This chart shows that we haven't seen inventory this low since December 2005!
In addition to this low inventory, rising rental costs and the lowest mortgage rates EVER, are a significant incentive for potential homeowners to purchase and also for investors to increase their portfolios.
Over a third of Woodbridge sales prices the past couple of months were at, or OVER list price.
Attitudes about the U.S. housing market continue to improve. Fannie Mae’s recent survey showed that 73% of Americans surveyed believe it is a good time to buy a home.
Most people know that while real estate is LOCAL, the market has become GLOBAL. About a third of all buyers these days are from overseas, and international buyers bought $82.5 billion in real estate in the U.S. over the past year.
There is always an attraction to buying a foreclosed property, (REO), or a short sale. Whenever I meet with new clients, particularly investors, their purchase goals typically include the purchase of a distressed property. Most buyers still believe that they can get the best screaming deal ever by buying a distressed property.
The problem in Irvine is there are not many to choose from.
In the past 9 weeks, only 14 of the 65 Woodbridge closed sales were distressed properties, and as of today, NONE of the 32 active Woodbridge listings are distressed.
Last year when defaults were higher and the market was weaker, the number of Irvine bank-owned properties, (REOs), listed as active, regularly ranged between 35 and 50.
Today we have only SIX active bank-owned properties listed in the whole of Irvine, and there are only 30 short sale listings, (out of a total of 402 active Irvine listings). Note that many of those "active" short sales are not really active. Many agents working with offers just haven't changed the status of the listings on the MLS to "backup offers" or "pending".
There are 28 Woodbridge distressed properties in "backup offers" or "pending" status right now, and who knows ho long each will take to close, (and some will NOT close!). Short sales can take anything from a few months to over a YEAR to close.
Sometimes buyers have offers in on multiple properties, or their situation changes after a few months, and when the whole long process is finally near completion, they decide not to go through with the purchase. So the process starts again with another buyer.
An offer was accepted on my 9 Cedarlake short sale listing after only a few days on the market. This was in late January. The "buyer" disappeared after six months, so I relisted the property as “active”, and an offer was accepted the next day. Escrow is scheduled to close this week.
Look at the great location of this Lakeside tract home.
Sure there are challenges in today's housing market, but those challenges bring opportunities.
The main challenge that I see in the market today is the shortage of housing. I believe that shortly, more and more homeowners who have casually been thinking of selling, will realize that low supply = high demand, and the "sellers market" that we are in right now, could be a good time to talk with a real estate professional about their home's value, and to find out what creative means that agent could use to get top dollar for their home.
