What a turn of events! As of today, May 7, 2009, there are only 979 homes for sale in the Santa Clarita Valley! Buyer's market? Not entirely. Now, more than ever, buyers need an extremely good agent, in order to get their offer accepted, when facing competitive bidding situations on one of the Santa Clarita Bank Owned Homes available.
Why does your agent need to be good STELLAR? We are in one of the most sought after Los Angeles County real estate markets - Santa Clarita Valley. Great schools, clean streets, attractive shopping, excellent Industrial Center with high paying jobs, and the air is a tad bit better than they have it "over the hill" in the city of Los Angeles. All just a "few" reasons people still want to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. The demand is high, and there aren't enough "desired" (read: good deals) listings to satisfy that demand, yet.
Buyers are looking for deals. Deals are hitting the market every day - but not enough to appease the appetite of homebuyers, partly induced by low interest rates, 3.5% down FHA loans, and for first-time buyers an $8,000 tax credit. Bank owned deals (majority of them), and the occasional competitively priced regular sale (where an owner has equity in the home still)....are getting multiple offers. Sometimes 2, usually 4-5, sometimes 15-30 if it's priced ridiculously low - as some are. Often times they sell above asking price after all offers and final offers have been finalized. Many homebuyers, especially first timers, are figuring out that, at least in Santa Clarita, when hunting for a "decent" or "great" deal - it's not as easy as they might have imagined. Many of these buyers are getting their 2nd, 3rd, or perhaps 5th home of choice, after several failed offers where they "lost" out to other eager deal hunting buyers.
Getting back to the inventory of homes for sale, as of today there are 979 homes for sale.
Of that amount, 469 are noted as being short sales. This isn't a blog post about short sales, but what this means is that there are REALLY only about 500 salable homes on the market right now in Santa Clarita and its nearby surrounding areas.
To get an idea of how much the inventory has shrunk, and demand for newly low priced homes has increased: In May 2008, there were 1,946 homes for sale, and in May 2007, there were 2,240 homes for sale in the Santa Clarita Valley! That's a 57% decrease in inventory in just 2 years. Despite the onslaught of foreclosure homes hitting the market, over the last year and longer, buyers here in Santa Clarita have been all to happy to make offers and gobble them up.
In today's Santa Clarita real estate market, you need that real estate agent who is on top of new listings/"deals" hourly and can get you in the door first, is tech savvy, has established relationships with agents listing these homes for sale, you need an agent who specializes in Santa Clarita - and only Santa Clarita, and at the very least, you need a full time agent. Don't hire your Uncle Mike's friends sister who just got their license and could use a pity deal to get their feet wet. That could cost you $ by way of poorly conducted negotiations, etc.
To all Santa Clarita homebuyers, good luck out there!
Contact The Robert & Brian Team @ 661-964-1760 to assist in your Santa Clarita real estate transaction. Visit us @ www.TheScvAgents.com.
Comments(0)