greg-cws
06-08-2009, 06:40 PM
A Nascent Recovery: Overlooked Signs the U.S. Housing Market Is Turning
In the Sacramento Delta suburbs east of San Francisco — where home prices soared and fell as viciously as anywhere in the country — a housing market rebound is feverishly underway. A 1,600-square-foot rancher in Antioch listed for $179,000 — after last selling for $425,000 in 2004 — drew multiple offers last month with a high of $210,000 in cash. The property was a “short sale” whose owner needs lender approval to sell for less than the mortgage owed — and which buyers wouldn’t touch just three months ago. “My phone was ringing off the hook, my voice mail was on overload and people were coming into the office receptionist saying they couldn’t reach me,” said Christy Howard, a Coldwell Banker Coon and McCreary agent who listed the house. “Everyone was waiting for the bottom, and the problem is they waited too long, because the bottom has already come and gone.” Spurred by markdowns up to 80% from market highs, first-time buyers and investors both American and foreign descended en masse in the last three months on San Francisco’s hardest-hit hinterlands as Wall Street and the economic climate improved. They’re picking clean the Delta region’s bank-owned inventory as soon as properties hit the market and are engaged in unprecedented bidding wars even on short sales. The panicked buying — fueled by buyers fearing they will miss out on fire-sale prices — belies the doom-and-gloom evoked by recent reports of rising mortgage delinquency rates and foreclosure activity. After spending most of the 1990s in the $250,000 range, the median-priced home that was sold in the seven-county San Francisco area rose to a staggering $850,000 by its May 2007 peak. It since fell to a low of $399,000 in February — a 53% drop in just 21 months — before posting its first monthly gain in March, a 1% uptick. (www.marketwatch.com)
MarketWatch (6/5/09); Chris Pummer
In the Sacramento Delta suburbs east of San Francisco — where home prices soared and fell as viciously as anywhere in the country — a housing market rebound is feverishly underway. A 1,600-square-foot rancher in Antioch listed for $179,000 — after last selling for $425,000 in 2004 — drew multiple offers last month with a high of $210,000 in cash. The property was a “short sale” whose owner needs lender approval to sell for less than the mortgage owed — and which buyers wouldn’t touch just three months ago. “My phone was ringing off the hook, my voice mail was on overload and people were coming into the office receptionist saying they couldn’t reach me,” said Christy Howard, a Coldwell Banker Coon and McCreary agent who listed the house. “Everyone was waiting for the bottom, and the problem is they waited too long, because the bottom has already come and gone.” Spurred by markdowns up to 80% from market highs, first-time buyers and investors both American and foreign descended en masse in the last three months on San Francisco’s hardest-hit hinterlands as Wall Street and the economic climate improved. They’re picking clean the Delta region’s bank-owned inventory as soon as properties hit the market and are engaged in unprecedented bidding wars even on short sales. The panicked buying — fueled by buyers fearing they will miss out on fire-sale prices — belies the doom-and-gloom evoked by recent reports of rising mortgage delinquency rates and foreclosure activity. After spending most of the 1990s in the $250,000 range, the median-priced home that was sold in the seven-county San Francisco area rose to a staggering $850,000 by its May 2007 peak. It since fell to a low of $399,000 in February — a 53% drop in just 21 months — before posting its first monthly gain in March, a 1% uptick. (www.marketwatch.com)
MarketWatch (6/5/09); Chris Pummer