For anyone interested in the housing market, the following paper is a must read. Presented to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development by Inevitable Change in Lakewood, CO, its author details the true cost of foreclosure to individuals, communities and corporations. Their estimate? $159,000 per per property.
The paper also goes on to analyze what’s wrong with our current system of lenders, Realtors and MLSs. For example, why does it take two million professionals to sell six million units? Inefficiencies abound. Yes, this official-looking document may be a thinly veiled attempt to promote universalmls.com, but it also appears to be a well-researched look at the future of real estate. And its predictions are fascinating.
Let me know what you think.
9 comments
Does this guy currently hold stock in google? Lmao . give me a break
ZipRealty has a much better website for viewing homes for sale compared to Move.com and they give buyers a 20% refund of any commissions that they receive. I suspect that most buyers do a lot of research on the internet and have previewed plenty of houses so less time is spent on actually showing houses.
Isn’t being a realtor an easy field to get into (and to get out of)?
I continue to be amused at the notion that equity-drenched rich Californians are coming here to prop up our high end market because the prices are, relatively speaking, so damn cheap and the tax advantages are so profound.
Let’s look first at SW Suburban in the over $500K price range, aka as Galena, Montreux, and St. James:
120 listings
2 pendings
3 price reductions
That’s a whopping 1.6% of the listings with a pending offer.
Now let’s look at South Suburban over $500K, mostly known as Arrowcreek:
245 listings
13 pendings
10 price reductions
That’s a riproaring 5% of listings with a pending offer.
Now let’s look at West SW over $500K, aka Caughlin Ranch:
66 listings
1 pending
6 price reductions
That’s 1.5% of listings with a pending offer, although it isn’t even statistically significant.
Total:
431 listings
16 pending offers
19 price reductions
That’s an anemic 3.7% of listings with an offer. The pendings are not even keeping pace with the price reductions.
The notion that the high end of Reno’s market is being upheld by rich Californians falling over themselves to buy is phony. It is a charade. It is bogus. The high-end of Reno’s market is not being upheld by rich Californians, or poor Californians, or anybody. Nobody is falling over themselves to buy at these bargain basement (compared to California) prices.
RI posted:
“The high-end of Reno’s market is not being upheld by rich Californians, or poor Californians, or anybody. Nobody is falling over themselves to buy at these bargain basement (compared to California) prices.”
But Tom said that there’s a “bulge” of retirees coming from California, and dirty Donna says “many people just want what they want, and whatever the price/costs are, they just pay it”. Surely the equity locusts are still coming, they’re just a little late. They’ll chew through all of the inventory and prop up the prices. Besides, helicopter Ben Bernanke fixed everything. Sellers have no need to despair. They just need to be patient and tune into “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”.
Let’s say those 16 pending offers actually turn into closed sales. Since most of them are pending offers dependent on the buyers selling their existing house or getting a Jumbo loan, that may be optimistic. But, for the sake of not being a hostile pessimist, let’s say they all go on to close.
431 listings. 16 closed deals.
Gee, that’s only 27 months, or 2.25 YEARS of inventory. Yes, I see where this market is on fire due to all those California retirees and other California rich folk snapping up these houses.
A Californian’s 2 cents:
Guess I’m missing something. I am a Californian and the only thing on the “bulge” here is the Golden State’s deficit and Arnold’s ego. Yes, we have the infamous Prop 13, but 1978 was a long time ago. The home owners (present company EXcluded) have dwindled considerably over the past number of years. Personally, the only people I know of that remain in their Prop 13 homes are quite elderly and have every intention of staying put in their mortgage free homes.
I live in So. Calif. and our home values are eroding. This may be Tinsel Town, but lately, you can find a lot of Hummers for deep discount sale.
Rich Californian retirees? I guess that is a subjective call. I think anyone who has accumulated some wealth did so by not doing foolish things with their resources. Would that include resisting the urge to buy in a real estate market that is circling the drain?
Again I find RI’s factual recitals informative. Let me zero in on Montreux [bundled with St. James Village and Galena]: 120 listings, 2 pending [are they pending in Montreux or perhaps Galena?].
Now I want to quote from this month’s Montreux real estate report [http://www.mtxhoa.com/re/:
“We are thrilled to report that from January 1…to August 20, 2007 there have been a total of 37 properties sold in Montreux; an average rate of 4.3 properties per month. Of the 37 properties sold, 23 were homes and 14 were homesites. This year is shaping up to be stronger than 2006…Despite the negative press, the real estate market in Montreux is right on track!”
Now either RI’s statistics are grossly wrong, or these real estate people are such liars you shouldn’t believe anything they represent [like low real estate taxes, low homeowners’ dues, all those Nevada tax benefits and for my convenience, my purchase price includes the $10K membership buy in into Montreux’s swim club - the one that allows me to be a “social member” (so I can use the pool and work out facilities) for only an additional $187/month {and no, that doesn’t entitle me to golf privileges which kick up my monthly dues by an additional $200 or so/month (but who’s counting? I want what I want regardless of the cost and if I can get a bargain to boot, so be it)}].
I’m particularly amused by the large sign on Mt. Rose Highway announcing the sale of the last golf course homesites in Montreux - once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. Sign me up Scotty!
Looks like there are people for whom money is not a limiting factor.
If I had $40 million in cash, who knows where I might live.
This current correction to the housing market is just a roadkill bump in the road to the very rich. Of course, some of the people who take out liar loans to buy these McMansions are go to wake up one mornimg to find the Sheriff at the front door.
just because you are wealthy or rich doesnt mean you have to buy a mansion..
CHEERS