Realty World – Success Plans, Inc.

Home sales have declined in some areas and its due to high demand, low interest rates and a shortage of homes to buy.  This creates a change in the market place.  Not good for buyers but good for sellers.
Buyers around the bay area are going to be happy to see more homes on the market.  Currently homes that are under $400,000 are experiencing a seller’s market.  Most sellers are receiving multiple offers for their home.  Every home that I have made offers for my clients have had more then 1 offer.  One house in Hayward had 18 to 20 offers.  Another house in San Bruno had 6 offers. My listing in So. San Francisco received 2 offers above the asking price, right after my open house, and 1 was all cash.   My other listing in Pacifica received 8 offers, all over the asking price.  It’s like that all over the Bay Area.  It’s pretty discouraging for buyers today.
Maybe there is some relief coming soon.  There is a shadow inventory due to be release around summer.  I hope this will help the buyers that are trying to get into their home.
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Buyers compete for short supply of homes in Bay Area (mercurynews.com)
Understanding the Difference Between Balanced, Buyers’ & Sellers’ Markets in Real Estate Lingo… (sellgrandrapidshomes.wordpress.com)
Forclosures Hold Steady Overall, NY Rate Rises (traditionta.wordpress.com)

Here we are again.  It seems like every governmental agency has it’s favorites.  Remember the huge governmental bail outs, well here’s another example of government unfairness.  RESPA  seems to also have favorites too.  Is this really going to help consumers?
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In the past few weeks the real estate market showed multiple signs of a rebound of some sort.  In 20 metropolitan areas prices rose 0.2% in August but were still down 3.8% year over year.  This may all change soon.  In September, pending sales were down 4.6%.  Could this be another beginning of a triple dip?  With Freddie Mac requesting for another $6 billion of your tax money and holding about 60,000 REOs from the market, which will take approx. 15 years to sell off, I don’t think our country’s rebound in a lot of areas will happen anytime soon and hope that the triple dip is not too severe.
Some help is on the way.  The Federal Housing Financing Agency is trying to help change the market.  They are making a few changes to the Home Affordable Refinancing Program to attract more borrowers and stimulate the mortgage industry and helping more homeowners.  The National Association of REALTORS are also concerned with the state of our real estate market and has a 5 point plan that could get us out of this triple dip situation and stabilize the market.  With any change, it will take a while for the changes to make a difference.  Let’s hope that it won’t be too long.

There has been more then 610,000 foreclosures last month and represents a 1% increase then the previous quarter.  On average it took 336 days to complete the foreclosure process nation wide.  New York took 986 days to complete the process while Texas only took 86 days.  Wow, Texas seems to be doing something different. 
President Obama is expected to help struggling homeowners with their mortgage payments.  The Wall Street Journal reports,  ”The administration’s plan is expected to eliminate “appraisals and extensive underwriting requirements for most borrowers” who are up-to-date on their mortgage and want to refinance at a lower rate”.  This should help those who have been keeping up with their payments and were looking for assistance in avoiding foreclosure. 
While most the country is having foreclosure problems, there are areas that are still doing well.  These areas are the most expensive areas in the United States.  The economy today doesn’t seem to hurt these types of properties.  In fact, it seems to have increased the sales activity  in this  price range.