As Halloween approaches it appears that some of the homes on the block will have the porch light out for reasons other than avoiding tricker treaters. 

Inventory is down in Folsom CA and short sales and foreclosures currently represent just under one half  of all residential home sales.  The spookiest information I found was the amount of bank owned homes (REO’s) in Folsom which currently stands at 896!  According to Realist there are currently 232 pre-foreclosures in Folsom which means that the homeowners are behind in their mortgage payments and a Notice of Default (NOD) has been filed. Their are also 192 homes that are set to go to auction.  I usually see most of these homes go back to the bank because buyers are leery of purchasing a home without full disclosures available on the condition of title.

The latest numbers for Sept. 2009 show that there were 64 homes sold in Folsom CA, of which 14 were bank owned.  Short sales accounted for 12 homes sold which is encouraging because most likely those homes were still occupied and maintained up to the sale. The rest of the properties were fair market sales which include investors selling previous bank foreclosures.

There is some positive news on the horizon which includes a possible extension of the $8000 tax credit for buyers. The discussion includes allowing all buyers to participate so that could help those move up buyers re-examine their options. One other piece of good news are the current interest rates which are still hovering at the 4 3/4% to 5 1/2 % range. These are not the frightening rates that were available when I purchased my first home…they were around 11%…now that’s scary!

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Talking with a real estate investor the other day I was set straight about what I (and many others) assumed was happening with properties going to auction. Apparently investors once poised to take advantage of this market are scouring for bargains too. According to Foreclosure Radar approximately 94% of all the homes that get sold at a trust deed sale in our area go back to the bank!  Given the moratorium on  Notices of Default (NOD) filings and the hope of receiving bail out money it’s no wonder the banks are finally streamlining short sales…they need to make some money!

Recent statistics for  Sacramento county reveal that there are approximately 6000 homes currently for sale. Another statistic that astounds me is that the banks have about 4400 homes being held back from the market. Now if they were to put all of those homes on the market today then we’d see an investor feeding frenzy. With the recent low interest rates and now the approval of  the $8000 tax credit allowed for closing costs, buyers have a golden opportunity to beat the investors to the deal.  

First time home owners finally have a chance to get into our market after being locked out for the past few years. This reminds me of the bay area right after Prop 13 passed and homes were snapped up  en masse. The difference is that  interest rates are hovering around 5% AND the median price of a home in Sacramento county is $212,000. With those stats you could own a home with a monthly payment of around $1500.00 including taxes and insurance!  These days cash is king but FHA works just as well to buy a home so what are you waiting for?

Related articles:

http://folsomlakehomes.com/2009/05/06/foreclosures-fixer-scams/

http://folsomlakehomes.com/2009/04/28/short-sales-impact-on-credit-scores/

http://folsomlakehomes.com/2009/04/14/california-prevention-act/

http://folsomlakehomes.com/2009/02/16/loan-modifications-vs-short-sales/

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