Big Bear Home Sales Big Bear home sales remained strong in November as the real estate market appears to be hitting its stride. Home sales in November were down 6% when compared to the October sales (88 v. 94), but were up a whopping 76% when compared to the same month last year (88 v. 50). Historically, these numbers are on the low end. But, comparing them to the number of monthly sales over the past couple years, they are stronger and a welcome sign. 27, or 31%, of the 88 home sales in Big Bear were bank … [Read more...]
Buying Properties At An Auction – Waste Of Time or Hidden Gems?
December 5, 2009 by 1 Comment
On the whole, I say a big old waste of time. But let's be clear on what kind of auctions we are talking about. 1. Trustee Sale Auctions (Foreclosure Auctions) These are the auctions sold at the court house steps. This is the third step (behind notice of default and notice of sale) of the foreclosure process in CA, where bidders can show up and purchase the lien position (specific rights) to the property. From my experience, there is a lot of opportunity at these type of auctions. But, with opportunity comes … [Read more...]
A Buyer’s Dilemma – Waiting For Prices To Drop vs. Interest Rate Hikes
November 22, 2009 by 4 Comments
I saw this graph recently and thought I would share it. Nothing new here, people have been talking about this concept for years - waiting for prices to drop more vs. the risk of higher interest rates. Well, here it is again, based on a $100,000 loan. There are two keys questions buyers need to consider right now - 1. How much more are prices going to drop in the market they are looking to buy in? Few experts believe that prices are going to go down another 20%. It could happen, especially in the upper end … [Read more...]
Big Bear Foreclosure Numbers – October 2009
November 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Foreclosure filings in Big Bear were up 10% in October 2009 when compared to the previous month. Year over year, foreclosure filings were up 70% from the October 2008 numbers. New notices of sale shot up in October, showing that banks are still moving forward on foreclosures, while new notices of default and Trustee sales remained relatively the same. Keep in mind, foreclosure filings are made up of three parts - Notices of Default (NOD), a recorded document that starts the foreclosure process, which is filed … [Read more...]
Big Bear Home Sales – October 2009
November 8, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Big Bear Home Sales For the second month in a row, Big Bear home sales are near their two year high. Home sales in October were down 3 % when compared to the September sales (94 v. 92), but were up 26% when compared to the same month last year (92 v. 73). June thru October have been the strongest selling months we've seen during this down market. While it is still a lot slower than the middle part of the decade (we were selling 150-300 homes per month then), and this is typically the busiest time of the year … [Read more...]
Big Bear Bank Owned Homes – Assumptions Are Not Always True
November 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment
There are a lot of assumptions about buying bank owned properties in Big Bear. Here are a couple that I see a lot. 1. Banks or REO sellers will take a lot less than the list price. 2. The listing price for a bank owned property is going to be aggressive. Click here to see embedded video. The fact is bank owned homes in Big Bear are selling closer to the list price than organic sales, 97% vs. 95%. Many times, banks will price their properties so aggressive that they receive multiple offers that go over full … [Read more...]
Sunday Stats For The Big Bear Real Estate Market
November 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment
If you have not already been able to tell, I am a fan of charts and graphs as I think they give you a good visual of how the real estate market in Big Bear is performing. And, it was a quiet day today so I had some time to crunch the residential market stats for Big Bear this year. First off, home sales in Big Bear for 2009 through October. Some key takeaways - Bank owned properties dominated what was selling in the first quarter of the year, but have since dropped off When the total sales dropped, organic … [Read more...]
Vacant Land in Big Bear is Soooo 2003.
October 30, 2009 by Leave a Comment
How hard is it to sell vacant land in today's real estate market in Big Bear? Take a look at the chart below... There's been a dramatic shift in the number of vacant land sales over the past several years. In 2003, our MLS recorded 602 total vacant land sales. '04 we had 514 vacant land sales. '05 we had 482. It wasn't until the turn of 2007 that we saw a dramatic drop in number of sales. We went from 365 total vacant land sales in 2006 to 186 in 2007. And to top it off, 2008 dropped sharply with only 72 … [Read more...]
Big Bear Foreclosure Numbers – September 2009
October 26, 2009 by 4 Comments
Bank repossessions in Big Bear were up 9% in September though the overall foreclosure filings dropped significantly. The foreclosure filings in September 2009 (180) were down 18% from August 2009 (219). Year over year, however, filings were up 122% from the September 2008 (81) numbers. Good news - we are seeing a slow down in the foreclosure numbers. Bad news - the numbers are still too high to be overly excited about the market getting better. Foreclosure filings are made up of three parts - Notices of … [Read more...]
