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House abandoned 3 years ago finally on the market at mid-90s price


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2010 Mar 18, 11:42pm   3,519 views  14 comments

by Tude   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

Well, after 3 YEARS empty, the house across the street from me has finally been forclosed and put on the market as an REO. This house, that sold for 410k in 2004, in a neighborhood where homes sold for 489k in 2006, is on the market for 179k. This makes me especially happy as I owe 80k more on my identical house.

At this price the payment on the house would be significantly less than it would rent for, which is what scares me most of all. I fear yet another slumlord will buy it and put section 8 tenants in it...

Anyway...there are now safe, working class neighborhoods within 30 minutes of San Francisco back to the mid 1990s prices with payments hundreds of dollars less than rent. Hard to believe Lamorinda, a few minutes down the road, can continue to keep prices so elevated.

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1   elliemae   2010 Mar 18, 11:44pm  

Wow. Can ya buy it and make it a stable for the horse?

2   Tude   2010 Mar 19, 12:16am  

I wish elllie... At this point the mortgage payment would cost LESS than my monthly board bill for my horse here in the Bay Area.

I tell you what, it's rough now thinking I am probably paying $600 more a month for my mortgage payment than I would if I bought today.

I would say to those housing bulls on here, I don't think we've seen the worst yet. I am a bear that just got a lot more bearish.

3   toothfairy   2010 Mar 19, 1:02am  

sorry to hear about that. I was looking at properties in the east bay last year. I looked at a foreclosure listed for around 100k
which is probably mid 90's price. About 2 blocks over the houses were selling in the 500's.

really amazing but there's a number of reasons why that was the case.

If I were in your shoes I'd take ellie's advice and try to buy the house across the street so you can control who lives there.

4   justme   2010 Mar 19, 9:11am  

What city might this be, roughly ;) ?

5   HousingWatcher   2010 Mar 19, 9:31am  

What kind of condition is this house in? A house empty that long surely is not in good condition.

6   Tude   2010 Mar 19, 11:54am  

It's in El Sobrante, it's actually a nice little neighborhood with nice people, love all my neighbors. They came in and did some fixing up, could use "updating" but it's in move in condition.

Seriously, this totally bifurcated market can't last forever. For example in this area, the low end was low 100k or so, high end was upper 200k or so. Now even in this area you have house prices ranging from 180k to 600k within blocks. In the late 1990s the high end was 350-800k, those houses still are double that. It's weird...

7   thomas.wong1986   2010 Mar 19, 12:06pm  

Looks like a recently completed development (2009?) on Spanish Trails has several priced at +600K.

8   Tude   2010 Mar 21, 8:43am  

LOTS and LOTS of traffic at the open house this weekend and tons of drive by traffic all week. It seems El Sobrante has found bottom, and as most people have said, it's when the buy/rent ratio favors buying over renting... It will be interesting to see what it sells for. Homes rent for $1400-$1600 around here.

9   EBGuy   2010 Mar 22, 7:54am  

Tude, thanks for the field report. The numbers still appear to be shocking for El Sobrante; roughly speaking, 221 homes in some state of foreclosure (NODS, NOTS, bank owned) to 61 homes currently for sale. Still plenty of pent up supply out there.

10   thomas.wong1986   2010 Mar 22, 8:59am  

Tude says

LOTS and LOTS of traffic at the open house this weekend and tons of drive by traffic all week. It seems El Sobrante has found bottom, and as most people have said, it’s when the buy/rent ratio favors buying over renting… It will be interesting to see what it sells for. Homes rent for $1400-$1600 around here.

Bottom at mid 90s prices and current/future REAL comps for sellers/buyers down the road.
Any rush to buy today, when pretty much everything down the road will be the same.

11   Tude   2010 Mar 22, 10:23am  

I don't think it's a rush to buy for anyone, but the realtor said that this is a desirable lost-cost neighborhood, and at 179k, it's literally priced at about what it cost in the 1980s. My next door neighbor paid around 160k in the late 1980s.

There are still way overpriced neighborhoods in El Sob, as there is everywhere. I think the real low end is near bottoming out, and the "desirable" areas will follow suit soon enough.. I mean seriously, why would you pay 300-400k MORE to have a few extra square feet on a little bit nicer block?

The Bay Area is weird.

12   thomas.wong1986   2010 Mar 22, 11:38am  

I would agree with your point, the BA has turned weird.
People just keep believing in that unsustainable hype.

13   B.A.C.A.H.   2010 Mar 22, 3:36pm  

Darn right it's weird.

If Garrido is convicted he'll join a long string of weirdos like the Zodiac, Symbionese Liberation Army, Richard Wade Farley, etc.

14   thomas.wong1986   2010 Mar 22, 4:01pm  

sybrib says

If Garrido is convicted he’ll join a long string of weirdos like the Zodiac, Symbionese Liberation Army, Richard Wade Farley, etc.

LOL! im just worried im gonna get into a auto wreck because some broad was pepped up on pharma-narcotics driving their SUV while chating it up on their cell phone.

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