East Bay Russian Roulette Home Sales

East Bay home owners continue to gamble and lose more money on the sale of their homes than many U.S. citizens earn in a year.

Sellers refusing to face the reality of a housing market that is continuing to settle and a lending and mortgage industry that is experiencing weekly kaleidoscopic change are losing tens of thousands of dollars chasing the market down.

Without a doubt, our biggest challenge these days is trying to get sellers to face the reality of their local real estate market. Over 90% of the sellers we talk to want to over price their home for existing market conditions.

Sellers are holding on to their wishful thinking that there is that one “magic buyer” that will appear, fall in love with their home and pay more than market value to own the seller’s dream home. In most life situations 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, but with  dreaming sellers – it’s 3 out of 3 or hit the road Jack.

Mortgage Industry Continues to Change

WASHINGTON — U.S. federal regulators, in a dramatic move highlighting the
tenuous state of global credit markets, outlined a takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday morning, including giving control of the firms to their regulator and allowing the Treasury Department to purchase billions of dollars of the firms' senior preferred stock.

What’s this mean to YOU the local home buyer/seller? According to Dan Green of The Mortgage Reports – As of today, mortgage debt is government debt and by the transitive property of risk premiums, mortgage debt is now risk-free.  Therefore, conforming mortgage rates are down.

Wall Street Journal – The government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac likely will help ease mortgage rates for home buyers, say economists, home builders and housing experts. But it won't cure the housing markets biggest ailments: falling home prices and rising foreclosures.

Are there any glimmers of hope? The National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday that pending home sales dropped again in July, dashing expectations of a continuing rebound after positive results in June. And prices of existing homes fell 7.1% in July.