You may need to short sale or do a loan modification if you have been struggling to make payments hoping your underwater home would increase in value so you could do a regular sale.
Lots of folks have asked me if home prices have increased in Livermore and I the answer is, not right now. In the first part of 2010, home prices did get a little better, but that was probably due to the tax credit incentive that the government was offering increasing demand for homes and with increased demand comes increased prices. Once no new real estate purchase contracts would qualify for the tax credit, home prices peaked in the second quarter of 2010, and began decreasing steadily in the second half of the year and home prices have returned to about the same as their Sept 2009 low, which were about the same as Livermore Home Prices in 2003 prices. Below, I have provided 3 charts to demonstrate the market data.
The first is a 10 year Livermore home price market history; the second a 5 year history; and the third is the real estate home price history from Oct 2009-Oct 2010 (the latest Zillow data available).If you have questions, let me know.
Looking into the would-be crystal ball that so many people think I have, I do not think we have hit bottom yet. I think as long as we are dealing with mostly foreclosures and short sales in the market, home prices will not increase and I think we will likely hit bottom in our around the end of 2012. Only time will tell.
So, for you homeowners who owe more money on your home than it is worth and are struggling with your mortgage payments hoping the market will come back in time so that you can sell your home via a regular sale and not a short sale or possibly lose it to foreclosure, you should realistically consider a different option since it will be quite some time before home prices will be back to where they were just 5-6 years ago. If you want to consider a loan Modification, I highly recommend working with NACA. Their services are free and if your loan is not investor owned, but is actually owned by the bank you write the check to, you can usually get a loan modification completed in just 2-3 days if you attend one of their save the dream events. They have one coming up this month that I will be blogging about, but you can check it out on their site at NACA.com. Their services are much better at the Save the Dream Tour Events than they are using the services online and the process is much quicker! I and folks I know have personally used NACA to complete loan modifications and I highly recommend them. If you have questions, let me know.
If loan modification is not the right option for you, a short sale may be what you need. I have been specializing in short sales for almost 4 years now and have lots of experience helping home owners get out from under upside properties usually with little or no out of pocket costs to the seller! Our goal is a non-deficient short sale for our client so that when the property closes escrow, the home owner has no more obligation to the bank. Many agents do not even know the difference between a deficient and non-deficient short sale. If you would like to know more, just let me know. I am happy to give free Alternatives to Foreclosure as well as Short Sale consulations to homeowners in Livermore, Alameda County, Contra Costa County, and parts of San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Solano and other counties.Just send me an email or give me a call.
Livermore Historic Market Data-Last 10 years
Livermore Historic Market Data-Last 5 years
Oct 2009-Oct 2010 ONLY- Livermore Market Data