Wine Country And Horses

Sonoma County Foreclosure Active Listings by Area

Of the 404 active foreclosure listings in Sonoma County today, here is a snapshot overview. For a more detailed look, and information on specific properties available on your own private web portal, please contact me directly and I will email you a report.

Of the 404 properties available today, the average number of days they have been on the market is 63 days. Buyers on top of their game are jumping on the best properties in the best locations (surprise, surprise) and many are subject to multiple offers, but generally under asking price. Banks are sometimes offering concessions such as credits to closing costs for certain repairs, but it really depends on the property and the competitive landscape. Of these properties, the minimum price is $101, 200. The maximum price is $1,249,000. The median price is $309, 975, well below the median sales price for the county.

Click the link above to get to a Google Doc which breaks the foreclosure market down by area within Sonoma County. Cotati/Rohnert Park, parts of Santa Rosa, Windsor and East Petaluma are the most effected whereas communities such as Sebastopol and Healdsburg have very few foreclosure properties on the market. Also, the price points tend to be the lower ones with the median price at just over $300,000.

Sunday April 27th Update:

Just popping by to update yesterday’s post with a link to today’s article on the hardest hit parts of Sonoma County by Michael Coit of the Press Democrat.  I guess we are on the same wavelength today.

Foreclosure hot spots
Three of every five mortgage defaults last quarter occurred in three sections of Sonoma County

By MICHAEL COIT
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Currently there are 404 active listings on the MLS for Sonoma County that are bank-owned foreclosed properties, also known as REO’s.  Many real estate investors and first time home buyers are seeking out real estate bargains here due to the large number available.  Investors had fled the county for a number of years due to rapid appreciation but the proliferation of bargain priced bank-owned (REO) properties and short sales have attracted them back.  As a realtor, I often am asked by clients where the best deals are, and sometimes they are surprised that not every type of property is a potential bargain, nor are they equally dispersed throughout Sonoma county.

As colleague Marian Bennett on the San Mateo coastal front says in her blog:

Bottom line:  There are foreclosure properties out there, and probably more coming through the remainder of ‘08.  Buying such a property requires research, patience, ready cash…and a bit of a stomach!  Support of your team may be helpful to some and crucial for others (be it contractor, accountant, real estate professional, loan consultant, or parents).

If you’re interested in starting your own online research, I just got this tip from Kevin Boer about foreclosureradar.com.  I’ll be tracking it along with where I currently have an account, Realtytrac, to look for San Mateo County trends.  My Realtytrac research has shown their properties to be pretty out of date so I may try to find another one to use as a comparison to foreclosureradar.  If you know of another good one, make a comment to share with everyone.

By the way, colleague Sam Benson at Real Estate 680 in Contra Costa county is opining on the same subject.