Selling Your Home? Conejo Valley Homeowners have less competition than in previous markets
By: Rob Jordan
Can it be possible? Despite the housing bust and high foreclosure rates, there aren’t enough homes to sell.In California, almost all cities have a short supply of single-family homes.
That’s especially true in the lower-priced categories, according to Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors. As a local Agoura Realtor with Sotheby’s International Realty/Ewing and Associates, I know of many homes priced under $600,000 that often sell in just a matter of days, and often with multiple offers. “My last listing sold in 4 days, and we had 5 offers, all above asking price, by the end of the first weekend.”
There are plenty of more expensive homes in California. In the higher price ranges, sales are slower than they would be because of continued problems in obtaining financing. Right now, most jumbo-mortgage lenders require down payments of 30% to 35%, but as that eases, sales of higher end homes should rise and supplies fall.
Shadow Inventory of Homes?
Prices go up, supply goes up
Ordinarily, rising prices are an indication of shrinking inventory. But these are far from ordinary times. Never have there been so many properties that could be for sale — but aren’t.
This so-called “shadow inventory” comes from two main sources: properties lenders have not yet repossessed or have not yet put back on the market; and homeowners who want to sell but who have refrained because of low prices.
Lenders are also holding back on foreclosing at all, either because they’re having trouble handling the volume of repossessions or because they want to sell off some of the inventory they already have.
“Notices of default are filed, but they’re not taking the properties back,” said one Realtor.
Zillow surveys indicate there’s a big pool of homeowners who have wanted to sell their homes during the past three years but market conditions either prevented sales or kept them from trying. The company estimates that 8% of homeowners are very likely to try to sell their homes in the next twelve months if they see signs of improvement in their local markets.”These sidelined sellers closely watch the market for signs of a possible turnaround and rush in if there’s a hint of good news,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow.com.
Rob Jordan, Sotheby’s International Realty/Ewing and Associates, can inform you about your local market, and what your options are. He can be reached at 818.237.4425. This article originally printed in on the CAR (California Association of Realtors) website.
EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.
