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As a full time realtor here in San Luis Obispo County, I have been following the real estate trends here for over 30 years both as an investor and as a real estate agent. I refer to myself as a "full time" realtor; however, in reality I work 7 days a week marketing my listings and finding homes for both families and investors. I am starting to see a trend in our local San Luis Obispo real estate market that I haven't seen for years. We are having trouble finding houses in the moderate to low price range. See the graph below to see the national inventory trend. Recently I placed an offer for a duplex in Paso Robles for over the asking price only to find out we had 7 competing offers, with one beating us out by $6,000. I have another client looking for a sub $175,000 property in Paso Robles. I have phoned the listing agent on several properties only to get the same answer either the property is pending or they have received so many offers that they aren't taking any more!
That is how fast the market can change from a buyers market to a sellers market! The exception to this is in the high end market. In this market homes are sitting on the market for months. With no more stated income or ARM mortgage products out there, you have to have a big income just to get a loan! I am really surpised that we aren't seeing more foreign buyers entering this part of the market. But there is hope for these high end homes and I call it the "trickle up theory". The "trickle up theory" is when the lower end starts to sell the lower end home owners sell their property to move up to moderate priced homes. Then, the moderate sellers move up to the higher end homes. At the same time there are investors, or as I call them the smart money, see the money to be made, and they buy to rent of fix up to flip. Yes, I am seeing those house flippers back in the market. They buy those sub-standard homes and fix them up so they can pass FHA standards, and place $30,000 to $80,000 in their pocket. With this profit they go out and find another to repeat the process! You can visit my web sit at www.myslohomefinder.com to follow this trend. I have a link to an excellent article below-
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/02/existing-home-inventory-declines-21.html
