Leisure Beach, Hudson, West Pasco, Florida August Distressed Home Market Report

Leisure Beach, Hudson, West Pasco, Florida August Distressed Home Market Report

Well this Hudson, Florida Realtor was at first very discouraged at seeing these Charts I created using data from The West Pasco Board of Realtors MLS site. The first thing that jumped out at me in these charts was how many more homes are under contract than closed in August 2009. Now do not read too much into that. I think that has alot to do with Distressed Homes (Short Sales.)

You see a normal property in Florida closes in about a month. However, some banks have been taking up to 90 days to close in some cases. However, when it comes to short sales they typically take 4-5 months to close, so they build up a back log. On some occasions it closes in a month, in others it takes even longer, but 4-5 months is the norm these days. And this creates a backlog in the MLS in the Active with Contract and Pending Sale categories. So it is not as if September is going to be spectacular based upon how many properties are under contract.

Now you can see that Hudson is pretty similar to West Pasco in general. There are 10 months inventory in the Hudson Real Estate Market. And while only 38 homes sold in Hudson for the month of August 2009, which equates to just barely more than 1 house per day closing, this Hudson Florida Realtor sees it as over 70 sides of a deal to get in on, not to mention alot of great oppurtunities for a Home Buyer, especially with the $8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit (which is actually only a 10% credit, with a limit of $8000)

Sadly, one of my favorite Subdivisions in Hudson, Florida had no sales at all in August 2009. Leisure Beach has 23 homes for sale presently, but only 4 people took advantage of the great values available in August, half of which are Distressed homes. Unfortunately none of them have closed yet. And as every Realtor knows, and most buyers, until it closes, it has not closed

Hudson, FL Foreclosure report

WOW

Despite 117 SFR currently on the market offered in some stage in Foreclosre, for the entire month of may only 3 actually closed

Condo’s only have 88 on the market disclosing the foreclosure, but I suspect the number is higher, much higher. However, in May NO Condos in foreclosure sold

and as for the Mobile homes. only 1 of them is listed as for sale but in foreclosure, and one actually sold in may while in some stage of foreclosure.

I thought alot more short sales and the like were taking place, but i guess they are falling apart before reaching the closing table. Streamlining of the deal is most definitely in order. It’s not like this is new, the Lenders should be much more efficient than they are.

Now for Bank owned properties, this actually surprised me:

of 533 active homes, only 18 are bank owned (3.3% of all actives)

however, of the 112 homes under contract, 21 are bank owned (19% of all contracts)

of the 45 homes that closed in May, 13 were Bank owned (28% of all closed)

That is quite a dsparity in the numbers, and the Short Sales falling apart before closing, I think, have alot to do with it.

Now for Condos, their are only 83 units in Hudson, of which, NONE are Bank Owned. nor are any of the units under contract, or any of the condos that sold in teh month of may. That is quite the surprise for me.

Mobile Homes was almost as negligible. 3 active bank owned properties, out of 66, and only 1 of the 5 that sold were Gank owned. However it does mean that 4/5 mobiles sold in Hudson, in May were either in some stage of foreclosure, or Bank Owned.

I think what this all boils down to, is that a Buyer can once again afford to buy a modest home in hudson, so why would they settle for the percieved stigma of a Mobile, or the perceived instrusive associations at a Condo. Once again, in Florida, if you can afford to rent, you can afford to buy

You actually can buy a house here for $45,000. Now even at a 7% interest rate, that is only ~$300/mo Principle and interest. The utitlities will remain the same as renting, for the most part, and insurance on a house valued at so little would be a nominal cost.

it is a great time to be a buyer in the Hudson, Florida, as well as the rest of West Pasco, and Florida as a whole

Hudson, Florida May market update

Currently in Hudson teh worst property there is to sell is a Condo, I am afraid to say

While there are only 83 Condo’s currently for sale, there are 0 under contract, and only 2 sold in May, down from 5 in April. That means there is almost 3 1/2 years inventory on the market 8-(

Now in a close second place would be the Mobile Home market in Hudson. While there are only 66 mobile homes for sale currently, in May only 3 sold, down from 5 in April. And there are only 5 units under contract presently. That equates to 22 Months, almost 2 years, inventory on the market.

Now the Silver Lining on our dark cloud down here, If I can call it that, is the Single Family Residences. While there are actually 533 units offered for sale, there are actually 112 under contract. But the ‘under contract’ number is not exactly a good representation because 1/2 of those contracts could easily explode and fall apart before closing. And while 38 made it to closing in May that is down from 45 sold in April. That is a 15% decline month over month. And it also means that there is only 14 months inventory on the market. this is below average for the West Pasco area.

What is going to get the market going? Well surely the low interest mortgage rates are appealing, but they have been for some time. The $8,000 first time home buyer assistance tax credit is another enticement, but in these hard economic times alot of people are still having trouble coming up with down payments/closing costs/ repair money for new home. NAR just released that the average home buyer spends almost $5000 renovating/repairing their recently purchased home.

Now here in Florida, after a lot of pressure from the Florida Association of Realtors, our state government has authorized a bridge loan program, which enables first time home buyers to use the $8,000 ‘tax credit’ as part of their down payment. And while this may help the market in the near term, I have to wonder, is this not doing exactly what got us into such a dire situation? If people need help getting enough money together to purchase a home, than are they not actually the same people who bought homes they could not afford, some with prime mortgages, and some with sub-prime, only to default later. I hope we do not have a repeat, after all, we aer supposed to learn from our mistakes. If one is to be successful in life, in any profession, than one has to not only be concerned with the near term, but also the Long Term, and to me it seems we are ‘fixing our current problem’ with the exact same practices that got us into this problem. Helping people to buy house, whom without the governments help, they would not be able to afford it.

Lastly I will add just a note about an important piece that I rarely see in the discussions/news stories about the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit. It is $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price of the house which ever is less. So if you are buying a bargain at only $50,000, your tax credit will only be for $5,000

Listings of interest

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