Are we going to hit another Foreclosure Release in the Santa Clarita Valley?

A lot of sources say YES.  With HAMP coming to an end - Home Afford-ability Mortgage Program, all of the modification that had been in process will be abandoned.

"We also thought we were going to see a flood of REO and Bank Owned inventory hit the market in Late September of 2009, after the two holds on Foreclosure Releases were over."  But nothing happened...

Since that time the inventory has been reduced, in some cases cut in half two months in a row (March 2010 and April 2010).  We had the Federal Tax Credit that came to an end - but went out with a bang.  Record numbers of home sales closing escrow that caused an appearance of prices being on the increase, were reported by many media outlets.

Today, in the Santa Clarita Valley, we sit and observe a HUGE amount of Buyers looking to, "Just buy something", With an abudance of Short Sale Properties - and a lot of those Short Sales being handled by "professionals" that have no intension of the homes actually working themselves out and closing as a Short Sale, Buyers are getting more and more frustrated.

"I cannot blame the buyers out there, they are searching the various websites for homes that are for sale, they call their agent (best option) - Or they call the listing agent to get the scoop, only to find that the home is either still showing active, but is not available, in some other way out of reach, or the listing agent gets them to fill out a contract - a contract that knowingly will never go anywhere or even enter escrow."  Buyers are signing Leases and Rental agreements, giving up their Real Estate hunt.

In a lot of buyers cases, the signing of a lease might not be a bad option.  Just check with the management company about penalties.  You can also check directly with the Land Lord to see what penalties exist if the lease or rental agreement is broken prematurely.  Just in case that home your Agent is Searching for hits the market and they are able to get you into escrow.

A final word on Rentals and Leases:

BE CAREFUL...  There are a lot of scams going on out there and I will do a couple of vids with regard to what some of our clients have told us reference to how they were affected.  I have posted some valuable information on our Santa Clarita Real Estate Blog about Rentals and how to keep safe.  

"Remember, if a Rental or Lease sounds too good to be true - it probably is..."