San Diego Real Estate Update 圣地亚哥房地产市场观察: December 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year!

今天visit2个刚刚搬入新房的客户。都很happy。买房就是在折腾中找到快乐～
祝大家都新年快乐！

Auto reply of a short sale agent

I found this quite amusing:

Thank you for your email. Please be patient and allow me to respond back to your email within 24-48 hours. If your email is received on the weekend, I will reply back on Monday.
*If you are an agent and need showing instructions, please refer to the MLS.
*If you are inquiring about an update on your offer, please remember this is a Short Sale "Subject to lender's approval." This isn't a typical transaction, the lender is reviewing your offer and are taking a huge loss. They are not typically going to accept an offer immediately when in most cases they are being asked to accept $50-200K less than what is owed.
Please advise your buyers that this process can take 4 weeks and even up to 4 months (depending on the client's and lender's motivation to proceed.)
If you have submitted an offer on a property, an update will be given at least every Friday.
Thank you again for your patience.

International buyers to play a major role in CA’s present and future

Is China the future of real estate in California? A recent report in the International Property Journal anticipates a future surge in Chinese buyers. In Southern California, the report notes, Chinese language listings have already replaced Spanish as the most searched foreign language listings, and Chinese buyers made up 7.5% of international buyers in the United States in 2007. The reason for the anticipated rise? An increase in the value of China’s currency, and a rise in the number of wealthy Chinese citizens, coupled with a drop in home values in the US, makes good deals ever more available and tempting for international buyers.

With an appreciated foreign currency comes greater purchasing power for acquiring property in the United States than that of Americans holding US dollar. Thus, for those individuals holding Euros or any other strong currency, property in the USA is cheaper than comparable property in any other country with a strong currency.

For a foreigner using a strong currency to purchase real estate in California, the current Great Recession offers a double profit advantage that an American holding US dollars does not have. The Great Recession in the USA has further decreased the value of property in states like California.

Re: “China on the move” from The International Property Journal

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

我的看房日记 - by invitation only

http://ca858.blogspot.com/

Please send me email if you'd like to get invitation.

Very informative and fun to read! -- Jiang Hong Reader of 我的看房日记

Monday, December 28, 2009

不能免俗

祝大家圣诞快乐！新年进步！

不能免俗的讨论一下明年的房市：

整体价格基本上会继续drop during 2010 （经济weak, 失业率升高）但是好区的40到90万之间的房子价格可能还会涨。（这个价格区间的房源少，大家也都能afford)

Thursday, December 17, 2009

外地人

最近来圣地亚哥买房的，联系过我的有芝加哥的，达拉斯的，佛罗里达的，杭州的，上海的，北京的，新泽西，加拿大的。 Either for investment properties or retirement properties.

看来是一个趋势？毕竟圣地亚哥的天气无人可敌。

外地人众口一词，听说你们圣地亚哥掉的很厉害？

Regulation X

All new loan applications signed on or after January 1, 2010, must follow the guidelines and rules set forth in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s revisions to RESPA, known as Regulation X. Included in the rules are the use of a new Good Faith Estimate form and a new settlement statement (HUD-1). Both are designed to make it easier for borrowers to understand the loan and its related fees, and to compare one loan with another, since the new forms will be the same ones used for all loans.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Short sale的一点感想

明年会有更多的short sale在市场上。银行会take some loss to approve the sale, 因为他要foreclose一个房子也要花很多的钱。很多买家都寄希望于short sale来买一个好deal. 不过要知道很多的short sale都是开价很低来吸引buyers, 所以你要做好homework, 看看这个房子到底值多少钱，给一个reasonable的offer. 因为最后银行也会做BPO和估价，所以给一个low ball基本上是没有任何chance的。

另外一个就是很多人都知道，short sale is not short. 不要把所有的希望放在这一个房子上，Actively look at multiple properties.