The LA Times main headline last Sunday was titled “Home Seekers Edged Out in Inland Market” – but it might as well have said Ventura County.

In short, it discussed how home buyers are finding it hard to get their offers accepted because investors, both big and small, are offering all cash and higher bids. In a new phenomenon I’ve never seen in my 30+ years here, private equity funds with extremely deep pockets are aggressively bidding for limited inventory – why?

Two reasons. 1) They can pay all cash for a home, rent it and have positive cash flow – cash returns that in fact are higher than keeping their cash in a savings account.  2) The real reason however, is that they believe the real estate market has bottomed, and will climb substantially faster than other investments.

Their article last Thursday had a chart that showed the median price change for Ventura County from January 2013 over January 2012 was 13.2%.

So for these investors it’s Buy, Rent and Hold!

Listed below are the January results for the sold prices of homes, the number of homes sold and number of homes in escrow – a future indicator of homes sold.

This data is taken from the Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo MLS.

To see the detailed charts for Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo, please see the links below.

Note that home sales have plummeted – but not because there aren’t any buyers! There’s little inventory to buy! There’s strong demand but that demand is stymied by investors clamoring to buy and home buyers can’t compete against those all cash investors.

The percentage of single family homes that were distressed sales in the month of December are:

Ventura – 37%      Oxnard – 47%     Camarillo – 45%

Sold prices – Single family homes in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo:

• 12 month graph

Sold prices – Condos in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo:

• 12 month graph

Numbers sold – Single family homes in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo:

• 12 month graph

Detailed data for single family homes sold in:

• Ventura
• Oxnard
• Camarillo

Detailed data for condos sold in:

• Ventura
• Oxnard
• Camarillo

Detailed monthly data for pendings (in escrow) – single family homes and condos:

• Ventura
• Oxnard
• Camarillo

All data is taken from the Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo MLS.