Southern California Residential Home Market

The residential home market is to say the least,"strange". With the huge number of homeowners that are either in pre-foreclosure or in foreclosure, there should be a huge number of "distressed" homes on the market, but there are not. What we are seeing in Southern California is an extreme shortage of inventory. This is changing what should be a "buyer's" market into a real seller's market, with multiple offers causing properties to often sell for 10-15% more than the listed price. This is creating a frenzy among potential first time buyers who are planning getting an FHA loan to purchase their first homes. Many are getting discouraged after looking at dozens of properties and writing dozens of offers to no avail. Even "short-sales", the scourge of the real estate market according to most realtors, are getting multiple offers well over the listing price.

According to all of the reports, foreclosures are still on the rise, along with the number of homeowners that are behind on their mortgage payments. My advice to buyers is to be patient. More great buys are coming!

Business Opportunities as Investments

The economy has taken a huge toll on the marketability of small businesses. On one hand, many of these businesses are barely staying afloat and thus are worth little beyond the value of their physical assets. On the other hand, buyers typically financed these purchases with either SBA loans or equity lines on their homes, two sources that for all purposes have almost totally dried up.

The end result is that the buyers that are out there are coming in with rediculously low prices and trying to get the seller to carry back a large part of the purchase.

The answer to the seller? Hold on if you can until the economy improves or the bank eases up a little.

Buying Real Estate in Southern California is still the hot ticket, especially with REO inventory down. Are the banks really going to release "bunches" of foreclosures in September? Everybody seems to be waiting for that to happen, while in the meanwhile prices keep creeping up.

Buying Real Estate in Southern California is still the hot ticket, especially with REO inventory down. Are the banks really going to release "bunches" of foreclosures in September? Everybody seems to be waiting for that to happen, while in the meanwhile prices keep creeping up.