Patti Lyles

The March edition of the Report is now available.

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HIGHLIGHTS

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Santa Cruz County home sales up eighth month in a row because Buyers are coming back

Inventory declined for the tenth month in a row: down 18.8% from last February.

The median price for homes fell 5.7% from January, and was down 37.1% year-over-year.

For the four-page printable version of the report, click:

http://rereport.com/scc/print/PattiLylesSZC.pdf. To view the on-line report with the city-by-city breakdown, go here:

http://pattilyles.rereport.com

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P.S. If you find the Santa Cruz County Real Estate Report useful and know someone else who might, please feel free to forward this e-mail to them.

_________________________________________________

The Santa Cruz County Real Estate Report is brought to you by:

Patti Lyles

Century 21 Showcase

(831) 335-2100

http://www.SantaCruzRealEstateHomes.com

mailto:Patti@PattiLyles.com

The March edition of the Report is now available.

=============

HIGHLIGHTS

=============

Santa Cruz County home sales up eighth month in a row because Buyers are coming back

Inventory declined for the tenth month in a row: down 18.8% from last February.

The median price for homes fell 5.7% from January, and was down 37.1% year-over-year.

For the four-page printable version of the report, click:

http://rereport.com/scc/print/PattiLylesSZC.pdf. To view the on-line report with the city-by-city breakdown, go here:

http://pattilyles.rereport.com

============================================

P.S. If you find the Santa Cruz County Real Estate Report useful and know someone else who might, please feel free to forward this e-mail to them.

_________________________________________________

The Santa Cruz County Real Estate Report is brought to you by:

Patti Lyles

Century 21 Showcase

(831) 335-2100

http://www.SantaCruzRealEstateHomes.com

mailto:Patti@PattiLyles.com

by Patti Lyles

Would you want to be notified when another online property auction happen in Santa Cruz County? Of course you would....

$442,000 in online property auction - With neither gavel nor auctioneer, 1 months ago Santa Cruz County staged its most successful tax-defaulted property sale this week, peddling 10 parcels for more than $442,000.

The county's first eBay-style online auction garnered 752 bids from 38 people in six states. Generally, fewer than 10 people bid in previous county auctions, said Treasurer Fred Keeley.

The online auction "draws a larger field of folks who have the willingness to bid these properties up," he said.

The properties, which were more than five years past due on property tax payments, sold for between $8,900 and $121,100 to bidders in California and Hawaii.

The money first goes to pay a total of $51,100 in back taxes. The previous property owners have one year to collect the rest of the auction proceeds - $391,489.50 all together. If unclaimed, the county divides the money among cities, schools, and other tax recipients.

Dunstant Smikle of Camarillo bought the cheapest property, a 4,300 square-foot sliver of land in Scotts Valley on Lockhart Gulch Road. He hasn't seen the land yet, but hopes to build a small house or cabin.

"Where else in California can you find property for $9,000?" Smikle said.

A controversial Felton property also sold. Damaged in a 1982 mudslide, the county condemned a house on View Circle, just north of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Raymond Tate, the owner since 1986, fought the county and ultimately lost an 18-year legal battle.

"They've forced my hand," Tate old the Sentinel in 2001. "Now it's time to go for the jugular"

The county spent $11,000 to tear down the house in 2004.

Al Tamesabi of San Marcos bought the 1.25-acres for $13,600.

Initially 28 properties were available, including a Santa Cruz Home one block from West Cliff Drive and a large house on Highland Avenue worth more than $700,000. Those properties and 15 others fell off the auction block before the three-day sale started on March 12. The owners had until midnight March 11 to pay the taxes they owed.

Maryland-based Bid4Assets ran the auction for a flat fee of $75 for each property sold. Keeley said the county saved $10,000 by not running a live auction.

Santa Cruz County now plans to hold future tax-defaulted property auctions online. I will notify you when, just email me at Patti@PattiLyles.com

February home price median retreats to $380,000
by Patti Lyles

The median price for a single-family home in Santa Cruz County plunged in February to $380,000, the lowest since January 2000, prompting one agent to declare the market has bottomed out.

92 sales, with homes in Watsonville, the area hardest hit by foreclosures, accounting for a record 33 percent.

And 66 percent sold for less than $500,000, the highest percentage in years.

In Watsonville, banks sold foreclosed homes at discounts of 30 percent to 50 percent.

A few examples:

124 Grant St. sold for $166,000, down from $490,000 in 2004.

38 Lower Cutter Drive sold for $215,000, down from $420,000 in 2003.

518 E. Lake Ave. sold for $235,000, down from $395,000 in 2002.

Those are not condo prices; those are single-family homes.

"We've hit our bottom in South County in single family," said Dee Dee Vargas, president of the Watsonville Association of Realtors. "If you're waiting to see if prices might drop a bit, you might miss the boat. We're seeing multiple offers. I've got more buyers than properties right now."

With a market full of "distressed" properties, banks selling foreclosed homes and homeowners seeking bank approval for short sales, closing a sale is "almost a miracle," she added. "We get a lot of curve balls thrown at us."

It might be a lender that insists on reviewing an appraisal before authorizing a loan or one that shuts down before providing the promised funds.

Entry-level buyers are taking advantage of FHA loans, but some are discovering there's a catch. Distressed properties need repairs to meet FHA health and safety standards, but banks want to sell the home as is and the buyers are stretched to come up with the required down payment.

Vargas, who is with Bailey Properties, sees investors competing with first-time homebuyers.

That's driven by a change in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines. The two mortgage-buying entities had restricted investors to four properties. New guidelines allow 10.

Vargas said one of her clients qualified for an FHA loan but the bank that owned the house accepted an all-cash offer from an investor.

"With banks, cash is king," she said.

Tai Boutell of Santa Cruz Home Finance predicts that interest rates for mortgages, pushed artificially low -- at or below 5 percent -- could go up by mid-year to the low 6 percent range. Buyers who wait until then hoping for prices to fall will pay more, he said.

For example, payment on a $500,000 loan at 5 percent would be $2,684 a month; if the home price drops 10 percent in six months and interest rate rises to 6.5 percent, the payment would be $2,844 a month.

While the low-end market is brisk, high-end activity has nearly dried up.

Only four homes sold in February for more than $1 million.

Longtime appraiser Glenn Fuller reported 212 listings in that price range at the end of last week.

"That's a lot," he said.

He tallied only 11 pending sales, leaving about 19 months of inventory.

In 2007. buyers were snapping up $2 million homes around the county. Now they just aren't selling.

Very few people can qualify under the new standards, Fuller said, and the typical buyer of the high-end properties had money in the stock market but doesn't seem as rich since the market tanked.