Tuesday, October 21, 2008

DataQuick: Repo Sales Soar, Prices Plummet

From the Sacramento Bee:

Still-falling sales prices and a rush to buy discounted bank repos pushed Sacramento home sales still higher in September, reaching their greatest levels since June 2006, property researcher MDA DataQuick reported today. But analysts have their eyes on next month, wondering if fresh public fears of an economic slowdown might have caused some buyers to pull back.
...
Sacramento County's $201,00 median September sales price for new and existing homes combined is 34.4 percent below the same time last year, and 48 percent below its 2005 peak of $387,000. Sales were up 126.4 percent from the same time last year.
From the Sacramento Business Journal:
Home sales are up dramatically over last year because of fire-sale prices on foreclosed homes. But the foreclosure rate itself shows no sign of slowing. Mortgage-loan delinquency in the city of Sacramento, for example has risen from 0.82 percent in mid-2006 to 5.48 percent now, according to credit information company TransUnion.
From the Manteca Bulletin:
Three years ago not a single existing home that closed escrow in Manteca sold for under $320,000 in October. This October it is a drastically different story. Of the last 43 homes to close escrow through Tuesday in Manteca all but three ended up changing hands for less than $320,000.
From the Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento's share of the $3.92 billion national [bailout] pie is larger than that of 20 states, according to the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency...About 40 percent of the money will be used by SHRA to buy houses, fix them up and sell them to new buyers."The city and county are becoming (real estate) flippers," said Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo....

...$32 million won't go very far, said Cindy Cavanaugh, assistant director of housing policy for SHRA. She said the money will likely be enough to fix up and sell 234 houses in the county and 178 in the city.

6 comments:

Jacob said...

We still have the problem with more floreclosures coming on the market. Prices keep going down which puts more poeple underwater and leads to more foreclosures, which in turn pushes prices down, rinse, repeat.

Eventually we will get to a price where the mojority of people can afford to buy a home and prices will level off, but when?

50% off has increased sales, but not enough to absorb the excess and stabalize the prices.

And the Alt-A tsunami is likely to drown everyone.

The only cure is time and pain. Lots of both.

mopar777 said...

I would guess that only after the election the politicians will do what needs to be done.
One of them was grandstanding on CSPAN this morning, saying that large scale homelessness is "unacceptable" in the America of today.
Dude! The concept of safety and security for all is unrealistic and doesn't exist in nature.

patient renter said...

Home sales are up dramatically over last year because of fire-sale prices

Fire sale? Are we still playing that game where we pretend that there was no housing bubble and therefore prices that are off of their bubble inflated peaks are supposed to be considered cheap? What a bunch of pathetic crap from the business journal. Maybe when the writers lose their jobs, they can find work writing for the local high school paper.

large scale homelessness is "unacceptable" in the America of today.

I don't know which candidate said that, but either way, what a worthless pandering idiot. How incredibly inept must one be to think that losing your home to foreclosure means that you are homeless. Either the candidate who said this is truly an idiot, or is taking his audience to be one. Either way, god save us from this sort of politician.

Cow_tipping said...

Aaaah yes, today's fire sale buyer, it tommorow's upside down homeowner is next week's short seller is next month's fire sale.
And houselessness is not homelessness. Implying that it is, insults homeless people.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

2cents said...

Aaaah yes, today's fire sale buyer, is tommorow's upside down homeowner is next week's short seller is next month's fire sale.

It's rapid turnover, just like during the bubble expansion, except that these transactions generate a loss instead of a profit.

Pre-bubble: 1/2 inch layer of white paint over everything on the interior + front door painted red + 100 ft2 of fresh sod in the front yard => profit.

Post-bubble: few broken windows + all cabinets and appliances missing + dead body under floorboards => loss.

Hamsilton said...

Where's Sippn? Why isn't he calling bottom on every story?

Before vanishing was he ever man enough to eat crow and apologize for all the fatal financial advice he was pushing all the way down? [50% down that is!]