How is your neighborhood holding up?

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

After two years of seeing the housing market folding around AZ, there are clear signs that the impact is still coming on.

In our neighborhood (about an eight block radius) there have been at least 15 known foreclosures, and many short sales, and still there are signs that that there are more to come. Much of the housing inventory that is not a short sale or auction just sits for many months with no offer to the owner who is selling.

Most homes that have gone on auction or short sale have been sold to non-resident owners who are turning these homes into rental property.

So a once stable neighborhood is now turning into one of "mixed use", including transient residents. This unsettles some of us long time residents, as we are seeing a different kind of attitude around the neighborhood.

How are your areas faring?

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

I am fortunate to live in a very stable neighborhood. There is only one vacant house that I am aware of. That was a foreclosure. The bank refused to negotiate on the amount owed, and now the house is falling apart.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

We have issues with builders who started projects on spec and ran out of steam.

[Icc5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Icc5]

Stable

We live in an area that has held on during all of the problems. Very few houses are sold in our neighborhood and what has happened is they haven't gone down in price but not up either. For the longest time it was nothing for houses in our area to be bid up by 50-100 thousand. One person keeps putting his his up and pulling it back off the market but he is also asking 2,5 million.
Bart

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

Houses still seem to be selling in my neighborhood - but slowly. No foreclosures that I'm aware of,either.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Someone bought the foreclosed house next door last summer and on the other side the house there sold this spring. We had about 2 other sales on the street of about 24 homes.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

My neighborhood?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha . . .

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

I live in the Inland Empire in Southwest Riverside County in Southern California. Our area has been one of the hardest hit areas in the US with house prices dropping 50-70% and still going down. We also had tremendous inflation in house prices until the crash. The only good thing is our property tax has also dropped drastically and is much lower than when we bought new in 2002.

Our immediate area has been pretty stable even with the huge price decrease. The house across the street has been abandoned about a month ago. The house sold for $700,000 in 2005 but they can't give it away now. They tried selling it for $300,000 but hasn't sold after 5 months on the market so they just walked out. It is a beautiful 3500 sq. ft. home with over $200,000 in upgrades, pool, landscaping etc. That is the only empty house and none are for sale except that one. Our houses were built in 2002.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I'm upside down on my condo. I live in an upscale condo community near downtown and in our small community of 66 condos, 9 are in foreclosure.
It's started to affect our budget. We are quickly losing our reserves and soon if something doesn't change we will have to do assessments or drastically cut services. No one wants to do that so we just live with our head in the sand. It's frustrating be on the board of directors because truly no one wants to face our reality.

[glypnirsgirl Member Find all posts View Profile Close glypnirsgirl]

Our house was built in 1961. It is a typical ranch style house. In a neighborhood of ranch style homes. Some of our neighbors are original owners here and are getting up in years. Many more have lived in the neighborhood far longer than I have lived here and I moved in in 2000.

The neighborhood is VERY stable. There are two homes for sale. Neither seems to be a distressed sale.

About two years ago, I wanted to refinance to take advantage of lower interest rates. I had the house appraised and it appraised for $180K (this is a middle class neighborhood: teacher next door, fireman across the street, our other next door neighbor retired from Bell Helicopter). Ian did not want to do so because he felt that it would not be worth the upfront money to do so.

About 6 months ago, I ran the numbers for him and showed him why it was worth the upfront money and in how short of a time we would recover it. We got the appraisal back on the house. This time, we CANNOT refinance. The value of the house dropped to $150K. We do not have enough equity to qualify to refinance.

Because so many of the neighbors have lived here so long, many of the homes have been paid off and are owned free and clear. For many of the neighbors, the houses, even at the reduced value are worth five times as much as they paid for them.

elaine

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

Our house was built in 1988 and we are the second owner. It is on Cape Cod where there was huge housing inflation in the 2000s. We bought in 1995 from Proctor and Gamble...a corp transfer residence. Our home is paid for and so far our neighborhood is stable.

There was one foreclosure; the owner was a Brazillian immigrant on a green card; he went back to Brazil, walking away from the property. It has sold, been rehabed (though it really didn't need much) and then resold. There are still some unbuilt lots in out community and these were selling at a high of $250,000; the last lot I am aware of sold for $190,000. Now, I do not know if it is the economy or the lot was not as attractive as some of the others.

There are a few homes for sale in our community, but none seem to be distressed sales. The house across the street from me sold a few years ago; the one to the left sold two years ago. So far none bought through short sale and only the one foreclosure. Houses are in the upper $500,000 with a high of 1.7 million...he's our resident wackjob, with a house twice the size of any other in the community on the same size lot as all the other homes, though he does have a lovely waterview from most rooms.

Other parts of the Cape have not been so fortunate.

Joy

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

We have been fortunate with our home back in the states in eastern North Carolina, built in 1842, in a National Register Historic District, ~4,000 Sq. ft. The county just did a tax revaluation and our home, as well as the others in the neighborhood all had a higher value than at the last revaluation seven years ago. Only one house in the neighborhood has been foreclosed, and it's back yard backs up to the side of our yard. It was resold by the bank within 2 months of the foreclosure, and from what my wife tells me, the bank had 4 offers for it. The new owners had a little bit of work done and then moved in. The neighbor who was foreclosed on was a commercial property developer who had borrowed lots of money and put it into a big project he was just finishing up when the economic crisis hit, devastating him financially.

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

Zillow has an interesting page where foreclosures by state can be researched. As expected, CA, FL, MI, AZ have high numbers...you can click thru and examine your county and neighborhood and see what types of sales are going on.
Foreclosures For Sale, Foreclosed Homes - Zillow

On LI, it shows about 2300 homes foreclosed/in foreclosure just in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Barnstable county on Cape Cod, 383 homes.

How often this site updates or how accurate...I cannot say...but it is interesting to review.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Lots of talk about houses sellers, buyers shopping, at golf league today. Upscale gated country club community. (They let me in on Wednesdays )

[short Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close short]

Check out Fannie Mae

We bought a short sale 2 years ago but after that all forclosures and shorts sales in our area(So Cal) have been bid up to high for our purposes.(rentals that would cash flow themselves).

We recently bid on a house owned by Fannie Mae. It looks like they are starting to hit the market. Go to their website to see the houses in your neighborhood. Fannie Mae houses look overpriced to me(in our area) but we bid about 82 percent of asking price and had it accepted.

They offer financing through several banks at low down payment, no appraisal and low closing costs.(for homeowners and investors).

I am sure glad this country does not make the same mistakes over and over again.

Short