bubbleinfo.com

People have asked, “Why do you do this?”

The internet gives everyone acess to the new listings immediately, and anxious buyers rush over to see the good ones within hours of MLS input.  The early intensity spooks sellers, and they don’t want to deal – which usually means that offers submitted the first week have trouble coming together for those buyers looking for a deal.

What do you do?  Expand the inventory, to better your chances.

These videos are samples of the homes we see on the foreclosure lists.  Our job is to keep our buyers aware of the off-the-grid inventory.  If it all goes right, by next year we’ll have the ability to include buying at the trustee sales as part of the service, so let’s preview the properties heading for the courthouse steps, and anticipate those upcoming REO listings.  There are many of both!

So here’s another youtube preview around Carlsbad!

From the nctimes.com, where Eric has the rather large shoes to fill of Zach Fox – note the trouble he had in finding an explanation:

The median price of detached, single-family homes in North County surged 21.9 percent higher in November compared with the same month last year —- the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year increases, a Realtors association said.

Last month’s big price move owed much to the comparison with abysmal sales in November 2008, along with a shift in the mix of home sales, as the middle tiers of the market showed signs of life after a long recession. The median resale price for houses reached $436,250 last month, according to the HomeDex report from the North San Diego County Association of Realtors.

“My buyers have kind of shifted,” said Diane Conaway, an Escondido-based Realtor and board member for the association. “I’ve still got first-time buyers, but the last four have all been in the $500,000-$700,000 range. Those people are finally coming out.”

Indeed, the report shows a decline in the number of homes sold for less than $300,000 compared with November 2008, but an increase in the number of homes sold in all other price categories below $1 million.

The report shows that inventory grew a bit. There were enough homes on the market for 5.7 months of sales at last month’s pace, up 9 percent from October, but still down 31 percent from last year.

Conaway also credited the increase in November to activity among buyers who thought a federal tax credit would be expiring. Congress later extended it to April.

Real estate agent Jim Klinge thinks the price statistic itself is misleading.

“It goes to show you how whacky the median price is for an indicator,” he said. The median, which is the point at which half the sales prices were higher and half were lower, can be skewed when buying activity shifts to varying sectors of the market.

Homes sold in parts of Escondido, Oceanside and Poway drove much of the growth, with each of those areas showing double-digit increases compared to last year.

The appearance of a sudden jump in annual numbers may also reflect a period beginning in November 2008 when first prices dropped into the $360,000 range, an apparent trough that ended in April.

Still, agents and analysts were surprised by the new median price.

“Wow,” Conaway said. “That’s quite a jump.”

From the wsj.com – hat tip AL and MB!

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Four years after the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble, flipping homes is back in fashion.

Jon Mirmelli, a Phoenix real-estate investor, learned late in the morning of Sept. 28 that a never-occupied custom house on the northern fringes of this Phoenix suburb was going up for auction around noon the same day. The six-bedroom home, built on a three-acre desert plot, has a kitchen with two dishwashers, four ovens, “antibacterial” copper sinks, and a master “spa” bathroom with space for a flat-screen TV visible from the tub.
 
The minimum bid, as set by a unit of Citigroup Inc., which had a $1.3 million mortgage on the home, was $379,900. After several minutes of bidding among investors and their representatives, some wearing shorts and flip-flops, Mr. Mirmelli won the home for $486,300. A week later, he agreed to sell it for $690,000 to a woman who moved in this month.
 
During the housing boom, millions of Americans tried to make money by buying and then quickly reselling new houses and condominiums. That kind of flipping stopped several years ago as home sales stalled amid a surge in foreclosures and curtailed lending.
 
Now, a different breed of flipper is proliferating: one who seeks bargains at foreclosure auctions. Unlike the boom-time flippers, the latest generation needs cold cash, lots of local-market knowledge and strong nerves.

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Back in September we featured the same floor plan a block down the street - it listed for $144,900, and was purchased for $177,000 by flippers.

They have since put it back on the market for $277,000 and found a buyer within 27 days – it’s now pending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWqFEvlB4BA

Two weeks ago this one hit the open market:

From the wsj.com

PALMDALE, Calif. — Schoolteacher Shana Richey misses the playroom she decorated with Glamour Girl decals for her daughters. Fireman Jay Fernandez misses the custom putting green he installed in his backyard.

But ever since they quit paying their mortgages and walked away from their homes, they’ve discovered that giving up on the American dream has its benefits.

Both now live on the 3100 block of Club Rancho Drive in Palmdale, where a terrible housing market lets them rent luxurious homes — one with a pool for the kids, the other with a golf-course view — for a fraction of their former monthly payments.

“It’s just a better life. It really is,” says Ms. Richey. Before defaulting on her mortgage, she owed about $230,000 more than the home was worth.

People’s increasing willingness to abandon their own piece of America illustrates a paradoxical change wrought by the housing bust: Even as it tarnishes the near-sacred image of home ownership, it might be clearing the way for an economic recovery.

Thanks to a rare confluence of factors — mortgages that far exceed home values and bargain-basement rents — a growing number of families are concluding that the new American dream home is a rental.

Some are leaving behind their homes and mortgages right away, while others are simply halting payments until the bank kicks them out. That’s freeing up cash to use in other ways.

Ms. Richey’s family of five used some of the money to buy season tickets to Disneyland, and plans to take a Carnival cruise to Mexico in March. Mr. Fernandez takes his girlfriend out to dinner more frequently. “We’re saving lots of money,” Ms. Richey says.

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The FAA and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority have been installing sound attenuation treatments to mitigate aircraft noise in homes around the airport.  The goal is to reduce interior noise levels by at least 5 decibels inside the home, providing a noticeable reduction in noise level.

Here’s how one turned out:

San Diego International is the busiest single-runway commercial service airport in the United States, and second in the world after London Gatwick, with approximately 600 departures and arrivals carrying 50,000 passengers each day, and a total of 18.3 million passengers in 2007.