Real Estate and Foreclosures

It's probably the number one issue -- the state of real estate and the many foreclosures. What is happening to home prices? Is your home losing value or gaining value now? What about foreclosures in your neighborhood -- are they affecting the value of your home? Is there a foreclosure to buy and can you get a deal on this property? We will list information here and hope it helps you.

THOUSANDS OF HOMES IN SOUTH FLORIDA FOR $50,000 OR LESS

More than 5,400 townhouses and condominiums and 600 single-family houses are on the resale market in the tricounty South Florida region with an asking price of $50,000 or less, according to a August, 2010 from CondoVultures.com.

Greater Fort Lauderdale has the highest concentration of under-$50,000 resale properties on the market with nearly 2,400 properties. The Greater West Palm Beach area is second with 2,100 properties, and Greater Miami is third with 1,500, according to the report based on data from the Miami Association of Realtors.

Of the available under-$50,000 residential inventory, lenders control 15 percent of the product available and owners attempting to short sell their homes account for an additional 42 percent, according to analysis by the licensed Florida brokerage Condo Vultures® Realty LLC.

"At the peak of the real estate bubble, parking spaces in new condominium towers were sold at prices that today can purchase homes," said Peter Zalewski, a principal with the Bal Harbour, Fla.-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures® LLC. "Buyers are purchasing an average of 1,000 South Florida residence per month below $50,000 in 2010. Many of these buyers are all-cash investors who are focused on accumulating rental properties that produce more than $500 per month from tenants."

Besides the 6,000 residences for resale at or below $50,000, there are an additional 3,400 units currently under contract in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

Of the pending contracts, more than 80 percent are in some form of distress as lenders control 38 percent of the inventory and short sales account for an additional 43 percent, according to the report.

In the first seven months of 2010, buyers acquired nearly 7,000 South Florida residences at a price below $50,000.

More than half of all of the sales occurred in Greater Fort Lauderdale, where nearly 3,600 transactions occurred with 55 percent being bank-owned properties and 12 percent short sales.

Greater West Palm Beach had the second highest number of under-$50,000 properties to sell with about 1,800 transactions. Some 13 percent of these deals were short sales and four percent were bank-owned properties.

In Greater Miami, there have been 1,500 transactions this year below $50,000 with 73 percent of the deals bank-owned properties and 18 percent short sales, according to the report.

The number of under-$50,000 South Florida residences available for resale is unclear as the number of new foreclosure filings in the tricounty region are down more than one-third in the first half of 2010, according to the Condo Vultures® Foreclosure Database™.

Since January 2007, lenders have filed nearly 250,000 foreclosure actions in South Florida with about 30 percent of the notices of defaul resulting in a bank repossession, according to a recent CondoVultures.com report.

FLORIDA FACES RECORD NUMBER OF FORECLOSURES IN 2010

I was shocked to get a report from CondoVultures.com that banks have been repossessing 4,000 South Florida properties per month during the first half of 2010. CondoVultures.com says this will lead to a further drop in real estate prices as the banks try to unload these properties in the months ahead. There could be as many as 50,000 properties in foreclosure for all of this year. So far, the foreclosure rate is up 83% from last year, says CondoVultures.com. These statistics are for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties.

If you are looking for foreclosures and short sales in the Santa Clarita area, go to our section called "Real Estate in Santa Clarita" where we have an article and a video, and if you are looking for help to get a home mortgage modified go to our section "Mortgage Help."

Are you looking for a foreclosure to buy? Many consumers are looking for a deal with a foreclosed home. The trick is to find the perfect foreclosed property, and then to be able to make contact with the lender to get your bid in on that foreclosure. The key to winning the foreclosure is to have the contact and the information. With over 1.2 million property listings updated daily, Foreclosure.com represents the largest and most up-to-date bargain home buying opportunity online. Click on the link below to give them a test of their foreclosure listings. There is a free trial period for their foreclosure finding services. With this link you can save BIG on foreclosures, preforeclosures, bankruptcies, tax liens and FSBOs (for sale by owners) across the country every day. And you can do all of this through the 7 Day Free Trial or, if you like the service, sign up for a Membership Subscription. I would start with the 7 Day Free Trial to check out their listing of foreclosures, preforeclosures, bankruptcies, tax lien properties and properties for sale by owner.

What are the latest mortgage rates that are available? Start your mortgage rate shopping here by using this link. Remember to always check for special deals with local lenders and real estate agents, and with the sellers themselves. Home builders also can have special mortgage rates and can even buy down or pay lenders a fee to give, the buyer, a discounted mortgage.

Realtors and industry insiders are telling me that banks and lenders with foreclosed properties are not moving quickly on selling these properties. This might leave you, the buy, "hanging" and waiting for an answer. It also might mean that you should make multiple offers in case one lender moves more slowly than another in taking action on selling a property.

If you have a home now and you are having trouble making payments, take a look at our section called "Mortgage Help" where you will get advice on how to get a better mortgage deal from lenders to keep your home out of foreclosure. We also have in that section a "mortgage loan calculator" to help you with managing the budget for a home purchase.

Here on our new media website "Moneyman" Alan Mendelson who is the original Best Deals TV show reporter and consumer advocate shows you the best deals on TV, and the best buys, bargains and where savvy shoppers go to save, and how to get the most for "your money" with the best of Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County. Our Best Buys TV Show is the only regularly scheduled weekly best deals TV show in Southern California. We show you the best deals on TV and more deals on www.alanbestbuys.com and www.vegasbestbuys.com and www.moredeals.com the original buy and sell, show and tell, video website.