Realtors for Ventura | Oxnard | Camarillo

Here are the April sold statistics for properties that closed escrow in April, and they show some interesting differences between Ventura, Camarillo and Oxnard. Comparing differences with March stats, Camarillo and Oxnard are still showing price declines, but Ventura’s sold prices have jumped.

Because there can be variances that affect the list prices and sold prices, we tend to focus on the more “generic” price per square foot when we analyze where the market is going.

The drag on Oxnard, and to a lesser extent Camarillo, are the numerous “short-pays” and foreclosure properties (REO – real estate owned) that are putting the big hurt on regular sellers.

As painful as the market is for existing property owners, the overall effect is a cleansing of a marketplace that was way off kilter. We are seeing a flood of entry level, first time homebuyers coming into the market – and investors, who are making numerous “low ball” offers on properties hoping to score big in this down turn.

It’ll be fun to see how we progress through spring and into summer!

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Just pulled the April pending sales (properties that have gone into escrow – a leading indicator of home sales) and are seeing exceptionally strong activity in Oxnard, very strong activity in Ventura, but Camarillo’s April showing is still about the same as last year. Camarillo, for some reason, is a laggard compared to Oxnard and Ventura.

Real estate is a local thing – unfortunately, the general media has been beating into us that home sales are down or flat, and many believe it, but these are the REAL numbers for Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo!

Today’s WSJ had an interesting article titled “The Brighter Side of Housing”. The secondary headline said “Amid downturn, ‘Unaffordable’ is within reach”.

Quoting them – “And now for the heartwarming side of the housing bust: It’s helping some people buy homes that they couldn’t afford a couple of years ago.

Michelle Dudley for years commuted 50 miles each way to her job as a civil servant in Anaheim, CA, because she and her husband, Don, didn’t feel they could afford a home near her office. This week, though, the Dudleys moved into a three bedroom house in Anaheim that they recently bought for $390,000, down from the original listing price of $445,000 in November. Similar homes in the area were selling for as much as about $600,000 two years ago…”

Last Sunday, Leslie had a first open house for a new listing at 5169 Creekside in Camarillo. Like the previous week at a different open house (Harvest Lane home), there were a flood of first time homebuyers coming through. Conversations with them mirror the theme – with prices coming down, now’s maybe the time to take a hard look at buying a home.

A news release a couple of days ago from OFHEO stated that “U.S. home prices rose approximately 0.6 percent on a seasonally-adjusted basis between January and February” of 2008. Who are these guys I wondered?

OFHEO is the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, an obscure agency tasked with the huge responsibility of monitoring and regulating the two huge companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So I jumped on the internet to check them out. With their vast resources, I’d have to assume their numbers are accurate – so are we beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel for declining real estate prices? Time will tell!

But check out their chart that tracks monthly appreciation rates – will this trend continue or is this just a sucker punch to values? Here’s the complete 3 page pdf file to check out.