Thursday, May 22, 2008

Weekly Screen Scrape - More Stagnation

I haven't metioned the results of my weekly screen scrape in some time, mainly because there hasn't been much exciting to report. After thinking about it, I realized that no news, can still be considered news.

Inventory on my list hasn't grown much, and pending sales are still rather high compared to historical records I have collected. Each week, some listings expire, some close escrow, some go pending, and some new ones show up. But overall this activity occurs within a fairly narrow range.

As some have noted, the available selection seems rather well picked over (like grocery store vegetables on Sunday afternoon). Without some more price drops, which seem to have dried up a while ago, I don't think there will be much action going forward. The one bright spot in all this, perhaps Spring comps will help pave the way for Fall purchasing.

If our latest offer on the REO offer doesn't work out (yes, this process is taking forever...we found some fairly major issues that need to be renegotiated), I'm not sure there is much else worth pursuing at this point.....sigh

4 comments:

Deflationary Jane said...

My extremely budget conscience search criteria has grown from about 58 in Jan/Feb to 83 yesterday. I have some pendings from Jan/Feb that I'm still waiting on to see what they close at, about 15. If they fall out, my selection inventory could go over 100. Too bad Mr. Jane has his heart set on moving.

Buying Time said...

Glad to hear he's not Mr. Deflation ;)

Paul said...

Ditto for Cameron Park. The market is flat. No substantial numbers of new listings. No sales over about $450k, but the listing median is $480k, with about 120 listings above $500K. There is lots of foreclosure activity coming down the road based on new NODs, in all price ranges. There is a very nice REO that isn't on the market yet and is going to weeds ... last owner paid $2.9 million for it. Way out of our price range, no matter what the bank decides to do!

bob said...

Alt-A loans are the next shoe to fall on the horizon. That aught to stir up a new wave of nastiness and fresh price drops. I've mentioned it before, but again- right now, with just over a year going into the fall is a bit early to be considering buying in this market, and especially in Sacramento. If that REO doesn't work out, I'd personally be waiting for at least another 6 months to see if any form of stabilization occurs.