Will the SF Bay Area see many foreclosure bargains?

The recent survey conducted by Trulia.com and Realtytrac among home buyers and renters to assess the sentiments in their minds, about home buying from the foreclosure pool, revealed that with the changed timings, there is slightly less enthusiasm – coming down from 55 percent in 2009 to 45 percent currently.

Despite this, the selling and buying of bank-owned properties are continuing steadily upwards in all parts of US, according to Rick Sharga, senior vice president for Realtytrac. The official went on to say that the actual sales of bank-owned properties (otherwise known as REOs), along with sales of properties in the foreclosure process, continue to increase. According to their data, these sales are accounting for more than 30 percent of total sales in the first quarter of 2010.

Realtytrac experts anticipate that there will be an increased number of both REO purchases and short sales throughout the rest of the year, as the most active buying segments – first time home buyers and investors – continue to look for bargains.

Taking the question whether the Bay Area, particularly San Francisco would see many such bargains, the experts are more tilted towards the positive and affirmative side. The reason they attribute is for many would-be buyers, they can fulfill their dream of owning a house in San Francisco, only through the reduced prices currently offered by Bank-owned and repossessed properties.

Of all the foreclosure home buying, Bank repo homes are better placed – no second or third liens attached, since all of them get cleared once the property is repossessed; generally well-maintained in a “marketable condition”; ready to occupy with the existing residents vacated; and there are lots and lots of such properties made available throughout the country, including the Bay Area.

Another well-founded reason for this projection is although places like San Francisco have stayed strong through the slump, experienced in all other metros, home buyers may see more foreclosure properties made available, when Option ARM loans reset. Bubble Meter Blog predicts that these resets will “begin to become a problem in about the mid-point of this year and really shoot up around mid-2011”.

Posted by Amitesh Kumar on Jun 11 2010. Filed under Foreclosures, Housing, Short Sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry