Simi Valley Home Sales have been moving along at a similar pace and not much has changed. Inventory is still extremely low. There really is not much new to report in that the Tax Credits, low interest rates and low inventory are producing false positives for the news media to feed off.
Simi Valley Single-Family Detached activity up through November 30, 2009 was as follows:
Total Detached Homes Sold = 80
Average Sale Price = $460,636
Average Market Time = 81 days
Of these sold properties – 11 were short sales and 18 were foreclosures. The remaining 51 were non-distressed sales.
New listings coming on the market have already have slowed considerably as seller wait till after the holidays to make a decision whether to list or stay put.
Simi Valley Town Homes & Condominiums activity up through November 30, 2009 was as follows:
Total Attached Homes Sold =15
Average Sale Price = $278,514
Average Market Time = 95 days
Of these attached properties sold, 4 homes were short sales and 5 homes were foreclosures. The remaining 6 homes were non-distressed sales.
Up through February has been typically slow for the Simi Valley Real Estate market and this year should follow pace as it has over the last 10 years. Any increase in inventory and buyer activity is welcome.
Factors that will continue to heavily influence this market are:
LOW INVENTORY
LOW INTEREST RATES
FEDERAL & STATE TAX CREDITS
Why I believe the market cannot sustain any serious increase in pricing:
Monthly Payments
Lending requirements
Since I have not talked much about the last two items let look at how these will seriously affect the market over the next few years.
Monthly Payments - Buyers today will buy in their monthly payment comfort zone. If $2,200 per month is the budget for a buyer, then the ultimate purchase price is tied to interest rates. If the rates go down or stay low then the buyer can afford a larger purchase price, if the rates go up then the buyer will have to change their expectations in the home they plan to purchase or wait to see if the selling prices soften and lower to their affordable payment range.
Lending Requirements – Since the liars loans are a thing of the past, buyers will need to prove income and their ability to repay. No longer will buyers be able to qualify so high above their real purchasing level, that they will artificially drive pricing up.
The value increases in homes will be tied to what Buyers can afford spend on their monthly payment, in which the bank will no longer turn a blind eye to income.
What we need to help move this stalemate along is employment which in turn means that government will have to create a climate in California to keep business from moving outside the state. The uncertainty of employment is a big key to our problems and one that needs attention.
Should you sell your Simi Valley home during the holidays?
There are several positions on whether home Sellers should consider selling their homes or if their home is already listed, continue trying to sell their home throughout the holiday season.
The annual real estate agent hibernation generally starts the week after Halloween and carries on until Super Bowl Sunday. Many brokers and office managers can confirm the decrease of real estate agent activity during this time. I believe this to be a defeatist approach by the agents that simply pull back activity during November, December and January.
The 4 reasons why I believe the Holidays are a good time to Sell your Simi Valley Home are:
Many people improve and finish home projects have been they have been procrastinating on now that relatives and friends are coming to visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The festive decorations of the fall and winter can make a home look warm and inviting.
The wonderful aromas of holiday cooking can make your home even more attractive.
Buyers at this time tend to be more serious.
Really thinking about how attractive your home will be as decorated for the holidays and how good it will smell is easy-to-understand. But, consider the buyers who are out of this time looking at homes instead of shopping and partaking in holiday cheer.
This time of year, buyers searching for Simi Valley homes may be taking advantage of the slow work environment to purchase a home or a possible relocation prior to the new year. With all the holiday activities parties and shopping, anyone out looking for a home during the holidays tend to be a more serious buyer.
So if you’re considering putting your Simi Valley home on the market the holiday season, this could be a great opportunity as other homeowners wait till the new year to list their homes and some competing sellers take their home off the market till the new year. This creates lower inventory and less competition for your home among the more serious buyer pool. Go ahead get out your decorations, cooked those great holiday treats and enjoy your festivities because maybe your prospective buyer will too.
Thanks for reading Simi Valley’s Premiere Real Estate Blog! Author – Ted Mackel Simi Valley Real Estate Agent – Keller Williams Realty Ted Mackel is a top producer at Keller Williams Realty Simi Valley,
specializing in Simi Valley Real Estate (805) 432-7705
Simi Valley California home sales were down in October 2009. This is very interesting in that the market has been pushed in a positive direction by the first-time home buyers tax credit. In September and October buyers knew that the tax credit was scheduled to expire on November 30, this should have reflected in an increase in sales. So far, November sales of single-family detached homes will be stronger than October. Looking closer at these November sales, the majority are in the entry-level price range making this increased activity for November closely tied to the tax credit.
With the extension of the tax credit moved to April 30, 2010, activity should remain brisk as buyers try to take advantage one final time.
Key factors including the affordability, low interest rates, and low inventory are keeping first-time buyers and the investor market very interested in home purchases. While the economy struggles both nationally, statewide and regionally; home buyers and home sellers should be aware that any recovery will most likely be drawn out over a course of years and fairly bumpy from here on out.
What this means for Simi Valley home sellers is that equity recovery is probably not around the corner, but the low inventory levels are helping sellers remain with a slightly stronger negotiating position over the buyers.
What this means for Simi Valley home buyers is that this high level of affordability will continue to create competition for the low supply of inventory.
You’ll notice below that I’m changing the format of my standard monthly market update for Simi Valley home sales. While the averages from the multiple listing service are interesting, if you’ve seen the charting I have posted over the last year, those averages are skewed as the lower end of the market is behaving much differently than the upper end.
Simi Valley single-family detached activity up through October 31, 2009 was as follows:
Total Detached Homes Sold = 60
Average Sale Price = $460,845
Average Market Time = 82 days
Of these sold properties – 11 were short sales and 12 were foreclosures. The remaining 38 were non-distressed sales.
Total Detached Homes Active For Sale = 183
Of these active properties, 25 were short sales and 11 were foreclosures. The remaining 147 were non-distressed sales and an additional 270 homes were in escrow, with 173 of those Detached homes as short sales and 33 foreclosures.
An evident monthly trend is the extremely high ratio of detached homes in escrow compared to available inventory and actual closed sales. This further points to the difficulty sellers are having with short sales. To understand why there is such a high failure rate on short sales please see my article: What Is a Short Sale And Can I Short Sell My House
Simi Valley Town Homes & Condominiums are reacting better and this trend is most likely tied to the low interest rates, affordability and the first-time home buyer tax credit.
Total Attached Homes Sold = 25
Average Sale Price = $277,907
Average Market Time = 93 days
Of these attached properties sold, 6 homes were short sales and 4 homes were foreclosures. The remaining 15 homes were non-distressed sales.
Total Attached Homes Active For Sale = 50
Of these Attached Active Properties, 15 were short sales and 2 were foreclosures. The remaining 33 were non-distressed sales and an additional 133 Attached Simi Valley homes in escrow with 63 as short sales and 12 as foreclosures.
Both in the attached and detached Simi Valley housing sectors these high numbers of short sales are very important to track. Month after month after month, large numbers of homes in escrow have been dominated by short sellers. An average of 80 single-family detached homes are closing escrow each month and 18 attached homes closing. The large volume of nonperforming loans and bad assets are not dominating the low closing rates and seeing that less than 50% of the monthly sales are distressed properties, the low success rate in purging the market of the short sales, will keep any recovery slow.
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Ted Mackel is a Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams Realty. He assists Buyers & Sellers in the San Fernando Valley, Simi Valley and East Ventura County.
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Answer by Ted Mackel: Kimberly, One other issue to consider is maybe the Lender is unwilling to agree to the Short Sale unless the lender can retain recourse rights against the borrowers. Here is where it gets tricky. If the loan(s) are purchase money the lender will have no recourse rights against the borrower if the foreclosure sale goes through. […]
Answer by Ted Mackel: Deborah, RealtyTrac is a data mining services. They mine the information off the public records. What they look for are mortgages that are in default or ready to go to sale. Any property on Trulia that has the RealtyTrac logo is not necessarily a house that is currently for sale, they are just reporting on the status of the loan a […]
Answer by Ted Mackel: G Daniels, The real estate laws in California are different than Illinois. Barry pointed out the correct language from the RPA. The idea behind the AS IS language is that the buyer needs to do their due diligence. During that investigation period on older homes you will find typical items. Buyers should be aware that a 40 y […]
Answer by Ted Mackel: Donna, Assuming this is a California Association of Realtors purchase agreement, no you do not have to remove contingencies for the CCRs. You have five days from receiving these documents before you are required to remove that contingency, if the original contingency period has already passed. Any time material facts regarding […]
Simi Valley Home Sales have been moving along at a similar pace and not much has changed. Inventory is still extremely low. There really is not much new to report in that the Tax Credits, low interest rates and low inventory are producing false positives for the news media to feed off.
Should you sell your Simi Valley home during the holidays?
Simi Valley California home sales were down in October 2009. This is very interesting in that the market has been pushed in a positive direction by the first-time home buyers tax credit. In September and October buyers knew that the tax credit was scheduled to expire on November 30, this should have reflected in an increase in sales. So far, November sales of single-family detached homes will be stronger than October. Looking closer at these November sales, the majority are in the entry-level price range making this increased activity for November closely tied to the tax credit.
