Yup, it’s true. Foreclosures in San Francisco are up from a whopping 62 63 notices in 2006 to 65 in 2007, or 3%. Dave, it looks like you were one of a very few to get your hands on a foreclosure in San Francisco. Hats off to you. We anxiously await the story.
As always, we try to find the silver lining to an otherwise very dark cloud. At the same time, we know the market is not immune to national trends, nor do we ever claim to know where it is heading, but we feel some things are important to at least note, especially when we didn’t write it.
Thanks to JJ for the tip on that.
It’s actually more like a 4.8% increase.
Actually, I take that back. Looking at the article, it is 3% but it’s 63 to 65, not 62 to 65 as you indicated. Feel free to nuke these comments when/if you correct the typo.
[Editor’s note: Thanks for spotting that. It is fixed, and we’ll leave your comments here. We like them. ;-) ]
I work for CurrentForeclosures.com, a foreclosures site and have seen a huge increase in the number of foreclosures in the past 9 months. I believe it is a combination of not only sub-prime and ARM mortgages, but also the high number of people who have gotten loans with interest rates at an all time low… in addition to the rapid depreciation in some areas and the difficulty some are experiencing in selling their homes.
I’m surprised Marin isn’t worse.
I think the SF #’s are lower cause its easier for owners in trouble to get-out of their property for a slight discount. There are still lots of buyers waiting to pounce on anything that smells like a deal.
There was a hotly discussed foreclosure listed by Monica Pauli over on another blog that was bank owned. I’d like to see full year 06 and 07 data when its released. I suspect the % increases will be larger.
Funny there is a huge drop of notices and trustee sales in San Mateo. Must be facebook :)
Wow. I got called out. I’m touched…
As I mentioned before, there wasn’t much magic in my purchase. The house was listed on MLS like everything else but was disclosed as an REO. I had an RSS feed set up to track craigslist postings with the phrase “REO” or “bank owned”. (Real estate MLS search engines lack this keyword search capability..)
Once I saw this property show up, I attended open houses like everyone else. I think what scared most people away is the amount of deferred maintenance. 101 years old and not very well kept up. Needs a few big ticket items right off the bat ($75-100k), but I can afford to do these repairs and don’t mind the temporary inconvenience.
Lastly, I presented a very clean offer. I cannot stress how important this is when purchasing a trust sale or an REO. The seller is a bank. (Imagine a room full of dudes in suits in a boardroom, hundreds or thousands of miles away from the property.) They do not want to negotiate with you about the lead paint on the windowsill or the cracks in the plaster. They have probably never seen the property.
They also don’t want lots of contingencies. I waived inspection and pest reports. (I had my contractor inspect it anyway, but not write up a report. This was just for my peace of mind…) They won’t wait on you to sell your home, etc. Money talks, you know the rest of the saying.
We submitted an offer that was roughly $30k below asking (and the house was already listed for almost $300k below it’s previous selling price) but the offer was super, super-clean. There were four offers total. I’m guessing that I wasn’t the high bid, but I was the cleanest. Also had great credit and came pre-approved (harder to do in the current climate).
For those looking to help on property shark or foreclosures.com, I can’t help you. I’ve found those sites kinda useless. To buy at auction on the courthouse steps requires mega cash. Not possible for me, and most of those properties are in crap neighborhoods. There are books (I’ve read them) that tell you how to find people who are in trouble (recipients of NODs) but it’s a creepy notion to me that I should call or send a letter to a distressed borrower, offering to bail them out…
If you’re looking for a deal, I recommend setting up RSS feeds on craigslist and searching for NOD, REO, “short sale”, “pre foreclosure”, etc. If people are desperate to sell, they’ll typically advertise it. Good luck to all…
Construction starts in 2 weeks!
It must be frustrating for many ‘investing the difference’ in this kind of stock market. It is frustrating the SF and SJ prices keep rising where the rest of the country is falling. I wouldn’t know what to do if I was looking to buy.
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/realestate/2007/08/16/homes-prices-housing-forbeslife-cx_mw_0816realestate.html
[Editor’s note: Wondering, thanks for this link. In the future, please send it either via email to [email protected] or through our Contact form. Your Gough and Cherry properties will be up tomorrow on the site.]