Monday, August 13, 2007

At least we are not Stockton!

From the NY Times:

From Housing Haven to Foreclosure Leader

By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: August 13, 2007

STOCKTON, Calif., Aug. 11 — The north end of Clarks Fork Circle in Stockton tells you all you need to know about the depth of the mortgage worries here. On a curve in a handsome new residential development, four of five homes are for sale, at least two of which have already been repossessed by a lender.

The real estate market in Stockton has no shortage of inventory, which is part of the problem: competition for buyers is tough.

“Bank Owned!” advertises a flier for one home. “New Low Price!” shouts a sign planted in a different lawn.

Once considered a safe alternative to the overheated Bay Area real estate market, Stockton and its streets are now filled with “For Sale” signs and evidence of foreclosures. While hundreds of thousands of people nationwide are being affected by troubles in the lending market, Stockton has the highest foreclosure rate of any city in the country, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate data firm.

“We made bad decisions,” said Ms. Neri, 30, who commutes to her job as a contractor in Pleasanton, about 50 miles to the west. “We’re worried if we don’t sell by the end of the year, we will lose one of them. We just didn’t see the downturn coming.”

Six California cities rank in the top 10 nationwide for foreclosure rates, according to RealtyTrac, with the top three spots — Stockton, Modesto and Merced — situated in the Central Valley, where longtime agricultural towns have turned into small residential cities.

6 comments:

Realestateslasher said...

how long do we have to wait till we see 2002 price?

bako said...

We might get closer to 2002 prices with more help from Crisp. Between his family and past employees, he is another 45,625 behind on payments. This from three properties

Realestateslasher said...

We all know that all he has to do is Sell his Mercedes benz to cover all late payments

WaitingToBuy said...

But then what does he do next month??

Bakersfield Bubble said...

"how long do we have to wait till we see 2002 price?"


I think the bottom will be early 2009 (I guarantee I will be wrong) and prices will be near early 2003 when the median was approx $160k (vs 260k now).

Raynor said...

I predict we will "bottom out" in one year. Then prices will "slide sideways" for another year. Then theyn will start slowly climbing up.

Of course if Hillary is POTUS, all bets are off :-)