Everybody loves a deal. We’d be fools to overpay for anything when it feels like everything is on sale. If you’re in the market to buy real estate, naturally you’re compelled to at least attempt to buy a property that is a screaming deal. The last thing you want is find out you were the rube who overpaid.
If you’re reading Yahoo.com today you might have seen this headline: RealtyTrac: April foreclosures rise 32 percent You can read the entire article HERE. Naturally you might believe that now is the time make your steal. It makes sense on the surface.
So. about those foreclosure steals in The Woodlands TX. Yes, there are fantastic properties at fair prices, but don’t pimp-slap the messenger, there are very few foreclosures. At 7:27 a.m. I ran a report using our Houston Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Our MLS system allows us to search for properties in dozens of ways, one of them – search by: “Foreclosures and Short Sales”, which is what I’ve done.
Here’s what I found: This morning there are only 9 Foreclosures listed for sale in The Woodlands TX. The prices range from $71,000 to $391,000. There are only 5 Short Sale* Listings ranging from $130,000 to $549,550. Add the two together and your have a total of 14 Foreclosure/Short Sale listings out of a total of 961 active For Sale Listings. WHOA, that’s a flea sized percentage of just 1.4%.
I ran another report, Closed Foreclosure/Short Sales in The Woodlands TX from May 13th, 2008 to now. There have been 80 Foreclosure and 8 Short Sale closings with an average price of $207,135. That’s 88 our of 1,885 total closings with an Average Sold Price of $341,679. Total Foreclosure and Short Sale closing equal a lilliputian 4.66%.
Bottom line, everyone wants value, the real estate market in The Woodlands TX is stable and a good value, but not a steal. Sellers in general aren’t desperate, prices haven’t plummeted and the streets are littered with Foreclosures.
The good news, because mortgage rates are at record lows, buying power is historically sky-high. The selection of properties is broad and excellent. In the near future mortgage interest rates are most likely to pop back up, and I’d bet prices will rise in the future too. Now is the time buy, a screaming steal is unlikely a great value is certain.
If you’d like to dig a bit deeper, you can check out this Months Supply Of Inventory by price Range list and this Collection of Real Estate Statistics (Average Sold Prices, Broker Market Share, Average Days On Market, Average List Price To Sales Price %, more.)
OK, that’s my twenty-five cents on screaming foreclosure sDeals in The Woodlands TX. If our team of Icons can do anything to help you, let me know: Ken Brand, Sales Manager – 832-797-1779.
Related Reading:
$8,000 First Time Buyer Tax Credit
Houston Real Estate Market in The News
Houston Market Real Estate Trends
The Woodlands TX Real Estate Market Reports
*Short Sale – A short sale is like selling your car and you’re upside down, you owe more that it’s worth. In real estate the transaction works like this, I’m using mythical numbers: The seller owes the bank $200,000. The Property is worth less, let’s say $175000. To sell it the seller would have to bring money to the closing table, but they don’t have it to bring. In cases like these, under certain circumstances (see your favorite real estate agent for a full explanation) the bank will agree to allow the seller to sell the property for less than they owe. In this case the seller walks away with no money but doesn’t have to bring money to the closing table. The bank is open mined to this because their cost of foreclosing and then selling the property is greater than taking the immediate short sale loss.
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