Monday Morning Coffee Break: Ventura County Real Estate Doing’s for Week Ending June 21, 2008
June 22nd, 2008 Categories: Weekly Real Estate Activity In Ventura County
This past week’s activities is a continuation of the base building that is on-going in the Ventura County real estate market.
The action is BORING and will continue this way through the summer months.
As reflected in the chart below, weekly sales continue to rise; the number of days sold homes were on the market decreased; the variance between homes sold listed price and the eventual sales price remains high at 6%.
The price range that is being discounted the-most appears to be between $ 750,000 to properties valued above 1 million dollars.
Homes in the price range of $ 200,000 thru $ 450,000 are being discounted at about 2.5% (variance between list price and sales price).
The general economy is mixed. Unemployment has gone up; everyday living prices continue to go up; conditions brought on by Mother Nature in the farm belt will add to higher food prices. Purchases are being re-directed to higher food and fuel prices at the expense of auto purchases, home purchases, clothing and entertainment.
Travel will be limited because of higher fuel prices.
In Ventura County unemployment eased upward slightly and this is due in part to the slow real estate market and lay offs in the County’s large companies such as Amgen.
There are people looking for properties (to build homes) and looking to purchase a home. As mentioned over the last several weeks sellers are now digging in and are not yielding to the low offers presented by potential buyers.
Most sellers realize value in their properties and are willing to wait the market out. Buyers (and their agents) who are looking for a steal will soon realize they may have to act or miss this market completely.
Foreclosures are still high. Auctions appear not to be yielding the results that most sellers thought. Homes are not selling in the auction arena.
Mortgage interest rates have increased significantly over the last several weeks. Also be mindful that FHA is now decreasing (soon to eliminate) down payment gifts.
Loans made on the basis of someone providing gift monies for a downpayment tend to default (foreclose) 3 to 4 times higher than market average.
Now I wonder why that is surprising. If an individual has no money of their own in a property why is it surprising to lenders when that person walks away from the property when the monthly payments get to high or become unreasonable, based on their take home pay.
These people view monthly payments as rent and when the rent gets to high they simply will look for a cheaper home to rent.
Your comments are welcomed.
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