It was noted on the last post that the lower-end market has been on fire lately, with recent closings 125% higher than last year. The foreclosures/REOs are leading the way, and in markets like Oceanside's they are beating each other down on price. The demand has been incredibly strong though, with many investors competing with owner-occupants to gobble up the good buys.
Here is how the foreclosure agents are doing, compared to last year:
Agent
2007 Closings
2008 Closings YTD
#1
#2
#3
#4
Totals
They have almost surpassed last year's production in less than six months, primarily selling the cheaper homes - ones that many thought would struggle to get financed without subprime loans available. Fourteen of those above were buyer sides, here is how their closed listings break down by price:
Price Range
2007 Closings
2008 Closings YTD
$0-100K
$100-200K
$200-300K
$300-400K
$400-500K
$500-$600K
$600K+
The foreclosures/REOs are leading the price squishdown, with the higher-priced homes dropping down into lower categories as needed. Accordingly, the sales are racking up - there is NO SHORTAGE OF DEMAND these days. There are lots of buyers in the marketplace, waiting for the real plums, the good-looking houses with an attractive price on them.
I've already closed as many this year as I did last year, and had SEVEN new pendings this week alone. Four of the new pendings were from my REO group that recently listed, and the other three were the detached condo on Tallus Glen, the short sale on Calle Arquero that fell apart earlier in the week that I got a full price all-cash offer in to take it's place, and a Downey Savings REO that was originally listed for $510,000 that my buyer got for $300,000.
What's more intriguing is that we had multiple offers on five out of the six listings that went pending, and what seemed like hundreds of phone calls from buyers and agents. One mentioned how he had made offers on behalf of his client on over 20 houses and couldn't get one because they were selling so fast and so high. Two other stories on listing agents getting buried, one had 20 offers on a house I think was on Baywood, the other had 18 offers on a house on Johnson.
It goes to show you, there's nothing that price won't fix!