Remember when Craig’s List was a useful tool in your real estate search?  You could actually find sellers looking for buyers, a nice little FSBO marketplace.

Then the Realtors discovered CL and started wallpapering it with all their MLS "listings".  The number of daily posts increased at least 10 fold and became unmanageable to sift through, homes were reposted daily, and the whole concept of a Craig’s List Community, the whole reason Craig’s List exists, was lost. (you can now search for agent or owner postings)

Anyone who has ever used CL knows who the worst offender is - "Kristina".  4 or 5 postings a day, ALL CAPS, weird ampersands stars and symbols, "just listed" for months on end, "best deal", "below market", "won’t last".  If you enter "kristina" into the search bar, you get 162 postings!  All are spaced out to meet CL rules, and all show the inability to move the listings.

When I get really bored or pissed off, I find poking sticks at Realtors good therapy, and Kristina has gotten her share of rib jabs from me:

-  Non-disclosure of her property ownership in many  listings.

-  Posting listings from other agents at her brokerage to drum up business.

-  Posting listings she has absolutely nothing to do with from other brokerages to drum up referrals.

-  Not listing, or mis-listing property addresses to hinder public records searches.

I should have saved some of her responses for your enjoyment.  Suffice it to say they did not bring an air of professionalism to the discourse, or to her chosen profession.  Lunatic rants might be a better description of the responses I received to my criticisms. 

Oh wait, did I mention she and her husband were also investors?  They managed over a few years to assemble the second ickiest portfolio of properties I have ever seen (search Nick or Gita Kavishi for a real rubber glove experience).  Here are their NODs for the last  2 months:  535 Nicia, 9105 Red Baron, 612 W. Plumb, 11508 Sitka, 11675 Fir, 3815 Petrel, and 6580 Fern.  There are a few other properties to follow shortly.

Silly, puritanical me, but I expect a "Real Estate Executive of Northern Nevada" to actually be one and act like one, to understand the market as a professional, and to serve their clients on either side of the deal as one.    The Kristina has done none of these, and has demeaned whatever little credibility here industry still holds.  So STOMP.  I feel better, but I’ll have to clean my shoes off now.  Edelmira?  STOMP.  Barnes Group? STOMP.  50 other industry professionals holding 300 or more default properties? STOMP.

Do you have other STOMP candidates?

Chase International’s Vice President, Sue Lowe, was interviewed for an article that appeared in yesterday’s RGJ about the current state of Lake Tahoe and Reno’s housing market.  If you missed it, you can read the entire article here: Falling Tahoe home sales, prices push rebound out of reach

This morning Chase International [the broker where I hang my license] released the data that was quoted in much of the article.  I thought I’d pass this along to our readers [simply click of the docs below].  The docs are multi-page .PDFs, so flip through them to find the area in which you’re interested.

Of particular interest are the price-branding charts.  Take a look at Reno’s price branding.  You’ll see that year-to-date: 90% of home sales in Reno/Sparks sold for under $500,000; 76% sold for under $350,000; and 44% sold for less that $250,000.

Sales in September 2008 were up 2% from the year prior. The under $300K range gained some ground as inventory dropped to 9 months’ supply, and the $300K-500K range held steady at 12 months’ supply. The $500K-1 million category improved somewhat with higher absorption rates, reduced inventory and fewer days on the market. The $1-2 million range continues to crawl along with over four-and-a-half years of inventory. The $2 million plus range actually saw two sales this month. Pendings dropped slightly, normal at this time of year. Meanwhile, sales of properties under $200K continue to sell at more than double the number sold last year, at an average price of $158,267. Full report.

Data courtesy of NNRMLS, September 2008. Report includes Stick-Built Single Family, Condo/Townhomes, and Real Property Manufactured Housing in Reno-Sparks (Area 100).

Our friends at Ticor Title have put together an informative piece showing the differences between a standard resale transaction and an REO (bank owned) transaction.

Although REO transactions are typically much smoother than short sale transactions, there are many inherent complexities that can still add time and delays to the escrow process and closing period. 

Click on the document below to learn of these potential closing delays.

From my monthly median sold price table we know that Reno-Sparks home prices are now more then 30% off their peak reached in July 2005.  But this number is for all Reno and Sparks.  What are the declines by MLS area?  And did every area peak at the same time?  These are questions I was curious about, so I pulled the data and found the following results (see table below).

Depending on the area, sold prices peaked in June, July or August of 2005.  This was expected.  However, the percent today that these areas are off their peaks is much more variable.  For example, MLS area 163 (“Southwest”) has experienced the smallest decline; only 19.4%.  Followed by area 142 (“Hidden Valley”) with a mere 22.2% fall.

Which areas have been hit the hardest?  The “Old South Suburban” area (MLS area 164) has suffered a 46.3% drop in prices; and “Donner Springs” (MLS area 141) has fallen 42.6%.

Here a link to the MLS Area map as provided by the Northern Nevada Regional MLS.

It appears that August 2008 had a significant increase in closings and dollar volume over July 2008 while builder/developer sales had a very slight decrease.

Information provided by Jud Klinger of Datasource (www.datasourcenev.com).

Well, it’s finally happened.  The number of re-fi’s have now fallen below the number of resales.  My contact at Ticor Title tells me that this has never occurred in this market in the twenty years she’s been in the real estate industry, and possibly longer than that.  As this blog’s own Mike McGonagle observes: “A bit over a year ago, [re-fi’s] were outnumbering resales about 3:1.  Last month, for the first time ever, resales outnumbered [re-fi’s].  Refi/HELOCs are less that 25% of the peak numbers.  Looks like a pretty good indication of how the banks are rating the "equity" we all have in out homes!”

Given the trend of the re-fi line below, this situation does not look to change anytime soon.

The other chart shows NODs remaining high and holding at the 400+ level.

Click on the charts below to see the data.

The foreclosures started (Notice of Default) January thru August 2007 averaged 223 per month while January thru August 2008 brought us an average of 505 per month.  Foreclosures completed (Trustee’s Deeds) January 2007 thru August 2007 averaged 55 per month with January thru August 2008 bringing in 206 per month. 

Information provided

by Jud Klinger of Datasourcr www.datasourcenev.com

Sales in August 2008 were down 7% from the year prior. The under $300K range lost some ground as inventory crept up to 10 months’ supply, and the $300K-500K range also crept upward to 12 months’ supply. The $500K-1 million category crawled along as always, this time with a noticeable drop in average price, accompanied by longer days on the market. The $1-2 million range continues to sell at a snail’s pace, though better this time with a whopping five-sale month, yet inventory remains high at 48 months. The $2 million plus range saw no activity again this month. Pendings rose again, most notably in the under $300K range, as did short sale pendings. Meanwhile, sales of properties under $200K more than doubled compared to the number sold last year. Full report.

Data courtesy of NNRMLS, August 2008. Report includes Stick-Built Single Family, Condo/Townhomes, and Real Property Manufactured Housing in Reno-Sparks (Area 100).

Another month, another substantial decrease.  This month both the median sales price AND the number of sales dramatically decreased.  August’s median sales price of $240,000 represents a 2.8% decline from July’s $247,000.  YoY decrease is 18.6%; Yo2Y decrease is 22.6%; and we are now 30.4% off our peak of $345,000 set in July 2005.

Units sold also took a big drop this past month.  332 units sold in August represent a 20% drop from July’s 415 sales.  School has started and the traditional home-buying season is over.  Units sold will continue to fall for the remainder of the year.

Much discussion takes place (on this blog and elsewhere) regarding when the bottom will be reached.  If by “bottom” we’re referring to median sales price, clearly it is still falling.  From other posts on this blog we know that 40% of the listed properties are comprised of short sales and foreclosures (bank-owned).  These distressed properties now account for 50% of our sales.  I see no reason for the proportion of sales driven by distressed properties to fall.  Because these distressed properties are typically priced lower than comparable (non-distressed) resales, downward pricing pressure will continue to impact the market across the board. 

Not until the foreclosures, REOs, and short sales are flushed out of the inventory can we hope for prices to stabilize. 

 Note: The median table above is updated on a monthly basis. The median home price data reported covers the cities of Reno, NV and Sparks, NV. Residential data includes Site/Stick Built and Condo/Townhouse. Data excludes Manufactured/Modular and Shared Ownership properties. Data courtesy of the Northern Nevada Regional MLS - August 2008.