Tips on seasonal and long term cycles in real estate and what to do about them in San Diego by Seth O’Byrne

Tips for new Realtors from Seth O’Byrne

Are 1 bedrooms good investments?

Appraisal Tips from Seth

Advice for buyers and sellers on negotiation repairs on real estate sales, specifically in San Diego. Take it from your Realtor Seth O’Byrne!

De-personalizing your home to snag the right buyer for your home! Real Estate in San Diego is tricky, let us help!

Using your real estate agent’s experience to gain referrals to professional partners in your transaction!

Call me with questions!

My first mentor in real estate told me once that you should never see real estate as bricks and sticks. You should always address it in terms of value. And in terms of value, once it reaches an uncommon level, you then have the most coveted of things at your finger tips; Opportunity.

Well, the winter is over and that means the holiday foreclosure moratorium on owner occupied homes in default has been lifted. For defaulting homeowners this means you need to really get serious about considering a short sale and for home buyers this means inventory will invariably rise.

For you, the reader, this means the tide is coming in and now is your time to take advantage of Opportunity! We see this every year and I have been observing, studying and selling for long enough now to tell you with certainty that whatever slim pickings you experienced in late 2011 will be blown out of the water in early 2012.

Make no mistake, this is no reason to ‘wait and see’ on the good properties that come your way in the following 90 days. I typically see the best prices on the best properties in the coming months and those that buy before the spring/summer competition comes out of hybernation are those that get the best ‘deals’.

Don’t fear short sales this year. Banks = faster. Sellers = more educated. Agents = more savvy. Your experience = far smoother than ever.

Remember on REO Foreclosure properties = YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Everyone wants an uncommon deal and in the under 500k market in San Diego, there is a tone of excitement and many who are tuned into what good deals are. So if you try to squeeze pennies out of corner lots, undervalued REOs, hot buildings or rare neighborhoods you will ‘squeeze’ yourself right out of the deal.

Sellers are not your competitor in this market, remember. Sellers do not sell today because they want to cash in on equity. Sellers sell today because they Have To!

It is the buying competition that you must be wary of. Buyers today know the comps, are armed with cash and have sophisticated Realtors by their arm whispering wise words about valuable opportunities.

There is more competition on the good stuff now than ever and for you smart home buyers you are in a position to pick up properties at prices rarely seen, values rarely attained and under interest rates never seen before.

Also, be on the look out for rate jumps this year in the mortgage market. By summer we will have more inventory, but likely financing it will be more and more expensive. My advice is not to buy just for buying’s sake this winter. My advice is to call your local real estate expert (eh hem..) and get them to get on a daily hunt for you. If you can find those rare probate sales, short sales and foreclosures you may be picking up the types of opportunities you will enjoy the rest of your entire life.

I encourage everyone to get off the sidelines, go browse homes in your free time and remember, San Diego cash flows now! Very few entry level homes have mortgages that are more than their rents. Rental properties are everywhere and we have a back log of pre-list homes we can email to you today!

Lets buy something that changes our life this year. Cheers to a great 2012 San Diego!

-Seth

In line with that, Housing Starts were UP 9.3% for November and UP 24.3% versus a year ago, while Building Permits were UP 5.7% for the month. November New Home Sales came in Friday UP 1.6%, with the supply dropping to 6 months, its lowest level since early 2006! The numbers of unsold new homes under construction and unsold completed new homes are also at or near record lows. The FHFA price index for homes financed by conforming mortgages was down just 0.2% in October and is down only 2.8% versus a year ago.

a better than 3.5% weekly gain in stock prices, recouping the prior week’s slide. Recent European worries were assuaged by improving German sentiment data, an encouraging Spanish bond auction and the European Central Bank’s Long-term Refinancing Operation (LTRO), which promised greater stability in the region, at least for awhile. 
 
We also had better economic news on our side of the pond. Initial jobless claims dropped to 364,000, the lowest level since April 2008, and continuing claims dropped to 3.55 million, the lowest since September 2008. Durable Goods orders were up 3.8% in November, beating expectations. On the inflation front, Core PCE Prices were up just 0.1% in November and well within the Fed’s target range, at 1.7% for the year. But Q3 GDP was revised down to a sobering 1.8%. 

For the week, the Dow ended UP 3.6%, at 12294; the S&P 500 shot UP 3.7%, to 1265; and the Nasdaq went UP 2.5%, to 2619.

As stocks soared, it was a tough week in the bond market. The FNMA 3.5% bond we watch ended the week down .90, to $101.32. But national average fixed mortgage rates remained at or near their all-time record lows according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey.

DID YOU KNOW?…A “Santa Claus rally” is a rise in stock prices that sometimes occurs the week after Christmas. It often anticipates the “January Effect”–a rise in stock prices the first month of the year.

>> This Week’s Forecast

YEAR ENDING ON HOME SALES PENDING…Thursday’s Pending Home Sales for November, indicating how actual sales might go the next few months, should be up slightly. December Consumer Confidence is also forecast up a bit, perhaps due to the slowly improving jobs picture, with weekly Initial Unemployment Claims predicted to remain below 400,000. The Chicago PMI, a bellwether for manufacturing overall, is expected to stay in expansion mode. 

Next Monday, January 2, 2012, the stock market will be closed in observance of New Year’s Day. May the coming year bring all the best to you and yours!