Below is the Market Condition Report for March provided to us by our friends at First Centennial Title.
Noteable points from March’s report:
- median sale price has dropped below $200K for SFR
- median sale price has dropped below $100K for Condos
- current REO count for Washoe County is 2,597 and appears to be increasing at the rate of about 1 per day.
- months supply of inventory continuing to decline over March
- “percent selling” moved up 6 points for both types (second month) due to reduction in failures and increase in demand.
Note: Percent Selling is defined as – Closed per month divided by closed per month plus failed per month (total market resolutions). This measure generates the market driven probability that a property will close as opposed to fail. Seller’s markets generate selling probabilities above 60%. Buyer’s markets typically perform below 45%.
Washoe County is current at 51%.
Click on the report to enlarge
Reno Ignoramus
A bit off topic, but have you all observed that the MLS now describes whether or not a listing is bank owned or a short sale? I find this to be a great improvement. In Somersett, for example, it appears that almost 50% of the MLS listings are either an REO or a short sale. If a listing happens to not be a short sale, it appears to now be a marketing strategy to anounce “not a short sale” in the MLS listing.
The ever increasing number of short sales raises a question for me, and I wonder if anybody knows the answer. So what does it take to qualify for a short sale these days? Does the short seller have to effectively prove he is broke to get the bank to agree to take less than is owed? I would not imagine that a bank would agree to accept, for example, $200K less than it is owed if the seller had $200K in other assets that he could liquidate to “bring to the table” at closing. Anybody have any specific experiences or knowledge they could share?
Sean
Well I see our very own Diane’s home is listed as a short sale at 525k on the mls just recently reduced from 545k even though its been on the market less than a week. Diane, can you fill us in on how the bank qualified you for a short sale?
SmartMoney
Like many American’s, Diane probably lives paycheck to paycheck and has negative net worth.
DonC
Interesting article on the question of whether the market is stabilizing or not. Clever use of auctions as a prognostication and an interesting interactive tool for comparing house prices\income in different cities (unfortunately Reno is not included).
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/business/economy/22leonhardt.html?hp
Stoney
RI,
My experience is that if the short seller can demonstrate a negative life event, such as the death of a spouse, or a serious illness, or a divorce, then MAYBE, and I emphasize MAYBE the lender will be willing to allow a short sale even though the seller may not be totally without assets. It seems to be largely hit and miss with the lenders these days on what they want to approve a short sale. Otherwise, pretty much the lenders do require a proof of essentially no net worth before they will approve a short sale. And even in the case of a divorce, if the seller comes out of the divorce with assets, the bank will not approve a short sale even with a divorce.
It is somewhat sobering how many “upscale” houses in “upscale” neighborhoods with the late model Lexus or BMW in the driveway are occupied by people who have, essentially, nothing.
When it comes to appearances, all that glitters is not gold.
Norton
“all that glitters is not gold.”
The wealthiest people I know are a couple in their early 60s, friends of my parents, who have a net worth in 8 figures. They live in a 1500 sq. ft. 1960s era brick house on 12th Street in the old NW in Reno that they have lived in for about 30 years. They drive a 2003 Subaru.
Nothing glitters about these people, but they are rich in a way that far surpasses their fairly substantial monetary worth. They would be embarrased to live in a McMansion. They would consider it to be pretentious.
Sully
Norton, I have only one word to say – “Amen”
Diane Cohn
Sean, we’ve been told that the banks won’t talk to us until we have an accepted offer in hand. So we’ll have to see what happens.