Last month's momentum driven by sales of distressed properties
By Lily Leung
San Diego County homes prices and sales increased slightly in February from January, a market driven heavily by cash investors buying distressed properties, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
February’s median price for all homes inched up to $308,000 from $304,000 in January. However, the median price fell 4.3 percent from $322,000 a year ago. The median price for single-family homes, comprising the bulk of the county’s inventory, decreased 0.7 percent in February from January, indicating a flattening of the market.
San Diego County recorded 2,330 sales in February, up from 2,248 in January, or 3.6 percent. Transactions were down 5.5 percent from one year ago.
DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said February’s monthly increase in sales and flat prices can be attributed to a high volume of short sales and foreclosures.
About 55 percent of February’s resales, including single-family homes and condos, were distressed properties, LePage said. Thirty-four percent were foreclosures (up from 32.8 percent in January,) and an estimated 21 percent were short sales (about the same amount as January).
One year ago, distressed properties made up about 59 percent of resales in the county.
Short sales — deals in which the sale price was less than the mortgage balance — have risen sharply in the last three years, DataQuick numbers show. One year ago, they accounted for 20.5 percent of resales in the county. In 2009, it was 15.7 percent.
“They’re increasing by a lot,” LePage said. “If processing foreclosures gets a lot more expensive, then we should expect a lot more short sales and loan modifications.”
Also notable was that 30.6 percent of the homes sold in February were purchased with cash, a record high for the county, according to DataQuick figures, which go back to 1988.
Absentee buyers, people who likely will not occupy the purchased homes, bought a record 28.3 percent of the properties in San Diego County in February, DataQuick reported. In the past decade, that average number was about 16 percent. (The company’s records for absentee purchases start in 2000.)
With conventional mortgage now difficult to obtain, cash buyers are particularly attractive to sellers, said Rick Ungar, a real estate broker with Keller Williams Realty Carlsbad.
Ungar said investors are typically the first group to jump back into a recovering real estate market.
“Individual buyers usually wait until prices bounce back,” he said.
Gary Laturno, a San Diego real estate attorney and broker, said distressed properties have been a big part of the market for the three or four years.
Recently, he’s noticed an uptick in interest for distressed luxury homes among his company’s listings, with some buyers making all-cash offers.
Laturno, of Laturno Kuick Realty, says the increase in interest may be due to drastically reduced prices for high-end homes and better-performing stock portfolios.
“People who have wealth are feeling much better in the economic situation,” he said. “They’re out looking at and making offers on homes where the values have fallen.”
By Lily Leung
San Diego County homes prices and sales increased slightly in February from January, a market driven heavily by cash investors buying distressed properties, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
February’s median price for all homes inched up to $308,000 from $304,000 in January. However, the median price fell 4.3 percent from $322,000 a year ago. The median price for single-family homes, comprising the bulk of the county’s inventory, decreased 0.7 percent in February from January, indicating a flattening of the market.
San Diego County recorded 2,330 sales in February, up from 2,248 in January, or 3.6 percent. Transactions were down 5.5 percent from one year ago.
DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said February’s monthly increase in sales and flat prices can be attributed to a high volume of short sales and foreclosures.
About 55 percent of February’s resales, including single-family homes and condos, were distressed properties, LePage said. Thirty-four percent were foreclosures (up from 32.8 percent in January,) and an estimated 21 percent were short sales (about the same amount as January).
One year ago, distressed properties made up about 59 percent of resales in the county.
Short sales — deals in which the sale price was less than the mortgage balance — have risen sharply in the last three years, DataQuick numbers show. One year ago, they accounted for 20.5 percent of resales in the county. In 2009, it was 15.7 percent.
“They’re increasing by a lot,” LePage said. “If processing foreclosures gets a lot more expensive, then we should expect a lot more short sales and loan modifications.”
Also notable was that 30.6 percent of the homes sold in February were purchased with cash, a record high for the county, according to DataQuick figures, which go back to 1988.
Absentee buyers, people who likely will not occupy the purchased homes, bought a record 28.3 percent of the properties in San Diego County in February, DataQuick reported. In the past decade, that average number was about 16 percent. (The company’s records for absentee purchases start in 2000.)
With conventional mortgage now difficult to obtain, cash buyers are particularly attractive to sellers, said Rick Ungar, a real estate broker with Keller Williams Realty Carlsbad.
Ungar said investors are typically the first group to jump back into a recovering real estate market.
“Individual buyers usually wait until prices bounce back,” he said.
Gary Laturno, a San Diego real estate attorney and broker, said distressed properties have been a big part of the market for the three or four years.
Recently, he’s noticed an uptick in interest for distressed luxury homes among his company’s listings, with some buyers making all-cash offers.
Laturno, of Laturno Kuick Realty, says the increase in interest may be due to drastically reduced prices for high-end homes and better-performing stock portfolios.
“People who have wealth are feeling much better in the economic situation,” he said. “They’re out looking at and making offers on homes where the values have fallen.”
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