365 Things to do in Simi Valley, CA & Ventura County - San Fernando Valley Real Estate Guide
Simi Valley's Insider's Guide to Real Estate Research & Home Owner Information
The Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District has created a hunt for a medallion … [Read More...]
The Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District has created a hunt for a medallion in their Parks throughout Simi Valley. They have placed the Medallion in one of the parks and when found take it to their offices on Sycamore Drive. Clues as to where to look will be posted on the RSRPD Facebookpage. The Prize is $500 to be awarded at the Community Showcase event on April 21st at Rancho Tapo Community Park. To see the Medallion watch the short Video below. Good Luck.
Simi Valley single-family detached home sales for the month of March 2012, significantly out paced each March since 2007. The last time more than 100 single-family detached homes sold in the month of March for Simi Valley was in 2006 before the bubble burst.
Does this mean the market has recovered and happy days are here again? If you look back at last month’s report for February, the list to sell ratio tightened, inventory tightened and prices between January and February were hitting lows. It’s no surprise that the buyers reacted so swiftly in snapping up available properties.
Looking at the closings for Simi Valley home sales in March, several trends stick out.
Inventory for single-family detached homes in Simi Valley is running close to two months, which should indicate a market advantage to the seller. However, buyers are still negotiating hard, the list to sell ratio is not tightening and erratic interest rates are not driving prices up. Sellers are frustrated.
The Wells Fargo economic outlook for 2012 pointed out that S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index has fallen every month since April 2011 and an additional 6% slide by the middle of 2012 can be expected, noting distressed transactions accounting for a significant proportion of sales. Wells Fargo estimates (conservatively) that the “shadow inventory” could number 2 million homes. These are homes with payments past due 90 days or more.
For Simi Valley we are excited to see elevated numbers in closings. Affordability is at all time highs. It is great to see buyers get out and take advantage of extremely low interest rates. Landlords are accumulating more rental properties and many purchases will deliver decent cashflow. We are starting to see property flippers run out of room and mostly because of the decline in pricing is catching those investors off guard. April should continue at a brisk pace as this is a traditional time of year where buyers start to emerge from hibernation. Low inventory should make this interesting, but I predict that any bid up frenzy will be short lived and buyers will retreat this time around when it starts to get out of hand.
What is a HAFA Short Sale and how will it help Simi Valley Home Owners? HAFA (Home Affordable Forclosure Alternative) is a government sponsored program working with HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program) qualified Borrowers/Homeowners to sell their homes when loan modification options fail.
If you have been working on a loan modification for your Simi Valley home and keep hitting dead ends and rejections, or your modification terms are not enough to improve your situation, then selling your house before it goes to foreclosure may be your next step.
Once you have been through HAMP and you have decided your next step is to sell your home; exploring if you qualify for a HAFA Short Sale is the beginning of the Short Sale process.
Recently some of the HAFA Short Sale requirements have been broadened, here are of the few more notable:
These improvements to the HAFA Short Sale requirements were announced by the Obama administration last week and are expected to go into effect in the beginning of June this year. Additionally the program has been extended through the end a 2013.
My Short Sale Team processed and closed some of the first Short Sales in Simi Valley and Moorpark when the program was first rolled out. If you’ve been through the HAMP loan modification process and are still standing wondering what to do next, call me (805)432-7705 for a free consultation about the HAFA Short Sale program for your Simi Valley home.
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Sales of single-family detached homes in Simi Valley are getting interesting. February’s numbers are showing support of my discussion that we are near or at a market bottom. Now those that live in hype, the carnival barker types, are probably out on every street corner prematurely celebrating recovery.
Taking time and looking at what has happened over the last couple years and more specifically the last 12 months, what has become very clear and very simple as that this is a very good real estate market. However, it is only good for those who are educated on the main points that are driving this market.
If you look at the chart (at the bottom of this post), the one thing that jumps out on the page is that all the list to sale ratios significantly improved. We need to understand why this is happening or we might as well join the premature celebration. As I have stated in prior reports, investor buyers and landlords have been out purchasing property at an increased rate for several months. Investors always lead the market while regular buyers stand back trying to find the exact timing for the bottom of the market.
So why are more homes going out close to full asking price?
Here the following factors:
Again, looking at the chart and comparing to the prior months, volume has not increased. Median Price has been dropping each month with a brief bump up in December. February 2012 had the lowest Median Home Price for single-family detached homes sold in Simi Valley since I started tracking this metric back in January 2008. Average sales price of Simi Valley single-family detached homes has dipped below $400,000 for the very first time.
This is why it is extremely important to look at the overall picture. While pricing is probably at one of the most attractive affordability rates in a long long time, buyers are cautious and deliberate when it comes time to writing their offers. The one clear signal to continue to watch is the activity of the investors and landlords as they continue to snap up properties for their portfolios; buyers ready to buy a home today should not sit and try to time the market for an absolute bottom.
Inventory is extremely tight, prices as low as 2002 levels and with interest rates for conforming loans under 4%, we will see months like February and properties will begin to sell closer to asking price. Any upward move in pricing will be temporary as buyers will back off before participating in a run up.
Unless inventory increases we should expect to see some more of the same numbers for March Simi Valley home sales.
After increased sales in December should we expect a carry over into the new year? Probably not. January closings for Simi Valley Single Family Detached (SFD) homes back off as I suspected. This retraction does not indicate another drop in prices, but is more of the same of what we have seen over the last 6-8 months.
Not to sound like a broken record, but here is how January ended up:
The list to sell ratio has moved from a 3% average to almost 7% average over course of the last couple years. This gap is wide enough to show that buyers are not bidding home prices up. That any property listed for sale that is not competitive with the surrounding homes go through a course of price reductions till it meets buyer expectations.
This is the second year in a row that Simi Valley Home Sales Spiked in December. Does this indicate a turn around in the Simi Valley housing Market? Not necessarily and here are the reasons why.
What happened, why the increase? Not only has interest rates and pricing helped bring more closed escrows, but additionally the distressed market pushes to close out files before year end in the Short Sale and Foreclosure sectors. With almost a quarter of the single family detached homes selling in December at a price point below $300,000 and 52% of all the sales for December either a Short Sale or Bank owned property, it’s too early to celebrate a recovery.
Simi Valley has certainly hit a low and has been setting a repeating trend over the last 6 months, but any sign of movement up or out of the current situation is not showing. Looking at the entry level single family Simi Valley homes sold in December 2011, the longer days on market and the lower list to sale price ratios show that buyers are still looking for bargains.
The year is wrapping up. Simi Valley Home Sales or should I say the number of homes sold for the year are improving. Prices many not have improved, but the increase in volume is always good for housing. The questions for Simi Valley are who is buying and what is selling?
The trend continues with homes under $450,000 commanding the largest sector selling in this market. Approximately 33% of those homes are selling with low down payment or FHA financing with the balance going to Cash and conventional Financed buyers. At Simi Valley open houses, I am running into many people looking to pick up their first rental property or additional rental properties. Additionally, with many buyers looking to keep the home they are in as a rental and making the move up purchase on the second home. These buyers are out in larger numbers because they understand money is cheap at the current interest rates and pricing is at it’s most aggressive point it has been at in the last few years with more single family detached Simi Valley homes selling below $300,000 than in any other year since the market collapsed. If you follow the monthly postings here on my blog, you can see the trends in the activity.
As local governments face the difficulty of budgeting with reduced revenues, County and State agencies are threatening to take money from city coffers; it’s no surprise that local government is scrutinizing all services offered to their communities. I have really stayed away from the issue surrounding the future control of the Simi Valley Library as it is not a hot button topic for me. However, I was sitting at the city council meeting tonight waiting to speak on the agenda item for City Council Compensation and had to endure a couple hours of comments from the public on the Library issue.
As a person without a a big attachment to the issue, several things became very apparent. Most the people there were spewing misinformation left, right and center. Continually those that supported the County control of the Library kept accusing the city of trying to “Privatize” the Library. The City plan was to take the control of the Library away from the County and contract out to run the Library under the control of the city. The city plan could include contracting with the County to provide the employees, an outside company to provide employees or the city to hire the employees directly. Comments alluded to the City of Simi Valley saving close to 1.2 million dollars annually that could be redirected back into the Library to buy new books and add additional programs.
Proponents of County control argued that a country run program is better in that books can be shared between the various county controlled libraries and that the library system is strong unified under County control. They were also concerned that the a City control library would not be able to properly serve the community, that book selection would be limited, programs would be limited or cut.
One thing that was very clear is all present love the Simi Valley Public Library; the difference was in how it should be managed. I am a local control guy. I think it is obvious with the actions of the Governor last June, that his taking away redevelopment funds away from all California cities for the sate budget is an indicator local control is is not longer and option but a necessity. Imagine if the county ran into funding problems for the county wide library system in the future, who is going to step up to the plate to solve that problem. I believe the City of Simi Valley has been forced into a defensive position to protect and preserve the Public Library and after watching the discussion I have to side with Mayor Huber and the City Council for taking on this issue.
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Simi Valley) – Consider that when people decide to sell their used car they will have no qualms in spending $200 on an auto detailing job. If the car they are selling has a $10,000.00 asking price, that is 2% of the asking price. Even digging down deeper, these same sellers will remove any personal affects from the car and make it look like it just rolled off the lot.
These very same people suddenly have a heart attack when you explain the benefits of having their home staged on the listing appointment. Consider a very basic staging for $650 on a home with a asking price of $650,000. Let’s see……….that’s one tenth of a percent of the asking price of the home. What gives? Recently I saw the tail end of Get it Sold on HGTV and here is a great example of the little things that can be done for very few dollars. Sabrina Soto is not coming over to my client’s and potential client’s home anytime soon, but there are stagers in my area that can accomplish the same affordable miracles that are seen on this program.
A home is probably the largest investment a family has. Thinking of that investment compared to the depreciating asset of a car they have, I am still scratching my head trying to figure out why there is such a disconnect when it comes time to prepare a home for sale……….especially in the market conditions we are experiencing now.
Recently I was working with a home seller who’s home was on the market and no offers had come in. Traffic was initially good and open houses picked up traffic, but failed to produce any buyers willing to submit an offer. With a home now being the lowest price in the neighborhood and still no offers being generated, it was time to bring in a Stager and evaluate the home. The evaluation with a written detailed report costs approximately $250.00. Well worth the investment for the following reasons:
If the house is priced right and offers are not being generated, then something is distracting the buyers. Stepping back and letting a third party evaluate and give an opinion can be a painful process for the home seller. Pride of ownership and pride of the things home owners have done to the home can get in the way of objective criticism. If getting the home sold for the highest price is the objective, then why is it so easy prep and ready when it comes to selling a car vs selling a home?
If you need a referral to a good home stager please call (805) 432-7705
October Single Family Detached Home Sales for Simi Valley did not react much different that September. Volume is up over 2010 and 2009. Homes under $400k are pulling the lion’s share of the activity and as interest rates drop into low 4′s and high 3′s buyers still remain cautious.
I mentioned last month the sluggish upper end of the market. If you have a home in the $900k to $999,999 price range, did you know that only 4, yes that is right FOUR homes have sold since January 1, 2011 in this price range for Simi Valley real estate? Currently there are 6 homes on the market in this price range and the last sale for the price range was in May. So, if you are listed in this range and wonder what is happening, wonder no more, even with attractive interest rates buyers for this range are not abundant at this time. At the same time, 10 Simi Valley homes have sold over 1 million with one of those being a custom spec house.
The ditressed market still is a major influencer on the overall market. RealtyTrac recently reported:
California default notices increased 17 percent from the previous month to a 13-month high, helping the state post the nation’s second highest foreclosure rate: one in every 243 housing units with a foreclosure filing in October. A total of 29,240 default notices were reported in California in October, a 1 percent increase from October 2010 — the first year-over-year increase in defaults in California since November 2009.
Even though other parts of the country are seeing some relief. However; Nevada, California, Florida and Arizona continue to battle through many struggling home owner’s loans with modification attempts, short sales and foreclosure.
Below is the 30 year interest rate chart for 30 year conforming loans. 2011 has continues to average with the lowest rates. It is no wonder that investors are out snapping up deals with money this cheap. The Blue line below should be a wake up call to those sitting on the sidelines. The distressed market is continuing to to keep prices in check.
Ted Answers Trulia Voices
The Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District has created a hunt for a medallion in their Parks throughout Simi Valley. They have placed the Medallion in one of the parks and when found take it to their offices on Sycamore Drive. Clues as to where to look will be posted on the RSRPD Facebookpage. [...]
Looking for Things to do in Simi Valley for the Halloween Season? Mourning Rose Manor in East Simi Valley at 5250 Aurelia Street has been delighting Simi Valley Halloween fans for 6 years. Lydia and her husband have created a unique Halloween experience complete with Ghosts, Skeletons, Grave yard with Crypt, Spiders, Spooky Sounds and [...]
