Oxnard in Distress

Every day I spend time in the exciting, yet somewhat depressing world of Foreclosure Real Estate. It excites me because I see deals for buyers and investors. Not just average deals, GREAT deals. I'm blogging about Oxnard, but while I'm on the subject of foreclosures and the state of the real estate market, I can't emphasize enough how Sellers have been ruling the market for the past few years. Virtually imposing their will and their top-dollar prices upon all who dared to buy their homes for sale. Now, though, the tables have turned. Oh, how things have changed, but it's only a good change if buyer's take advantage of it. Buyer's, the ball is in your court.

Now, on to Oxnard. If you're an average seller in Oxnard, and when I say ‘average seller' I'm talking about someone who's trying to conduct a normal market sale, you're in a really tough spot. As of today, 12/15/2007, there are 1,530 properties for sale in Oxnard/Port Hueneme. A whopping 45% of those listings are what we call ‘distressed sales.' These are properties that have been foreclosed upon or are heading towards foreclosure. Those two types of properties are known as Short Sales or REO's. REO is the fancy acronym for Real Estate Owned. It's kind of stupid as every piece of real estate is owned by someone, but apparently when the bank takes the property back it's REALLY owned. These REO's are foreclosures, corporate owned, bank owned, lender owned, etc. To think that 45% of the inventory in Oxnard/Port Hueneme is either heading for foreclosure or has been foreclosed upon is mind boggling. Let me break down the numbers for you. FYI, SFR stands for Single Family Residence or Detached Residences.

Oxnard Properties for Sale (SFR + Condo) = 1,530

SFR = 1,107
Condo = 423

SFR REO = 214
Condo REO = 85

SFR Short Sale = 288
Condo Short Sale = 103

45% of Oxnard Inventory is some form of a Distressed Sale (either Short Sale or REO).
20% of Oxnard Inventory is REO.
26% of Oxnard Inventory is Short Sale.

26% of Oxnard SFR's is Short Sale.
19% of Oxnard SFR's is REO.

24% of Oxnard Condo's are Short Sale.
20% of Oxnard Condo's are REO.

Oxnard is in distress, to say the least.