Where Home Prices Crashed Early, Signs of a Rebound

A good article by the NYtimes. I think even the news papers are starting to catch on. The market in Tracy at least for now has appeared to make a turn. The environment has shifted to more of a sellers market. At least in the fact that now sellers are picking who they want to be in contract with from multiple offers. Its pretty normal to see 5-10 offers on a house in Tracy now.

Business / Economy
Where Home Prices Crashed Early, Signs of a Rebound
By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: May 5, 2009
In areas hardest hit by the housing crisis, like Sacramento, and parts of Florida and Nevada, more robust markets suggest the housing sector may be in the early stages of recovery.

What drives the market here, then, are all those foreclosures. Two-thirds of the 2,092 existing single-family houses and condominiums sold here in March were bank repossessions, up from 8.5 percent two years ago, according to MDA DataQuick, a real estate research firm.These cut-rate properties are engendering the same frenzy and frustration that symbolized the boom, as Rebecca and Chris Whitman discovered when they started looking for a house in December. Ms. Whitman’s new job as an athletics director at Sacramento State required an immediate move from Chico, two hours north.In two months the couple looked at 100 houses, nearly all foreclosures priced under $200,000, making verbal offers on 20. Only rarely did they get a response. Banks trying to unload large numbers of properties are less interested in traditional transactions with individuals than all-cash offers from investors.As interest rates fell, the Whitmans were able to increase their price limit. They ended up buying from investors. A syndicate had bought a three-bedroom foreclosure on a cul-de-sac in eastern Sacramento last fall for $172,000, made a few improvements and was flipping it — another boom-era element that is back. The Whitmans bought it three weeks ago for $224,500.

Brian Barringer

brian@tracyhomes.com

800.894.7282