Claremont Real Estate Market Watch - September 3-8 2011

Claremont Real Estate Market Watch - September 3-8 2011

Market Watch

New Listing (8)
Price Change (8)
Back On Market (0)
Backup Offer (2)
Expired (7)
Pending (0)
Sold (5)

Better late than never - here is this week's CLAREMONT MARKET WATCH.  Not bad for a holiday week!

Eight new listings means that people are gaining confidence in the CLAREMONT REAL ESTATE MARKET.  And it seemd to me to be picking up as well.  And five have actually made it through the sale process and become a closed sale.  This is also good news, especially because it's hard to close during weeks with a holiday in them.

There are also seven expired listings which means that the home did not sell in the time allotted by the seller.  This could also mean that the home did not get approved by the bank for short sale and is being foreclosed on.  There could be many reasons for an expired listing.

This week there are no homes "back on the market."  Let me take a moment to explain this.  I strongly believe that homes are going back on the market due to the short sale process and the time it is taking for the banks to finally get around to making a decision.  It can take anywhere from 30 to 120 days to get an approval from the bank to go ahead with the short sale or decline it.  Now, let me say that this is a definite improvement from the "early days" of this real estate slump.  In those days (ya, like it was 50 yrs ago, right?!!?) some short sales were taking up to a year and sometimes even longer to go through.

So, needless to say, if you are a buyer and your offer is accepted by the seller (the homeowner) this does not mean that the sale will necessarily go through.  This means that the offer is submitted to the bank for an approval.  The bank may take up to four months (yes still) to give approval or denial.  

Instead of wasting time waiting for a specific home, buyers are putting in multiple offers.  If one home gets approval first, the buyer then backs out of other offers and therefore the property goes "back on the market". Of course, there are other causes, like loans that were denied, etc., but the main cause right now seems to be those crazy short sales.  So the fact that no homes in Claremont ended up "back on the market" is amazing and a good sign that things may been looking up for the real estate market.

And eight price changes, what can I say.  This is still an issue in Claremont and I have been harping commenting on this for weeks now.  But to be fair, sometimes the banks dictate the price on short sales and foreclosures so sometimes they request the price change.

And, as always, if you have real estate questions or need to buy or sell a home, please feel free to call me, a local expert.  I will be honored to assist you.

CLAREMONT LIVING!

Warmest Regards,
Linda K. Mayer,
Realtor, Office Manager  
License # 01767321
A Realtor you can Trust!
(626) 824-8927 Cell
(909) 670-2711 Direct
LindaKMayer@live.com
Linda's Website