It’s no secret. Foreclosures and short sales in Kitsap set the price for everyone else. Why?
According to the June, 2010 Kitsap Market Statistical Summary there were 1,297 closed sales of existing homes for the year ending 6/30/2010. In a separate study I discovered that a total of 708 of those closings were classified as bank owned properties or required third party approval (aka short sales). Let’s do the arithmetic. That is 708 divided by 1,297 or 55% of all sales were closed by these highly motivated sellers.
So what about sales that were not in the distressed category? Well, anybody selling in this market must meet the price competition. If non-distressed home sellers want to sell in this market they must meet the price competition by the banks. Why would any rational buyer pay more if there were a good supply of real alternatives at a lower price?
Why Buyers of Homes In Kitsap Can Expect Good Opportunities
Click On This Image To Get Your Free List of Kitsap or Gig Harbor Foreclosures or Bank Owned Properties
Trends for residential sales are not yet breaking positively for Kitsap County. The active listing inventory of homes in June 2010 was at 1,879 versus 1,758 for June 2009. Median asking price was $319,000 compared to $350,000 one year ago. Median days on market was 126 for June 2010 versus 133 one year ago.
The number of pending sales was 239 in June 2010 and 372 in June 2009. Their respective ratios were 13% and 21% showing a precipitous drop. Pending sales ration are near term indicators of sales activity and the near term direction of price trends. The median price for pending sales for June 2010 was $265,000 and $246,125 a year ago. This is a sign perhaps of increased activity in move up sales. Days on market was 107 for June 2010 and 86 for June 2009.
Closed sales in June 2010 were up slightly for June 2010 at 266 units vs. 249 for June 2009. There is a more impressive difference in the Year To Date tally with 1,297 for YTD 2010 and 1,090 one year ago. The median closed price was $236,000 in June 2010 and $245,000 in June 2009. Days on market were 156 in June 2010 and 83 in June 2009.
This is likely because the lid has come off prices asked by lenders for foreclosures in Kitsap and short sales. I guess so when you consider that in the last twelve months the number of closings tagged as bank owned properties and third party approval required totaled 627 or 48%. Sure looks like those lenders are setting the price for everyone else.
Home Loan Rates Are At Record Lows.
Loan rates available to qualified buyers on July 15th, 2010, even those with zero down were between 4.5% and 4.75%. This means that if you were to obtain a loan for the median priced closed home in Kitsap in June, 2010 for $236,000 for 100% of the purchase price that your payment of principle and interest for a 30 year fixed rate loan would be $1,195.78. Throw in $300 per month for taxes and insurance and that might be say $1,496 per month for your housing expense which is about the same rate you would need to pay in rent for most of these homes selling at the median.
These are truly unusual times for buyers. How much longer will this perfect storm of conditions last?
Conveniently Located Commercial Property Optimized For Local Business
Anderson Properties has announced that they have made special warehouse office condos for sale or lease at 650 Bovela Lane in Poulsbo, WA. Each unit is approximately 1,692 square feet and have various existing configurations of office improvements and warehouse space. They are ideally suited for commercial real estate uses or storage. Located just off Viking Avenue at Bovela Lane you can reach Highway 3 at Finn Hill in under 10 minutes.
Some units are already leased and may be purchased as investment property. Special SBA financing is available along with potential seller financing. For more details about these units or to request a list of commercial industrial Kitsap real estate please visit:
Here is a “different view” of a foreclosure listing in Port Orchard. If you like this kind of view I would be interested in finding out. YouTube allows you vote or comment so feel free.
Robert Shiller Ponders the Future of The Housing Market
Robert Shiller of the Case-Shiller Housing Market Index
Real estate investors, lenders, brokers and increasingly homeowners need to track home values more closely to make decisions that have outsize effects in their personal financial lives and collectively on the economy. One of the most watched housing indices is something called the Case-Shiller Index developed by Yale economist and author Robert Shiller and his graduate student, Mr. Case. The index is so closely watched because it tracks price movements of actual homes in major markets over time rather than rely on statistical medians that cannot correct for differences in the types of homes that are developed and sold in regional or SMSA markets in different market cycles.
To understand real estate market cycles I highly recommend reading a book by author Robert Campbell. Campbell also publishes a bi-monthly real estate market timing newsletter the predictions from which I share with my clients.
But, for more insight from Robert Shiller check out this recent interview with Robert Shiller by the Motley Fool:
Federal Reserve policymakers are worried that the recovery in the economy may lose steam going forward, according to minutes from a recent policy meeting, . “While participants saw incoming information as broadly consistent with continued strengthening of economic activity, they also highlighted a variety of factors that would be likely to restrain the overall pace of recovery, especially in light of the waning effects of fiscal stimulus and inventory rebalancing over coming quarters,” the minutes said. Fed members apparently believed the bank’s policy of “exceptionally low rates” for “an extended period” is explicitly contingent on the evolution of the economy rather than on the passage of any fixed amount of calendar time.” The central bank’s current policy does not limit the Fed from tightening or maintaining its monetary policy, they said.
Announcements by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Will Impact Availability of Home Loan Financing In Kitsap County
If you read the news or absorb it from other media you a re likely aware that something called the secondary mortgage market supplies the funds for our home loans. So what is the secondary mortgage market?
When you borrow money to purchase or re-finance a home loan the company you initially deal with is called the originator. They originate the loan you receive. Most often, that company sells that loan to an investor who then collects hundreds and thousands of loans into pools. Then that company or in many cases others financial firms create a new security instrument (bonds) secured by a possessory interest in the loans. This is called a mortgage backed security. The pool of loans is held by a trustee (usually a trust department of a large bank). The trustee manages a mortgage servicer who then collects the payments form the mortgage loans and transmits the interest and principal to the trustee for disbursement to the people who purchased the bonds (bondholders) secured by the pools.
Our Saturday Foreclosure Tour returns to Bremerton-Silverdale this Saturday. It has been a couple of weeks since we covered that area and some very interesting things have happened since.
The five properties that we had on the tour were chosen because our poll of area real estate agents had indicated that they were special values based upon their listing price. And guess what? Every one of those properties has gone under contract.
Will Farms In Kitsap Be Preserved As Productive Farmland and Open Space or Subdivided For Housing?
Hansville Nursery
Jim Freeman, associate broker at Coldwell Banker Park Shore announced on February 15, 2010 the listing of the 144 acre Hansville Nursery land for sale. Also known as the Old Homestead Plat the owner, Olympic Property Group LLC, a subsidiary of Pope Resources Group, has operated the land as a Douglas Fir tree nursery for more than 20 years. Recent price and volume declines in the lumber industry forced a decision to shutter the nursery operation in 2009 and put the property on the market.
Fixer Uppers,
Bank Foreclosures,
Distress Sales,
Company Owned Properties,
Free List With Pictures,
Foreclosures_In_Kitsap
360-616-7924,
Coldwell Banker Park Shore Real Estate
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