Friday, August 25, 2006

American Dream Turned Nightmare

From KCRA: "At the Sacramento County Courthouse, it used to be that foreclosure auctions happened once a week. Now, several times a day homeowners are seeing their American dream turn into a nightmare. In Sacramento County during the second quarter of this year, the number of homes going into foreclosure stood at 1,866. That compares to 857 forclosures for the same time last year -- an increase of 118 percent. Elsewhere, foreclosures are up 74 percent in Stanislaus County, 87 percent in San Joaquin County and 116 percent in Placer County."

"Alexis McGee of the investor services agency Foreclosures.com said many homeowners who find themselves falling behind on their mortgage payments should not try to refinance, but rather simply try to sell..."

"So, does this mean the housing bubble has burst? McGee still describes it as a leaking bubble but said her description will change if a year from now foreclosure rates have doubled again."

From the Sacramento Business Journal: "Sacramento-area home prices dipped lower last month, and sales tumbled by almost 45 percent from a year ago, according to a report released Thursday. The region's median home price -- meaning half the homes sold for more, the other half for less -- dropped 2.4 percent to $378,590 in July, compared to the same month a year ago, according to the California Association of Realtors. Home prices also inched 1.5 percent lower from June."

"West Sacramento had the area's largest one-year drop at 16.5 percent, while home prices in Lincoln and Rocklin -- one of the fastest-growing cities in the region -- fell 13.8 percent and 12.5, respectively...Sacramento County's median home price fell 3.4 percent to $367,000 from a year ago, with Orangevale and Fair Oaks posting 5 percent-plus price drops, the largest in the county."

"Placer County's median-home price decreased to $460,000, 7.1 percent lower than a year ago. In addition to Lincoln and Roseville's double-digit price drop, Granite Bay home prices were off 7.4 percent to $735,000, still by far the priciest community in the county. Auburn's median-home price improved 11 percent to $479,000, the only price increase in the county."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Burn baby burn!!!!!

That house I talked about that was $80,000 under it's zillow estimate finally sold for that price - $449,000.

2,500+ sqft, huge corner lot (with RV parking), great established no HOA neighborhood in East Roseville, all for $449. Sounds like a deal, right?

But this is just the beginning! Shave another 10, 15 or 20% off of that in 2 years time - OUCH.

Much like McDonalds (where all the bandwagon realtors can look for a job) "I'm loving it!"

Ali, in Cali said...

I can't believe what I am reading... I know we have been waiting to see numbers like these for a long time now, but it still is a little shocking to see it suddenly, finally kicking in... and in so many places!!!

Anonymous said...

The housing market can only get worse. The smartest money has already sold at or near the top. Now you're seeing the fairly smart money taking their small losses now, rather than sit and pray for the bleeding to stop. Then you have the people who 1) have too much pride to take a loss now or 2) will just sit nervously hoping the bleeding stops soon. I believe these two groups greatly outnumber the "fairly smart money" group. So when one (or both) of these 2 groups are forced to sell, the hemorrhaging will begin.

Anonymous said...

There's no net to catch this market's downfall. Way too many hybrid loans are backing up a market that got too far ahead of itself. If you could fog a mirror you could buy a home. Now it's payday for the mortgage holder, a day of reckoning on all those "pay me later" type loans that have reached a point of resetting their payments to reflect the new rates. People are having to decide whether to buy groceries and baby formula or make their new house payment. Just really hard for one to see a bottom when all things point to a market that's just beginning to auger into the ground. The up market had huge and sustained momentum to the upside and it now is just beginning to build that same momentum on the downward slide. Most buyers are smart enough to stay out of the way until inventories are closer to equilibrium.

Anonymous said...

Burn baby burn!!!!! Disco Inferno?

Anonymous said...

Oh well, it goes up and it goes down (the housing market that is).

How large will the drop be percentage wise off the bubble peak in late 2005?

Is this the 1990's all over again?