Mark Wisterman's Paradise & Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

I am pleased to announce that I have made the decision to expand the Realty World brand into the town of Paradise, California.

I actually have owned the REALTY WORLD franchise rights to the Paradise real estate market for close to a year now, but have been waiting to actively do business in the town in the pines until market conditions warranted it.  I now feel that this is the time to bring this extraodinary real estate brand back to town.

I feel that this is the right time for two main reasons.  One, I see the market beginning, ever so slightly, to shift away from foreclosures and more towards short sales. And, two, I have heard from a number of people in the area that our brand of progressive and aggressive marketing is sorely needed there. I guess you could say that people seem to looking for a more up to date style of real estate marketing and negotiating.

As a company we do not intend to take the town by storm, we simply intend to very methodically, and consistently increase our presence within the market until we become the preferred real estate negotiators of the fine residents of Paradise.

The first order of business for this blog site will be to begin reporting  weekly Paradise real estate market stats in the same way that I am currently reporting market information for the Lake Oroville real estate market.  So be sure to check back soon for the first of those reports.

I will provide progress reports as this exciting expansion of our brand moves forward so you too can share the excitement we all feel in our Oroville office about our new venture.

Paradise……..HERE WE COME!!!!!!!

 Here is this week’s report, dear readers. Really nothing in this week’s numbers of any major note for the Lake Oroville real estate housing market. We did, however have only 4 business days of data this week as a result of the county recorder’s office being close in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. REO/Short sales returned to their post holiday average with over half of the weekly sales attributed to “distressed”  sales.  

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 Could it be that time is proceeding faster this year than last? It sure feels like it here, in the Lake Oroville real estatet market as this is already the second weekly market report of the new year.

The trend towards lower inventories continued last week as the number of home on the market ticked down another notch. This week’s stat of the week is the number of sales that involved a “distressed” home, those that are either bank owned or short sale priced, has shown a significant decline for 3 of the past 4 months. I don’t think this is any type of trend, but is an interesting stat, I think. 

Those of you who know me, whether you are a client, or another REALTOR®, or a friend, know that I take the business of negotiating and successfully completing real estate transactions very seriously. You also know that I do not believe for a moment, that just because someone may have a real estate license or calls themselves a REALTOR®, means that the particular someone is competent, or educated enough to properly represent their clients best interests. Let’s face it, it is way too easy to get a real estate license in this state.

It takes more than a license or the paying of dues to the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR)  to acquire the proper level of competence to do the job. Above all else it takes education and the desire to stay informed of the latest trends, rules, laws, etc.

This is why I am very pleased to announce that each of my associates have thought it important enough to spend the time necessary to join me in completing the educational requirements set forth by NAR  in order to obtain our Short Sales & Foreclosure Resource Certification. This is the ONLY “distressed property” certification recognized by NAR. A certification that, at the time we received ours, had been attained by only 2,500 of the nearly 1 million REALTORS® nationwide.

Through the attainment of this certification we have gained valuable knowledge and have access to the resources necessary to counsel and better guide our clients through the foreclosure and short sale processes. In fact, (here comes the commercial), we are the only office in the Lake Oroville real estate market, and maybe the entire Butte County real estate market, where every associate in the office has earned the certification. Are we “experts” yet? Nope. But, knowing my associates as I do, we are going to be as close as you can possibly be as this market begins to move away from foreclosures and more into the short sale arena.

Oh, just a side note regarding “experts”  in this business. If someone calls themselves that, in most cases you should probably run away as fast as you can. Case in point-There is one REALTOR® in town that claimed in her advertising that she was a “Short Sale Expert” and yet had never, ever negotiated a short sale transaction of any kind.!!!!!!!!!!!

 Merry Christmas, everyone. Welcome back to your weekly sales stats for the Lake Oroville Real Estate market.

Unit sales took an upward turn last week, which I am hoping will continue to happen going forward. The stat of the week this week is the average sold price. For the first time in a long time we see foreclosure sales and short sales below 50% of the homes sold for the week. As a result, the average sold price jumped nearly 15%.  Yes, I know, it is only one weeks worth of data, but may be an indication of what prices will do as the “distressed inventory” continues to clear.

Ok, everyone. I have been a bad boy. I usually have these Lake Oroville real estate market stats to you on Tuesday’s, and here it is Saturday already. For my punishment,  just after I get done with this post, I am going to go stand in the corner until it is time to make my next post.

Here is the recap of sales for last week. I would comment on these, but I have to get to my corner.

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 Not much news on the Lake Oroville real estate market home sales for the week. The stat of most interest this week is the total inventory of Oroville single family homes for sell. This number has been drifitng lower since I started tracking the inventory of homes for sale, in June of this year, and is now 17.5% lower than June’s. At the current sales, rate there is only a 4 1/2 month supply of homes on the market, which by historical standards can be considered a “normal” inventory market.

I have added a couple other stats to my weekly reporting that I felt would be a value to all of you. With the huge influence that foreclosures (REO’s) and short sales are having on the market, I have begun tracking the number of these properties that are actively for sale, both as a numeric total as well as a percentage of active listings they represent.

With this added data you can see that the percentage of home sales last week that were short sales or foreclosures (64.71%), is nearly triple the percentage of  REO’s and short sales that are on the market. If last week’s sales pace for these “distressed” properties were to continue the Oroville market will have sold completely out of these properties in the next 10 weeks.

It is likely that we will see a significant increase in the number of home sales over the next two weeks as buyers and their agent scramble to close their transactions before the current November 3oth closing deadline for the first time home buyer tax credit.

By the way, as of this writing there is no new information on any extension of the first time home buyer tax credit. I will, however, update you as soon as more information is released.

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To help you better understand the Oroville real estate market I have added stats regarding the number of  foreclosures and short sales that are reported to the MLS for the Oroville area. You can see that last week 50% of the sales that were reported were either the result of a bank-owned property or a property that sold through the short sale process.

Sales are down substantially this week as compared to just two weeks ago. It is getting harder to find good quality homes in the lower price ranges in which most buyers are looking. We keep hearing rumors of more foreclosures getting ready to hit the market but we haven’t seen them yet. Stay tuned.

Click here to check out more sales history

Oroville homes for sale, chico homes, paradise listing , gridley real estate butte county

That question was posed to me by a longtime client and loyal reader of this blog site. He told me that he appreciated the market information that I provide along with my perspective on the market and he wanted to know where I think the market is going from here.

So let’s polish up the old crystal ball and take a stab at predicting the future.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I always try to keep whatever market news is out there in perspective.  The news reports always seems to be either bleaker or more euphoric than an experienced mind would see.  As the media warned that it was the worst housing market since the Great Depression, I was warning buyers in the Oroville real estate market that the bottom of the market was upon us and it would be a good time to start thinking about making that purchase many of them had put off.

When the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit was enacted, I advised that we not get too excited about any uptick in sales activity, as the uptick will be the result of the government paying people to buy homes creating an ‘artificial’ demand.

So now that you know how smart I am (just kidding, folks) let’s get back to answering my client’s question.

Here is what I see over the next few months:

The housing sales numbers will continue their upward trend, and may even accelerate through the end of the year as last minute first time home buyers scramble to close escrow by November 30, 2009.  Should Congress choose not to extend the credit deadline we will probably begin to see a trailing off of  the sales pace toward the middle of spring 2010.

Even with an extension of the credit there may still some sales softness, as first time buyers can only drive this market so far. In what we used to call a “normal” market, nearly all purchases of existing homes ended up being actually more than one home purchased, as the buyer was buying a home from a seller who was buying a replacement home for themselves. In today’s market over 1/2 the transactions involve foreclosed homes or short sales where the seller ends up with nothing to buy a replacement home with.

On the home values front, we are still facing a huge challenge. There are still plenty of foreclosures on the market and the word is the banks have plenty more inventory on their books that have yet to come to market. If this is true, home values will continue to stay depressed. If these reports turn out to be exaggerated it will be good news for home values going forward.

There is also the fact that there are a great number of Adjustable Rate Mortgages that will have rate resets beginning in 2010 and running through 2012. If these homeowners cannot handle their reset mortgage payment, or cannot refinance their loans we may have another round of foreclosures coming to market. A lot can happen between now and 2012 so I will monitor this for you and keep you posted.

The largest unknown in this whole story is the economy.  Just as it seemed we were getting through most of this foreclosure mess we now have to deal with the unemployment rate. This could also put pressure on home values as the unemployed struggle to keep their home out of foreclosure. The quicker the employment picture improves the more sustained the housing recovery will be.

The good news for buyers is that interest rates should stay low for the foreseeable future. Providing continued affordability to home buyers.

As you can expect, I will continue providing updates on market activity along with my opinion on what you can expect going forward.