San Clemente Real Estate Market Update - April 2008

Inventory is low and buyer activity is on the rise! (as of right now....) The LA Times has reported that we may be close to the bottom of this market and what a great time to buy! We have never seen downturn pricing in combination with low interest rates!!! The time to negotaite with sellers is NOW!

Last summer, we had so many homes for sale that the buyers had so many properties to choose from. The Orange County register reported a drop in the median price of an Orange County home from the months of June through September from $640,000 to $570,000 in three short months.

There were a lot of factors that are in this current marketplace.

1) We saw a lot of adjustable rate mortgages coming due this year. I talked with many owners who's payments on a small condo went from $2,500 to $7,000/month! Most of these owners couldn't afford their payments so they were just walking away from their homes. For those that could hang on for a couple of months we saw them put their homes up for sale in desperation. The sad part about this is that their property values were less than what they paid for them two years ago. The hardest hit areas in San Clemente was Talega.

2) We saw a lot of REO's coming back on the market. REO's are Real Estate Owned properties that they banks bought back from foreclosure. The banks wanted to get rid of these properties this year so they were pricing them well below the current market values just to get them sold quickly. Most of these were able to sell but they brought down the homes values in doing so.

3) New home builders are also in the market. They are under financial obligation from the banks to keep building the homes they got financing for several years back when the market was good. In order to sell these homes they were offering huge incentives to induce people to buy their homes. It was hard for most re-sale homes to compete with this when the price was comparable to their home and on top of that they had unbelievable incentives to buy the new home and not the re-sale home. I saw one home builder offering to pay their mortgage up to 1 year if the buyer purchased their home.

Now, we are heading back into the summer months where we traditionally see a lot of home coming back on the market. Serious buyers are out in the marketplace and making offers on properties right now. It's simply supply and demand. The supply of homes is still low as of right now, so If you are thinking about selling your home, NOW is the time. If you wait until the summer time It will be too late and COST YOU MONEY. You will be competing with a very large number of homes and the price you get for your home, if you do get is sold, may be less.

If you want a free consultation on what your home is worth, give me a call:

Sam Smith
(949) 291-0424
or email me at sam@bclh.com.
You can visit me at San Clemente Realtor.com

I can help you with the timing of your sale that will get you the most money for your home!