 Sitio Solana in the Ranch development in Carlsbad. Though it was mentioned here and on several foreclosure sites, only one bidder showed up at the trustee sale - and bought it for the minimum bid of $941,426. There hasn’t been a sale that low for a house of that size, 3,654 sf, in the Ranch since 2000-2001. The person who got foreclosed was the origianl owner who paid $746,000 in January, 1999. The floor plan has the master suite on the first floor, and this premium location on a quiet culdesac made it a superior property - the type to keep an eye out for when looking for a house!

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April - The REO journey began on April 22nd, when Countrywide sent me the first eight listings. We’ve since closed 18 of them for a total of $4,532,800. It doesn’t look like it’s going to continue for much longer under the current format, now that Bank of America has taken over. But my wife did get me to admit that it was fun while it lasted - and they provided great blog material!

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May - We saw HaCanada win tickets to the U.S. Open for guessing the closest to the 2,950 detached closed sales in 1Q08 in SD County.

Since then, another 19 sales were added by late-reporters, making the total 2,969 today. Jenny in SD, with her guess of 2,971, should have been the winner.

Jenny, want some Padres tickets?

The first REO video appeared in May too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neY1P7UvNHw

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June - We came across the Alt-A map from the New York Fed - here is November’s report:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently the darkest zip code in North County Coastal is 92078 - don’t be surprised if we see more bad news for San Elijo Hills in 2009.

For easier reading, here is the link to the NY Fed reports:

http://www.newyorkfed.org/mortgagemaps/

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July - We had out first video encounter with an ice cream truck - in downtown Vista where you got to see the bubbleinfo vehicle of choice, the 1966 Chevy 3/4-ton Stepside:

(This video has been seen 7,683 times!)

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August - There were a few professional flippers mentioned this month who purchased properties at the trustee sales, how did they do?

All four sold and did well:

9745 Tallus Glen, SD - bought for $444,125, closed for $525,000 a month later.

602 Strand, Carlsbad - bought for $570,200, closed for $775,000 cash three months later.

976 Whimbrel, Carlsbad - bought for $636,231, sold for $757,000 two months later.

1738 Village Run, Encinitas - bought for $51,173 (assumed $305,000 too), sold for $470,000.

We considered this builder as a professional seller too:

Mustang Ridge - Even though it looks like the loans are around $1.35 million, it’s still unsold and proudly listed at $1.765 million. NOD filed last month.

La Costa Oaks - There was also the 4,190sf one-story house at the top of the hill. The original owners paid $1.755 million in December, 2004, but got foreclosed. I thought the list price would be around $1.395 once the bank listed, but they came in at an aggressive $1.245 million. It closed for $1.2 million cash.

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September - My first arrests of squatters in an REO:

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October - People asked about where to find auction news, so I listed all the places:

http://www.bubbleinfo.com/2008/10/san-diego-auction-news/

My only solo attempt at blogtalkradio hit a snag, but looking forward to more next year!

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November - We started a new contest, guessing the number of closed sales in November and December of homes in SD County. Today’s count is 4,509, which means 1,000+ closed in the last seven business days, and should leave us around 5,000 by the time we take the final tally on January 20th (allowing for late-reporters).

Here are the contestants in that range:

4,538 JbirdFunk
4,550 OCVulture
4,609 Just a Broker
4,737 Lisa in OC
4,872 Stephen Waits
4,874 FirstTimeRenter
4,949 Erica Douglass
5,000 CVman
5,021 Rob Dawg
5,150 Angela
5,259 Turnack
5,271 Westparker
5,555 Mojo

Here are the last few Nov & Dec combos:

2007 = 3,254
2006 = 4,726
2005 = 5,603
2004 = 6,464
2003 = 6,988

To see this year’s sales end up higher than 2006 will be very impressive, and means that prices must have come down enough, rates are low enough, and loans are easy enough to get, that people are buying!

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December - We gave the Obama team the following advice on housing:

http://www.bubbleinfo.com/2008/12/free-advice/

A discussion on the merits of Proposition 13 generated 101 comments:

http://www.bubbleinfo.com/2008/12/prop-13-redo/

and in general we saw government bailout programs flail about, conforming mortgage rates plummet to under 6%, and renewed interest in buying real estate.

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I think Obama is going to step up to the microphone and tell people to go buy a house - and it’ll work, in concert with lower prices and rates. 2009 will be a very active year!

But 2009 will have to be hopping at bubbleinfo.com to keep up with 2008’s numbers:

570 posts, thousands of comments, and 57 youtube videos!

WOW - WHAT A YEAR!

Thank you to everyone for reading and participating!

Jim Klinge, Realtor and part-time blogger

The favorite videos:

The house with linoleum on the ceiling and a regular stop for ice cream trucks:

Sound of the Year (hat tip to RT whose constant encouragement has been invaluable - thanks!)

Bubba’s Freak Circus:

The Valley Center bomber (has 7,145 views in first week!)

The Poway fixer that re-listed this week with a different agent but same price:

The ‘Toboggan Stopper’

Jessica’s Ice Cream truck - seen a few times since around town:

Posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 11:53 PM in Year-End Review | |  Email |  Print You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.