Home values seem to have leveled off for the summer months of June and July.  The average sales price in June was $390,355 while the average sales price of July was $393,025.  Compared to last year at this time, the average sales price of homes has decreased over $108,000 in the south east region of Los Angeles and North Orange counties.  Home values have continued on a steady decline since the beginning of this year but many experts believe that this continuous decline may come to an end toward the end of this year.  Of course there's no way to predict exactly when home values will continue to rise again, but one thing is for certain, being heavily involved in our real estate market day in and day out, we are finding that banks are not giving properties away like many people may believe.  

 We've encountered many situations where banks are not willing to negotiate on price, even when the property is heading to foreclosure.  We had a transaction where the was a cash offer for $459,000 but the bank turned it down wanting $500,000.  Even though this was a sure sale being that it was a cash offer, the bank wanted no less than $500,000.  The property remained on the market with no bidders.  Banks are still doing their research through comparable sales in the area and many times are not willing to take lower than market value. 

In summary, don't wait longer if you are thinking about buying.  Every day it's becoming more difficult to buy as a result of tightening bank guidelines.  As we stated above, properties have already droped over $108,000 since a year ago.  Look at the graph below for the figures.   

If you or anyone that you know is interested in buying or selling, please give us a call so that we can educate you on the best way to buy in this market. 

 

 All figures above were derived from SOCAL MLS reports.